Uncharted

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune in 2007 was a leap into the unknown for Naughty Dog. A studio known for Crash and Jak was suddenly making an adventure shooter with a realistic-looking lead, cover-based gunfights, ledge climbing and the atmosphere of matinee adventure cinema. The first game still felt slightly unsure of itself and had more shooting than it needed, yet it was already clear where the series differed: in the performances, in dialogue that does not sound like a script written for a game, and in a pace that never leaves the player standing around for long.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves raised the bar for the whole genre two years later. A speeding train over a ravine, a collapsing building in Nepal and far more confident direction made it the game people still point to whenever cinematic action is discussed. Drake's Deception continued in the same spirit with even grander set pieces, Golden Abyss showed the formula could be shrunk onto the Vita, and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End closed the series in 2016 on a quieter note, with more weight on relationships and on the price Nathan Drake pays for the life he has chosen. The Lost Legacy then proved the story could rest on Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross without the original hero. The influence of Uncharted shows up wherever a game tries to narrate like a film while keeping the seams between cutscene and play invisible.