Uncharted 5: What We Would Love To See In A Sequel

Although Nathan Drake’s story possibly concluded with A Thief’s End, there’s no doubt that Sony and Naughty Dog will continue the franchise with more adventures with an Uncharted 5. But what can we expect from the follow-up game?

Uncharted is a third-person perspective platform-style adventure game that gamers fell in love with the moment the main character, Nathan Drake, started quipping back at people beating him to a pulp. With its thrilling cinematic storytelling, action-packed set pieces, and globe-trotting adventure there was no chance it wasn’t going to be a smash hit.

The first game, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, was released back in 2007 and the game franchise has only grown since then, with three sequels to the main story (Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End), two spin-offs (Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Uncharted: Fight for Fortune) and a standalone expansion (Uncharted: The Lost Legacy) that takes place after the events of Uncharted 4. In fact, the Sony PlayStation exclusive game became so popular that in February of 2022 the world got an Uncharted movie starring Tom Holland and Mark Walberg.

With A Thief’s End being a more personal story and feeling so much like a goodbye to Nathan Drake’s story, it left fans feeling bittersweet once they’d completed the game. So when rumours of a 5th game started circling around in gaming communities, it didn’t take much for Uncharted fans to come out of the woodwork.

While there has been no official announcement from Naughty Dog about Uncharted 5, there have been a couple of hints towards its development, most notably from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier who reported in April that Sony Bend was working on a new Uncharted game under Naughty Dog’s supervision.

Unfortunately, Sony Bend has dropped out of the project since then and it is unclear what exactly is happening with the 5th game.

While we wait for the news, let’s take a look at the previous Uncharted games and some of the things we hope will feature in the new Uncharted game.

What Happened in the Previous Games

We have watched Nathan, climb, shoot and quip his way to survival for 15 years. He is often escaping from explosive firefights and collapsing buildings by the skin of his teeth and I don’t think that is something that players ever want to lose.

Over the course of the Uncharted series, we’ve seen Nathan Drake go through the most, from failed relationships to the loss of his older brother, he can never quite seem to catch a break. All of his friendships and potential relationships seem to crash and burn either through betrayals, attempted murder, or them just being more interested in treasure than anything else. His luck doesn’t seem to extend past his knack for surviving things he definitely shouldn’t be able to survive.

Not all his friendships and relationships end badly though. The ones that have held true have landed him with some of the most loyal people he could’ve ever hoped to meet, though that doesn’t mean they’re above injuring each other in some way.

He first met Victor Sullivan as a teenager, after pickpocketing him at a museum he was planning to steal from. After Sully kept him from getting killed by his employer and bailed him out of jail, the two of them began long-time partners in the treasure hunting business. Sully and his many vehicles are often Nate’s saving graces on his many expeditions and the reason he manages to barely escape death. It also helps that they are given leads about a lot of their expedition by Sully’s underground contacts.

Drake’s Fortune

In Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Nate and Sully went on an expedition to recover Sir Francis Drake’s coffin and by extension his treasure and the golden city of El Dorado. We are also introduced to Elena Fisher, the reporter that Nathan is stuck with after he made a deal with her producers: they would pay for the whole thing and in return, they would get a story about the greatest treasure there ever was.

They decide to abandon Elena as they go off on their own to find El Dorado (which they now know was a statue and not a city), but very little goes according to plan and Nate ends up leaving Sully, who he assumed was dead, behind. When he is later found by Elena, he gets punched in the eye as a greeting. Once he explains what happened the two decide to put their differences aside and work together to continue their journey, though Nate becomes very disheartened, until he sees that Sully had not been killed.

The two of them rescue Sully and later Nate learns that Sir Francis Drake was not trying to find the statue but to keep it on the island because it was cursed with a virus. They decide to follow in his footsteps, doing everything they can to keep the statue on the island. Things don’t quite go according to plan, but in the end, they are successful and there are hints at a continuing romance between Elena and Nate when she returns Sis Francis’ ring to him before pointing out that she didn’t actually have a story because she’d lost her camera and he’s quick to assure her that he’ll give her one.

Among Thieves

We return to Nathan Drake’s story three years after what happened in Drake’s Fortune and meet Chloe Frazer, someone Nate has had a relationship with in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. She is someone he himself describes as “complicated” — which is fair considering the first time they met each other (in the Uncharted Comic) Chloe tried to kill him. She and her partner offer Nate a job that he is reluctant to take at first, but Nathan Drake has never been known to resist an adventure, especially after hearing that it could lead to Cintamani Stone (said to grant invincibility) and Marco Polo’s lost fleet. The job doesn’t quite go according to plan and Nate gets arrested after being betrayed by Chloe’s partner, but Chloe manages to convince Sully to bail him out.

He and Chloe continue on their quest (after Sully bows out after deciding that this job is a bit too risky for him) and find themselves in Nepal where they bump into Elena and her cameraman Jeff. Their encounter causes some tension between Nate and Chloe (who were ready to run away together at the beginning of the game), especially when Nate insists on bringing them along despite Jeff’s injury forcing them to slow down and get caught.

After a fight between Nate and Chloe, Nate gets shot and then manages to derail a train. He eventually falls victim to his wounds but is nursed back to health and reunited with Elena. At this point Nate is ready to give up on his expedition but, after he is shown what happened to the last people that tried to make his journey, Nate decides to destroy the Cintamani Stone with the help of Elena and Chloe. In their efforts, Elena is injured. He leaves her behind with Chloe and goes to take care of the tree, blowing it up and then escaping with the two women as the world collapses around them.

Chloe and Nate separate on good terms after she learns about his feelings for Elena.

Drake’s Deception

In Drake’s Deception, we are thrown back into the Uncharted universe and find ourselves with Nate and Sully in London attempting to sell Sir Francis Drake’s ring. They fake their deaths, so they can get a lead on their expedition, and then meet up with Chloe once again so she can lead them to said lead. They learn that Sir Francis was hired by the queen to find “a city of immeasurable wealth” and, being unable to resist the call of adventure, travel to find this lost city.

Chloe and her partner drop out very early on in the adventure, due to an injury, and Sully and Nate soon meet up with Elena — who gives them permits so they can enter the city legally (and we learn that Nate and Elena had previously been married, but due to Nate’s commitment issues and his inability to ignore adventure, they’d separated). They journey through intricate puzzles that eventually reveal a map of the city that only Sully can read.

Nate is drugged then separated from Elena and Sully and ends up in the hands of the enemy who knows a terrifying amount of information about the woman he loves. Despite everything, Nate doesn’t give up anything about Sully. When he does finally escape and get back to Elena, the two have a very heartfelt moment when Nate apologises to her for what happened, after she tells him about what happened with Sully and her plan to catch up with them so they can rescue him.

Elena ends up staying behind and Nate learns exactly what their enemies want to get their hands on in the city (Solomon’s vessel of brass) and that Sir Francis Drake lied to the queen about his journey to keep it out of her hands. He rescues Sully with some help and together the two destroy anyone’s chance of getting their hands on the vessel.

As they come to the end of their journey, Sully gives Nate his wedding ring back before meeting back up with Elena. She feels bad that he lost Sir Francis Drake’s ring, but he just shows her his wedding ring telling her that he’d traded it for “something better”. The three of them leave in Sully’s new plane.

A Thief’s End

In the 4th Uncharted game, we are given some insight into Nathan’s childhood and introduced to his brother Sam. We follow the two of them as they search for Captain Henry Avery’s long-lost Treasure and everything quickly falls apart as we are led to believe that Sam died. We are then returned to a retired fortune hunter Nathan Drake, who works for a salvaging company, and shown his more peaceful life with Elena. It is soon interrupted by the arrival of his apparent dead brother, who explains how he’s still alive and that if he wants to stay that way he needs to come up with a lot of money very quickly and there was only one thing that could save him at this point: Avery’s Treasure.

With some help from Sully, the two of them begin what Nathan claims is his last adventure, first heading to an auction, where we meet the mercenary Nadine Ross and then Scotland, before making their way to the forests of Madagascar and dealing with plenty of complex puzzles. Nate begins to reminisce about the old days and almost forgets about Sam’s impending doom sometimes. Before they can get much further though, Elena makes an appearance and confronts Nate about lying to her. Sully goes to make sure she’s okay, while Nate and Sam leave for an island, Nate is more determined than ever to save Sam, but it is soon revealed that it was all for nothing because he was just lying in order to get Nate to actually come with him on this journey.

Nate is then pushed off a cliff and later found by Elena. He decides to tell her the true story of his past as they make their way to rescue Sam, discovering the pirate utopia on their way. Once they do, he tries to convince them to keep looking for the treasure, but Nate is ready to go home. After an accident that separates him from the other three, Sam decides to head for the treasure anyway and Nate follows him, getting separated from Elena and Sully in the process.

After finding Avery’s fortune and then rescuing Sam one final time, the pair return to Elena and Sully and the brother part ways. Elena and Nate retire (before Elena decides that the simple life isn’t for them and they decide to go treasure hunting legally from now on) and Sam partners up with Sully.

A couple of years later we are shown all that Elena and Nate achieved together through the eyes of their daughter Cassie Drake, who gets nosey and digs into her parents’ past as treasure hunters. Nate is all too happy to share the details of his adventures after some encouragement from his wife. It’s here that we discover that Cassie has inherited some of her parents’ sense of adventure, and has many adventuring skills of her own. She loves history and archeology, and can speak Latin and scuba dive.

Who will be the main character in Uncharted 5?

While the prologue of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End appears to bring Nathan’s story to a satisfying close, giving us a couple of hints about what he and Elena have been up to the last couple of years and introducing us to their daughter Cassie, it is still a bit open-ended with hints of another adventure soon to be happening for the family. It has left fans with many questions about who will head the story for Uncharted 5 (or whatever the new game will be called).

Uncharted 5 could very easily be turned into a passing of the torch story, as we could watch Nate and Elena teach and show Cassie the way of the treasure hunter (with a bit of help from Sam and Sully, of course). It wouldn’t be unlike Naughty Dog and it would make sense for them to carry on Nathan’s legacy through his daughter.

A recent PS5 ad might have spoiled who will be the protagonist for the next game. The ad was titled “Live from PS5” and showcased Sony’s suite of exclusive games, including those that came from PlayStation Studio themselves, as well as their third party developers like Square Enix. The Add featured games like God of War Ragnarok, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Horizon Forbidden West, Returnal and Gran Turismo 7, but to everyone’s surprise it also had some clips from what seems to be an unannounced game. 

The footage looks like it has a different protagonist for the game, as a young woman explores a cave lit by gentle torchlight, and encounters an ancient artifact which she blows the dust off of. The footage doesn’t match any released or announced game in the Uncharted franchise, and doesn’t look like another one of their remasters like the Legacy of Thieves collection. What has fans super excited is that the woman from the brief clip looks a lot like an grown-up Cassie, but until we see the next game we won’t know for sure.

How will The Lost Legacy affect Uncharted 5?

It’s no surprise that after the nicely tied-off and satisfying ending of A Thief’s End, in which the future of Nathan Drake was left open to fan interpretation, fans were a little shocked at the release of Uncharted: A Lost Legacy. The new addition was adapted too quite quickly when fans found themselves playing as Chloe Frazer, after not having seen her since Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception.

This adventure turns into Chloe’s greatest journey as she looks for an ancient artefact known as the Golden Tusk of Ganesh and tries to keep it from falling into the hands of a ruthless warmonger with Sams help in India’s Western Ghats. We also soon meet a familiar character when Chloe requests the aid of renowned mercenary Nadine Ross.

Nadine Ross is a character no one expected to like, especially after her many attempts to kill Nate, but The Lost Legacy did well at redeeming her actions from the previous game and actually making her likeable. She bonds with Chloe over the loss of their fathers and later is even willing to work with Sam despite the two’s animosity towards each other.

Despite their differences and how much they seem to annoy each other, Chloe, Sam and Nadine have some of the best chemistry in the Uncharted series. With Nadine constantly threatening to kill Sam, him pushing her buttons, and Chloe doing her best to keep the peace between the two, there’s no question that their interactions with each other are hilarious — and could even work in an Uncharted 5 game.

Will we see Nate and Elena again?

While Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End was nothing if not goodbye to one of Naughty Dog’s most beloved characters, I do not believe this is the last we will ever see of Nate or Elena. There are still plenty of adventures for him to go on, as was made clear by the epilogue of the game and so many more quips for him to make against enemies that are beating him to a pulp.

If, however, Naughty Dog is officially done with the adventures of Nathan Drake and leaves his ending closed, I don’t think fans will mind too much. It will be sad to say goodbye for good, but it opens the door for other characters to share the spotlight with him and develop their own legacies. And who’s to say Nathan Drake won’t make a cameo appearance in future games (maybe even Uncharted 5)?

Naughty Dog has always gone out of its way to make Uncharted entertaining while also keeping it meaningful and beautifully developing the relationships between its characters and I’m sure it will be much of the same when Uncharted 5 does eventually grace our screens. The gaming community can’t wait to see what Naughty Dog has in store for the future of the franchise.

Uncharted 5 couldn’t come sooner. And like Indiana Jones, Nathan Drake could never really retire, right?

What are you hoping to see in Uncharted 5?