The Uncharted Franchise Never shined in an area where a reboot could

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The 2007s Uncharted was a really solid third-person shooter with a fun adventure story and a very strong cast of likable heroes and villains. But the 2009s Uncharted 2:was the entry that truly broke new ground for the action-adventure genre, introducing blockbusters never before captured so effectively in the gaming world.




Each subsequent Uncharted then tried to top the entry that came before it, adding even more explosive action gameplay, more frenetic firefights, more desperate escapes, and even better character work. But while Uncharted franchise has no shortage of excellent qualities, there's a classic element to the adventure genre that it never quite nailed.

Astro Bot Uncharted

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Astro Bot really only scratched the surface with its best feature

Astro Bot was home to some excellent platforming level design, but its best scenes still have a lot of untapped potential just waiting for a sequel.

Uncharted Never Nailed One Adventure Genre Staple

A great adventure story needs a compelling villain

The adventure genre is huge and often hard to define. But a great adventure story usually revolves around the hero's need to beat the bad guy to the punch, whether it's for a world-ending MacGuffin, a coveted treasure, or some other plot device that could mean the hero's downfall or glory. As such, the best adventure stories are often those with the most compelling villains.


The Indiana Jones franchising is the perfect example of this. Raiders of the Lost Ark sees the iconic professor/archaeologist/adventurer in a race to find the titular Ark of the Covenant. Although the race itself is filled with exciting obstacles and mind-numbing puzzles, it is Raiders of the Lost Arks charismatic antagonist Belloq and his Nazi benefactor who keep the stakes high, ensuring that Indy is always the underdog in the race.

The Uncharted Franchise rarely had a standout villain

A good adventure villain must pose a significant threat, have a vested interest in the MacGuffin the hero is after, and have a strong sense of identity. Unfortunately, the Uncharted franchise has never really had a standout villain that checks all of those boxes.

Wear his Raiders of the Lost Ark inspirations on the sleeve, the first Uncharted the game's Atoq Navarro bears some strong similarities to the character Belloq, with Uncharted enemy is an archaeologist who has deep knowledge of the treasure that the entire cast is searching for. Navarro suffers from a serious lack of depth due to him only being revealed as the primary villain right at the end of the game, which makes the final fight feel a bit anticlimactic.


Uncharted 2s Zoran Lazarevic was a big step-up for the franchise. A genuinely evil villain, Lazaveric murders his way through Uncharted 2s history and poses a significant threat at every turn. But while Lazarevic is undeniably scary, he's also a little remarkable, with his morals being pretty black and white. Uncharted 3Katherine Marlowe had a little more depth as she was the manipulative and cunning leader behind a secret British organization. Marlowe's personal history with Uncharted 3s heroes is also a great strength, but she is often overshadowed by her more over-the-top right-hand man, Talbot.

Uncharted 4Rafe and Nadine are a powerful duo with a pretty interesting dynamic, but when they're separated, they lose their spark. Rafe is an appropriately unlikeable villain, but his motives initially seem like standard adventure villain business. Although Rafe aggressively admits that he's trying to take Avery's treasure to prove himself, that confession comes far too late in the game to give the villain the complexity he needed.


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