While it’s successors (from what I’ve heard) may bypass it’s quality, Uncharted is still a great game that lays great foundations for a beloved series. The story and camera movement make this feel cinematic as fuck, the shootouts are quite bare bones in terms of mechanics but are still engaging, and the platforming is fun. (Albeit there were a couple times playing I didn’t know if an object was climbable or not lol)
Overall, Uncharted as a game has a great mix of story and gameplay that comes together brilliantly to form a great game.

An interesting start to a franchise which was inspired by Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones and Nicholas Cage's National Treasure.

The 2 main problems I have are the lack of variety areas and the villain. The areas you visit are a jungle, a ruined town and forgotten underground tunnels. The underground tunnels are the best bit because they lack lighting with only a torch and the tunnels are a maze with enemies that could spring out of nowhere. The villain is pretty forgettable. They're only after El Dorado and the mercenary that has a terrible boss fight that is a game of Hide N' Gun with a quick time event to finish him .

You can find treasures hidden all over the place. Collect enough of them and you can buy some extra items for future playthroughs like unlimited ammo and filters that will change the way the game looks.

Nathan Drake, Elena Fisher and Victor 'Goddamn' Sullivan are amazing with their voice actors doing a great job bringing their characters to life.

The Uncharted games are all one big game to me. I really don’t think there’s that much that differentiates them so I’m going to post the same thing on each game. I will break down each game a little bit here.
For reference, I played Uncharted 2 first, then Uncharted 1, then the rest on their respective release days – outside of Golden Abyss which I did not immediately play as I didn’t get a Vita on launch day.

This series was pretty wild to me. I played the Crash games as a kid and they were the only thing I ever associated with Naughty Dog. I has pretty much stuck with Nintendo entirely up until 2009.

Uncharted 2 - One of the first PlayStation exclusive games I played on the PS3. The writing, production level, detailed environments, pacing, varied platforming/gunplay had me feeling like I was clearly missing out on something. Sully instantly became one of my favourite video game characters. He’s still up there to this day. I also really like Chloe, which is something that boosts this game up as well. I generally don’t like puzzles but these games do them “correctly”. Not too confusing but not too simple. I appreciate how you use your little notebook to come up with solutions.

I think this is the most important entry, and it makes sense that people look back on it the most fondly. It came at a time when PS was finally getting back in to shape. This game was probably the number one reason for the PS3’s rise to glory in 2009. I do believe its success and the way people view it in retrospect is partially due to its timing.

Uncharted 1 – Going back to play this after 2 made it more apparent how inferior this one is. It’s still a great game, but it would have been more impressive back in 2007. I am not surprised it didn’t light the world on fire back then, though. They didn’t quite nail the pacing yet. Most aspects of the game felt like they were still trying to figure out the hardware but they were doing the best they could. The voice work, the music, the sense of adventure were there. They hadn’t quite dreamed big enough yet to set up the big set pieces that the series became known for in 2. It’s the weakest game in the franchise (at least tied for that title) – but that’s okay. It was first.

Uncharted 3 – This game is equally as good as Uncharted 2 in almost every way. They worked on improving the hand to hand combat and they brought Sully back in a bigger way. Love that. However, since it released only 2 years after U2, I feel it was too heavily criticized for being “more of the same” – which I don’t have a problem with. U2 and U3 are very similar. If they released in reverse order, people would be calling U2 the copy cat and the weaker game.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss – Similar in quality to Uncharted 1. It wasn’t developed by Naughty Dog, this was Sony Bend taking a crack at the franchise to bring “console quality games” to their new handheld. For the most part, they succeeded. The touchpad integration was pretty silly but it was fine – most games were trying to take advantage of the gimmicks of the Vita at the time. It couldn’t quite be as big and bombastic as the two most recent games, it was more of a return to simplicity of the first. I’d say either this or U1 is the weakest – it’d be hard to argue against that.

Uncharted 4 – Similar to U2 and U3 in terms of the pacing and execution of story / action, but a little different in terms of scope. They definitely tried to make things more open and for the most part, it is appreciated. Change can be good if it is implemented well. I think I prefer how linear the other games were, though. This game goes for a more personal story of Drakes and it pays off well to “end” his saga. The Crash part was super cool to see. Overall, for its time I think it’s again equal in quality to U2 and U3.

Uncharted: Lost Legacy – Chloe has always been a Top 2 character for me, along with Sully. I love that they focused a game around her. Nadine is cool, too. This game is an extension of the Uncharted 4 formula and I loved it. Good stuff.

Overall, it’s a fantastic franchise that has remained pretty consistent over the span of a decade.

Humble beginnings and all that. The first Uncharted was a showcase for the PS3 and what Sony's first HD box was capable of early on in its lifecycle. Revisiting it now, it's almost funny how basic Nate's first romp is in nearly every aspect. The sequels later built upon, fine-tuned and ultimately delivered what was needed for a video game to replicate a Hollywood summer blockbuster, but Drake's Fortune is very much a foundation for greater things. What's here is reliable but never spectacular. That would come later.