What’s next for Uncharted?
(Warning: This editorial
includes MAJOR spoilers for Uncharted 4! If you haven’t finished the game and
you wish to do so, stop reading!)
To be completely honest, I wasn’t
super impressed by the Uncharted 4 marketing campaign. Sure, the game itself looked
amazing, but I felt like the cinematics went a little too heavy on explaining
the overall themes of the game. It was pounded in that Nate might’ve gotten too
greedy with this one, and that this treasure might just be another coin in the
pile. While these worked amazingly in the game itself, in the promotional
material it felt more than a little preachy.
The other thing that we heard
endlessly was “This is Nathan Drake’s final adventure!” or “Will this be the
end of Nathan Drake?” and the like. Take it from someone who sat through the
Halo 5 marketing campaign, where Microsoft kept saying that Master Chief himself
might pay the ultimate price at the end of the game. I knew that Nate was going
to make it to the end of the game. He’s the most iconic character from the PS3
and 4, aside from maybe Sackboy.
Needless to say, neither Drake nor
Chief will be six feet under anytime soon. However, the ending to Uncharted 4 does imply that Nate is retiring from
his adventures. With Nate and Elena buying the salvaging company and having a
child together, it really feels like this could be the end for this beloved
franchise.
But as the credits rolled on Uncharted
4, I had to think to myself: why would Sony allow their golden goose to stop
laying eggs? Uncharted is arguably their most popular exclusive franchise. It’s
their equivalent to Microsoft’s Halo or Nintendo’s Zelda. While I felt the
ending really wrapped up everything perfectly, it really was hard to figure out
exactly why this series ended after only 4 games, plus some spinoffs.
Was it so Naughty Dog could work more
on The Last of Us 2 and other projects? Or maybe the devs decided to take the
Gravity Falls route and come to an end before they jumped the shark. Both are
completely valid reasons to stop creating, even when it comes to something as successful
as Uncharted.
There is, however, a few ways to
continue the story. While it’s kind of obvious that this is Nathan Drake’s last
adventure, no one said that there can’t be an Uncharted 5 starring Sam Drake.
At the end of the game, Sully offers Sam to accompany him on a new adventure,
to which Sam readily agrees. While I’m not the biggest fan of Sam, if it means
more Uncharted, I’d be more than happy to follow him.
The other option I figured is that we
follow Nate and Elena’s daughter Cassie on her own adventures. I’d assume we’d
have to have more of a time skip until she’s an adult (I don’t think shooting
at children would go over well with the ESRB), but she’s already proven to be a
fun character to be around. Like with Sam, if it meant I could go on another
rock wall scaling adventure, I’d be first in line to play as her.
While discussing the ending with my
brother, he also brought up the point that there’s no reason we couldn’t have a
prequel series. We’ve already had several parts in both Uncharted 3 and 4
playing as young Nate, so why not go on one of Nate’s first adventures with
Sully, while he’s still learning the ropes of treasure hunting?
I’m sure that, even if they don’t go
with any of these ideas, Naughty Dog can come up with a way to continue this
series. Even if it takes years and years for the next installment to arrive, and
the developers try something else for a while, I believe we haven’t truly seen
the end of Uncharted just yet.
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