Story

Yes. Let’s start with the most obvious one. By now, everyone reading this site should be familiar with the story of this game. But to give a brief recap for those newcomers out there, or the rare person who has only played the multiplayer, UNCHARTED 2 is about adventurer Nathan Drake and his search for the mystical lost city of Shamballah, as well as the fabled Cintamani Stone that lies within. Along the way, he gets betrayed by an old friend, hooks up with an old flame, matches wits, and fists, with a psychotic dictator, and finds true love.

Not very original, one might say.

The inclusion of the Tibetan village in UNCHARTED 2 isn't precisely necessary to move the story forward. In fact, it's inclusion made the story that much more humanizing.

But Naughty Dog’s cleverness came in recognizing that it is not so much the originality of the story, but the execution of it. UNCHARTED 2’s story is an excellently written, masterfully plotted work that moves along at an incredible pace, and yet is aware enough of players’ needs to slow it down when it has to (remember playing football with the Tibetan children?).

It is a wonder to behold the craftsmanship behind the writing of this story. Each plot point is resolved, each is foreshadowed, and the payoffs are always strong. It knows when to take you by the hand, and when to let you monkey around the place for a few minutes. And it’s not afraid to throw you a few curveballs just when you get comfortable, as shown in a scene towards the end involving Harry Flynn, Nathan Drake, Chloe Frazier, and Elena Fisher.

With a story that well written, that well made, how could you not want to relive it several times over?

And this is a story that could not be told in an open world/freedom of choice game. This kind of craftsmanship would drown under the expectations that gamers would have with regards to what they can and can’t do in their games.

For example, remember where Nate is faced with a choice of either leaving Jeff the cameraman to die or taking him with them? There is no way in hell that Nate would leave him. It’s just not his character. But what if this was an RPG in the vein of Fallout? Then the gamer would expect to be given the choice of either leaving him, taking him, or shooting him in the face, among others. And if Nate is given the choice to leave him, then what? The romance between him and Elena would not work because she would not be with a guy who did that. And the writing would have to compensate for that.

That is one example among many. The Fallout paradigm of storytelling is a perfectly valid one, but there is no way that you could say that the pacing or craftsmanship of that game, among others, is comparable to UNCHARTED‘s. And let’s not forget the lag in pacing if Nate was given the choice to follow a side-quest to collect one hundred “Nuka Cola” bottles. After any number of those, it would be quite understandable, and sad, if the player would then go “Lazare-who?” and the beautifully paced, beautifully crafted tale would be derailed.

But it’s not just the story too, after all a story is nothing without the characters that populate it. And, again, here’s where Naughty Dog shines.

On the next page: Characters That You Can Love