UNCHARTED: The Story So Far

With UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection for PC on the horizon, it is high time we took a closer look at the story of these critically acclaimed adventure game series and refresh our memories of Nathan Drake’s previous adventures before he embarks on the ultimate one.

UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection is the latest adventure of Nathan which includes acclaimed UNCHARTED 4: A Thief’s End and UNCHARTED: The Lost Legacy which were originally released in 2016 and 2017 respectively for Playstation. 

In the lands lost to civilization searching for artifacts of great value, Nathan Drake doesn’t have what many people call a dull life. As we all know, beauty comes with a price. So with his trusted companions on his side, Nathan’s path takes him to many dangerous, even life threateningly strange locations. 

So what has he been up to so far? Let’s take a look…

Warning: HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD

UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune | Searching for El Dorado

UNCHARTED series doesn’t actually have a “linear timeline” and the first game of the series is no different. Starting mid-adventure, UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune opens up in the middle of the ocean with our adventurer Nathan Drake and TV reporter Elena Fisher looking for the remains of legendary English explorer Sir Francis Drake, the supposed ascendant of Nathan on the coast of Panama. But while looking for some bones, they find the journal of Sir Francis Drake instead and quickly realize that he in fact faked his own death.

Attacked by pirates and saved by his Mentor Sully, aka. Victor Sullivan, Nathan confides in Sully and tells him that Sir Francis Drake found the location of the lost city of El Dorado and hid his treasure there. Leaving Elena behind, Mentor and Mentee embark to find the gold city of El Dorado.

In Central America, following the map inside the journal Nathan and Sully discover an ancient Mayan Temple. When the two adventurers found the remains of Spanish soldiers and a niche where a statue is supposed to stand, they quickly realize that El Dorado is not a place, it is a golden statue.

While Sully explores the rest of the island, Nathan starts to look for more clues as to where that statue was taken to. Finding some German soldiers and a Kraigsmarine map, Nathan finds the lost harbour where statue is taken and returns to Sully to share the good news.

However, when he comes back he finds Sully at gunpoint and the enemy of the UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune is revealed to be rival explorers Atoq Navarro and his mercenaries. Navarro and his men shoot Sully and a submarine explosion helps Nathan escape deep into the forest. To his fortune, he encounters Elena, whom he left stranded in Panama, and they set aside their differences to find the statue together in an uncharted island.

Because of their shot-down plane, Nathan and Elena are forced to abandon the sea-plane on their way to the island and get separated in landing. Nathan Drake looks for Elena in the island but gets captured by some old associates and pirates. While Nathan was supposed to save Elena, Elena comes to the rescue and frees Nathan from the pirates.

With the help of Sir Francis Drake’s telescope, Nathan discovers an in-land harbor where Sir Francis Drake’s boat is still standing, meaning that Sir Francis Drake actually died on that island. 

When Nathan is knocked unconscious, he is taken to a cell where he confronts the pirates that took him before. His old associate, Eddy Raja tells him that the island is cursed and his men are going missing. When Elena helps Nathan out of the prison and dive further into the uncharted harbour town, she shows Nathan that Sully is in fact alive. When our heroes find Sully, they see that he is still being held at gunpoint and forced to help Navarro in his search for the golden statue.

The three head to the treasure vault solving mind tricking puzzles and discover the remains of Sir Francis Drake. But they are not the only ones there. When Eddie shows up to confront Nathan they are attacked by some sort of human-like creatures who bear a resemblance to fallen soldiers. 

In the final chapter, Nathan and Elena find themselves in a German submarine where Nathan sees an old footage showing that the statue is in fact cursed and those human-like creatures are what remains from the WWII soldiers and colonists who were unfortunate enough to be in the island. 

While Nathan experienced a revelation about the statue, Elena gets taken by Navarro and Nathan reunites with Sully to find Elena again. They get inside the vault holding the statue and Elena and final confrontation begins.

Navarro’s right hand, Roman checks inside the statue and becomes a victim to the curse. Navarro shoots him and attempts to escape with the statue and Elena via his helicopter.

In the action, helicopter crashes into Navarro’s ship and Nathan fights off Navarro, knocking him to the ground. In the end, the statue and Navarro fall down to the ocean, never to be seen again. 

Nathan and Elena enjoy their reunion while Sully informs them that the statue was not the only treasure that left the island and the three sail off to the sunset.

UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves | Where is Shambala?

The second game of the UNCHARTED series begin with Nathan wounded in a train. And the game continues with a flashback to show the beginning of the adventure. A few years after the first adventure, Nathan is approached by his old associate Flynn and his friend Chloe to find the Mongolian oil lamp and steal it from a museum in Istanbul. Nathan accepts the offer because he believes that this lamp can lead to Marco Polo’s lost fleet which is known to hold a great treasure.

When they get their hands on the lamp, they discover that Marco Polo’s fleet were carrying the mystical Cintamani Stone from the fabled city of Shambhala, aka. Shangri-La and was shipwrecked in Borneo. Since this information is all that Flynn needs, he doublecrosses Nathan and leaves him to be arrested for theft. 

Luckily, Chloe, who claims to have no knowledge of Flynn’s plans finds Sully and gets Nathan out. While looking for more clues as to whereabouts of the stone, they infiltrate Lazarević’s camp and realize that the stone never actually left Shambala. Nathan discovers remains of some men who were in Marco Polo’s fleet and with them, a phurba which will be useful in the next clue. And that next clue leads our heroes to Katmandu, Nepal.

The danger doesn’t stop at Nepal as well. Trying to get to the right tample before Lazarević’s men, Nathan bumps into his old friend, Elena Fisher and her cameraman who are also looking for Lazarević. Nathan gets together with Chloe to find the temple and use the phurba to find out that Shambala is in Himalayas, aka. their next destination. Chloe, to keep track of Lazarević, acts like she has switched sides and betrays Nathan and Elena while they are trying to get to Himalayas.

But Nathan doesn’t give up and finds his way to Lazarević’s train to confront him and free Chloe. This confrontation doesn’t go according to plan and Lazarević shoots Nathan, leaving him injured in the train, just like we see in the beginning of the game.

Luckily, Nathan is found by a Tibetan Sherpa, Tenzin and brought back to a village where he reunites with Elena and meets a German explorer named Karl Schäfer. Karl sends Nathan and Tenzin on a quest to find the lost expeditionists who were also searching for Shambala a long time ago. In this adventure, Nathan and Tenzin have to face yeti-like creatures and they learn the truth about what happened to the men. 

Turns out, Karl Schäfer actually killed those SS men who were going to unleash a bad omen to the world. Discovering the truth, Nathan and Tenzin return to the village only to find that it has been attacked by the Serbian Lazarević and his men and Karl Schäfer has been taken as hostage.

Karl Schäfer was taken to an abandoned monastery where he was also mortally wounded. His last words to Nathan are to instruct him to find and destroy the Cintamari stone.

While looking for the entrance of Shambala, Lazarević catches up with Nathan and Elena and forces Nathan to chose between Chloe who he also found out to be a spy and Elena. Nathan agrees to take Lazarević with him to Shambala when the yeti-like creatures attack again. When the creatures are defeated, Nathan finds out that these are only men who were powered up by the Cintamari stone and instructed to protect the city of Shambala.

When another horde of men come to attack the trespassers, Nathan, Elena and Chloe manage to escape and make their way to the centre of the temple where they find the Cintamari stone, which is actually embedded inside a giant tree in a form of bright amber.  It is revealed that once a person drinks the from the sap of an ancient tree of life, they will inherit inhuman powers which makes them almost invincible. And this is exactly what Lazarević is after.

Lazarević detonates a bomb, leaving Elena wounded and Chloe stays with Elena while Nathan confronts Lazarević who have already drunk from the sap. Fighting for his life, Nathan defeats Lazarević and leaves him to be finished off by the guardians of Shambala while he, Elena and Chloe escape.

Reunited, Elena and Nathan share a kiss and the end credits roll as Elena and Nathan are romancing in front of the mountains of Himalayas.

UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception | Who is Nathan Drake?

Amongst the series, most information about Nathan Drake’s past and ancestors can be found in UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception. The story begins in a London pub where Nathan and Sully meet with Talbot who is looking to purchase the ring of Sir Francis Drake that Nathan has been carrying around with him through the series. However, feeling deceived by a counterfeit money, Nathan and Sully decide not to sell the ring and make a run for it but they are caught by Talbot and his men. While scuffling, Talbot’s boss, Katherine Marlowe comes in and takes the ring.

In the third installment of the series we learn a bit more about how Nathan became who he is through multiple flashbacks. It turns out teenage Nathan was already searching for Sir Francis Drake’s ring in a museum in Cartagena, Colombia. There, Nathan pickpockets Sully who at that time was working for Marlowe, and steals the ring from the museum. When confronted with Marlowe, Sully rescues him and takes him to be his prodige.

Back to the present day, we see Nathan and Sully unharmed and Marlowe’s henchman were in fact a friend of theirs. And together with Chloe, Nathan and Sully go to the underground library where they find the map of Ubar, the lost city. 

Turns out, Sir Francis Drake was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I to find the city of Ubar and he created a secret map which shows the clues as to where the key to unlocking the mysteries of Ubar lies. Nathan discovers the clue lies in a French Chateau and a Syrian citadel. But once they find what they are looking for in the first destination, half of what appears to be an amulet, they are found by Talbot and his henchmen and lose it to him.

With first clue being taken away from them, Nathan travels to Syria to find the citidel and the second half of the amulet. He learns that Marlowe is a part of an order which also included Sir Francis Drake amongst its members. The aim of this order is to control its enemies with fear. While Nathan was getting his hands on the other half of the amulet, he also learns that the next clue is hidden in Yemen, his next destination. However, Marlowe catches up to them and forces the team to hand over the second half. The team escape, however, with Cutter breaking his leg, him and Chloe back out from the adventure.

Nathan and Sully travels to Yemen where they are met with Nathan’s estranged wife, Elena. In the last two years, it turns out, Elena and Nathan had a chance to get married and take a break from their relationship.

In Yemen, the original trio find a tomb, where they see a star map pointing out that Ubar is in Rub’ al Khali desert. And they also find out Sir Francis Drake had already found the location but abandoned his mission because of what he found there.

While exiting the tomb, Nathan is shot by a hallucinogen and gets captured by Marlowe and her men. Nathan finds his way through Rameses’s ship and escapes his captives thanks to a large explosion that kills everyone inside.

When reunited with Elena, Nathan learns that Sully has also been taken by Marlowe’s men and is being forced to go with them to Rub’ al Khali desert. Looking for his mentor, Nathan finds himself in a cargo ship which eventually gets destroyed. Now, Nathan is left alone in the desert and continues his search for Sully and the lost city of Ubar.

While searching for Sully, Nathan finds himself in an abandoned city in the middle of the desert where he is also attacked by Marlowe’s men. Nathan frees Sully and Salim, who leads Bedouin troops, saves them and takes them back to his camp where he explains the origin story behind Ubar’s disappearance. 

Salim explains that Ubar was doomed by King Solomon who imprisoned a Jin in a brass vessel and cast it into the heart of the city. When Nathan and Sully find themselves inside a sandstorm and ultimately, the gates of Ubar, they learn more about Ubar’s fate. 

Turns out when Solomon cast the Jin out to the heart of the city, he let the Jin merge with the waters of Ubar and release a hallucinogen into it. So when Sir Francis Drake realized this, he left his mission and went back.

Sully and Nathan manage to find Marlowe and Talbot searching for the vessel in Ubar and stop their plans while also causing Ubar to turn into a quicksand. Marlowe sinks through with Nathan’s ring while Talbot remains unharmed.

While looking for a way out of the city, Talbot catches up with Nathan and Sully, trying to kill the latter, and finds his doom when Nathan shoots him instead. Salim finds the two and leads them to safety again while the city collapses in the back.

Safe and sound, Sully gives back Nathan’s own wedding ring which he kept with him after the two got separated, replacing the Sir Francis Drake ring that Nathan hold dear. The three, Nathan, Sully and Elena onboard Sully’s new sea plane and fly back home.

So, these are the adventures of Nathan Drake so far. But you want to know what is next? Pre-order UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection to see!