The Cohesive Narratives of the Uncharted Games are Still More Interesting Than The Last Of Us Games' Narratives.
And I'm tired of pretending otherwise.
Metaphor ReFantazio comes out on Friday so today, as ReFantazio is largely narrative driven, I want to talk about narrative. Specifically the Uncharted and The Last of Us games.
I want to start with the Indiana Jones movies. They are some of my favorite series of movies. I still remember when I was a kid and watching The Last Crusade on my VCR and CRT TV and enjoying the incredibly well paced and communicative narrative of the film, and then hiding behind the couch during the rapid aging scene because I got scared easily as a kid. It felt like a journey and even rewatching it now 2 and a half decades later, I still love the movie and genuinely feel the journey of it. Naturally, videogames seemed the perfect medium to adapt this type of globe trotting story and journey. As such, Tomb Raider came out in 1996 and was a big tit...I mean hit.
Now, to be frank, I never played them. My mom was the kind of person who thought videogames rotted your brain so I wasn't allowed to have any until I could buy a console for myself. I first bought a GameCube but was a kid so didn't have money and didn't know what games were good since I also wasn't allowed much on the internet, I lived a very sheltered childhood. So I again didn't play Tomb Raider. But I did play the Uncharted games which significantly built off of the success and structure of the Tomb Raider games.
Enter: me buying a ps3 in 2008 and Uncharted being one of my first games I bought. I adored it. Mostly. I thought the combat needed work and could be frustrating. But ya know what hit just right? The fucking narrative. Story is all about a journey that the writers are taking you on and game narratives are no different. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune didn't have a whole lot of environmental variety but it had the mystery of hunting for a treasure of the past just like Indiana Jones. And then it had the same kinda turn that Indiana Jones movies had when it introduced a mystical element with the vampire like creatures that were in service of El Dorado at the end. The narrative had twists, it had set pieces, it had charismatic characters, and it had an ending that felt like the characters and story had completed the journey.
The second game improved on this immensely, particularly with introducing far larger and more advanced set pieces like that damn train, as I'm sure most people who have played games for as long as I have know. When I replayed all 4 Uncharted games recently, all of them had similar feelings of Indiana Jones level of fun and twists and turns and the completeness at journeys end. Narrative is something that I studied in film school. It can be good or awful but no matter what its supposed to make you feel and have a journey and have fun.
The Uncharted games do this perfectly. They have characters you care about, each one builds off the prior one by expanding on the characters, adding new ones, introducing new story and environments, and they all end with us as players experiencing a bittersweet feeling. They are truly some of the most fun stories I've ever experienced and fun, to me, is one of the most important parts of a story.
I'm not saying there are not more complex and emotional stories out there. For instance, The Last of Us Part 1 and Part 2 are often held up as the golden standard of narrative in modern day gaming. But you know what I've never thought while playing those games? That I'm experiencing a fun narrative. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed them immensely and care deeply about the story and the queer representation, but they're rough games. Dark and emotional and tense as fuck the ENTIRE time through. There aren't moments of a fun narrative, there aren't moments of big set pieces where I feel like I'm on a journey. Instead I feel like I'm having an experience that will do everything it can to make me feel a bit hopeful, then ruin it by the narrative introducing a massive gut punch, like shooting Ellie's best friend in the head.
That’s not necessarily bad. It's interesting and good storytelling, but its not as interesting to me as having fun with Uncharted. The Uncharted games are able to do similar levels of story telling without sacrificing fun. They're able to make me both feel like I'm having an experience with interesting characters and on a journey with twists and turns.
This feels like a conversation I had multiple times with friends back in film school. Which is more enjoyable, Drama or Adventure films? Some argued that the true best films are fundamentally dramas because they represent characters in more realistic environments and exhibit stories that you can relate to incredibly deeply. Some argued that adventure films were best because they allowed for watching fun characters experience something that we as normal people aren't capable of experiencing. I argued its the films and stories in the middle that are truly great. Effective storytellers are able to do both. They're able to represent real characters and show them do things we as normal folk aren't as capable of doing. Hence my love for the Indiana Jones films.
Lets examine 3 openings to stories, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Uncharted 2, and The Last of Us Part 1.
First, Raiders introduces the characters in a tropical setting. It shows that our main character is the one leading the expedition into the forest, that he's capable of knowing where to go and whether people have been there recently when he looks at the arrow in the tree. And he's attentive enough to hear the red shirt at the beginning point a gun at him, and then it provides personality to his character that he uses a whip instead of a gun to take out said red shirt and it does this all without seeing his face or having him talk. It provides tension, mystery, and an interesting main character who then, when he expresses his fear of snakes at the end of the opening, shows the writers are capable of tension and humor and character depth. The narrative shows that the character of Indiana is capable of being serious, of comedy, of great feats, and that he doesn’t have to talk a ton to convey these things.
Uncharted 2 opens with Drake being in a train that has derailed and is hanging off the side of the mountain. He's been injured and is near death. He then climbs out of the derailed part of the train that is hanging off the edge of the cliff all while both showing tension in some moments with the train literally falling apart as Drake climbs at, and expressing humor with him joking about those same moments of the train falling apart. Drake shows he is able to be serious and comedic like Indiana does in the first few minutes of Raiders. The narrative is started with a "the fuck is going on?" question that makes you desperate to see more. The beginning gives you a lead in that makes you care about the main character and what he's going through, and it shows that the writers know how to make the player experience tension while still allowing fun, and funny moments.
Now lets examine the beginning of The Last of Us Part 1. Its fucking dark. You play Joel’s daughter and then Joel and it shows the beginning of the outbreak. It provides tension with the car ride seeing the town around them falling apart, makes you question what’s going on with buildings on fire, and at the end significant emotion and depression when Joel’s daughter dies. But is it fun? Uncharted 2 had the fun of the main character and him trying to survive while continuing to joke around, Raiders had the fun of the main character searching through a booby trapped treasure cave, does The Last of Us have that? Put simply, No. It simply has the confusion of the start of the outbreak and depression from Joel’s daughter dying.
Now yes it is reasonable to say they're just completely different genres. But that doesn't make the depressing nature of the beginning fun. And the beginning sets up the rest of the game, which stays true to the emotions you feel in the first 20 minutes. Sadness and heartbreak. Both The Last of Us games are amazing games that have amazing stories but not once did I feel like I was having fun in the story, gameplay wise sure, but the story? It was all serious basically all the time. There were small moments of not super serious emotions and genuine humanity, but they're small and not large parts of the game and they're always followed by gut punches. There are even people out there who haven't played the games directly because of how rough they are.
Uncharted games have a cohesive narrative that build off the beginning and makes you feel like you're experiencing a journey with bigger and more interesting moments that can still have a variety of emotions. The Last of Us games are cohesive but depression and sadness is a key part of both games, that's not fun. Its interesting and can be enjoyable, but enjoyable does not necessarily equate to fun.
I don't really want to replay the Last of Us games. And I've tried multiple times. But the games are so dark and depressing that playing them once is enough. I don't want to have to experience that depression again especially given how shitty the world continues to get. Meanwhile, when I replayed the Uncharted games recently I could totally see myself replaying them again because I enjoy fun, not sadness.
If you are considering replaying the Uncharted games, or at least Uncharted 4 since its on PC now, do it. It's enjoyable, it makes you feel emotion, it makes you feel tense, but then lets you have fun just a moment later. Its a cohesive narrative game with little and big moments of genuine fun that show how much the writers actually cared about not just telling an interesting story but allowing the player to smile while playing it.
As I said back in film school, I will always believe that something that's interesting, conveys emotion, and lets me sit back and have fun is a better experience as opposed to something that makes me depressed. But hey, if you prefer that, that's fine, you're wrong, but that's fine.
Meow,
Cat