The first Uncharted contained a piece of scenery so amazing I found myself praying that I would get to explore what was in front of me. Not “oh that looks cool” but “That is so damned cool I want to fucking be there”.
And I did go there. And it was amazing (before I accidentally blew it up).
The genius of Uncharted was aside from some olympic-level long-jumping, and wall-sticking abilities even Spider-Man would envy, Nathan Drake was just a normal guy. An incredibly relatable character.
I was concerned- when the sequel opened with Drake climbing up a train car that was on fire and hanging off the edge of a cliff while nursing a gunshot to the gut- that the game had robbed me of that “relatable” aspect. I stopped worrying about that around the time I shot down a helicopter using the machine gun turret on a tank that was being carried through the jungle by a speeding train. Which I later blew up (on purpose this time).
I hear they’re in talks to make an Uncharted movie. This is redundant. These games are the finest movies I have ever played.