by Claire
“People are always telling me how lucky I am. But the truth is, everything I touch turns to shit.“
Nathan Drake, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
In the days before pretty much every movie with any kind of hype behind it was delayed by a year, Uncharted was supposed to be out in cinemas by now, thirteen long years after it was first announced. But now we have to wait another EIGHT months for its release in February 2022 – which is, fun fact, the film’s seventh announced release date since 2016. It’s been a long wait for fans of the series but if the film is anything like the games, it’ll be worth it in the end – for whumpers, at least.
For those of you who aren’t gamers or who are but have never encountered the franchise, let me catch you up to speed. Uncharted is a series of games developed by Naughty Dog, the studio who brought us the beautiful storytelling, incredible characterisation and breathtaking worldbuilding of The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part 2 as well as the earliest memories of hair-pulling frustration in the form of Crash Bandicoot. It’s an action/adventure franchise in which you play as treasure hunter extraordinaire Nathan ‘Nate’ Drake (voiced by Nolan North), alleged descendant of the 16th century explorer/pirate captain Sir Francis Drake. In each of the four original games (there’s a fifth addition with other characters which I’ll also discuss here because it feels weird leaving one game undiscussed – but ladywhumpers, stick around), Nate sets out to uncover the location of various historical treasures and return home with the gold just like his pirate ancestor. But of course, it’s never as easy as to get on a plane and catch a cab right to the treasure – with every adventure comes new obstacles, enemies and, best of all, new ways to put our great hero in mortal peril.
THE WHUMPEE
If you know Nate, one of the first things you’ll probably remember about him – other than his insanely strong fingertips which have the ability to cling to the tiniest ledges with ease like that’s just a normal skill that everyone has – is his sense of humour. It reminds me a lot of John Sheppard (Stargate Atlantis) in some ways; he’s sarcastic and witty, armed with a remark or throwaway line that’ll have you snorting softly out of your nose as you play.
Like pretty much every other protagonist, there’s also the tragic backstory to make you sympathise with Nate a little more. Throughout the series, we get flashbacks to his past and catch glimpses of a tragic childhood, then a tragic young adulthood. Of course he doesn’t really discuss these things – a true stoic whumpee, more at home making people laugh than talking about his past – but it does build up a bigger picture of what happened to create the treasure hunter we grow so fond of.
The final big characteristic of Nate’s that always springs to mind is his loyalty. He cares deeply for his father figure, Victor ‘Sully’ Sullivan, risking his life several times over to save him. Throughout the series, he also comes to care for Elena Fisher, a journalist and television presenter who accompanies Nate on several of his adventures and with whom he of course falls in love with. The two of them have some great moments together, whether they’re comforting or caring for one another or just sharing a clever remark over whatever perilous situation they happen to be in at any given moment. It’s his love for his family that can be a great weakness, but it also leads to some excellent protectiveness and comfort scenes.
Oh, and if you’re not sold yet, he’s being played in the film by Tom Holland. ‘Nuff said.
THE WHUMP
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
As an introduction to the franchise and its characters, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is a solid game as long as you can forgive a terribly controlled boat that is frustrating enough to make you wonder how mid-2000s gamers didn’t snap their discs in half. As a whumper’s introduction, it’s less exciting. While on the hunt for the lost treasure of El Dorado (which in this game is not a city but rather a single treasure in the form of a golden casket), Nate faces many a perilous situation from a plane crash to a car chase to more shootouts than I can even begin to count. With that much peril and this many situations in which everything can – and does – go wrong, you’d expect some consequences. And there are…a few; he gets punched in the face by Elena and has some emotional whump when he sees Sully being “killed” in front of him, but the consequences of both are rather disappointing – even the emotional whump, which you’d expect to be rather impactful considering it’s obvious even early in the game how strong the relationship is between Sully and Nate, is lackluster with little more than a few shots of Nate looking mildly unhappy. There are a couple of incidents of being knocked out – one from falling from a crashing plane with a hole burned through his parachute – and waking up, but you don’t really get much from it and it’s more of a way to progress time in the game than anything else. So no whumperflies there, unfortunately.
Beyond that, we have some scrapes and blood right at the end of the game which are…nice, and if it was the only game in the franchise then I would shrug and go, “that’s fine, I guess” and grumble quietly to myself throughout the credits. But luckily for us all, there are four more games and from here, we can only go up.
For any ladywhumpers out there, there is a little bit of Elena whump: she’s taken hostage, punched in the stomach and is unconscious after a helicopter crash. There’s a nice little shot of a worried Nate dragging her from the rubble of a crashed helicopter, but even that has very few consequences – especially because it’s the very last scene of the game.
I’m not angry Naughty Dog, I’m just disappointed.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
The opening scene of Uncharted 2 feels in some ways like an apology for all of the whumpers out there who played the first game expecting to leave satisfied. One of the very first shots of the game is of Nate waking up in a crashed train as it hangs over the edge of a cliff, bleeding from a wound in his side. He’s noticeably groggy as he makes his escape from the train, and collapses in exhaustion upon making it to safety. In the same chapter, following a flashback to a conversation which sets up the game’s story – a hunt for treasure left behind by 13th century explorer Marco Polo -, Nate staggers through the snow and eventually has to stop and rest as the combination of blood loss, exhaustion and hypothermia threatens to overwhelm him.
Just as a little extra motivation for continuing on past the opening chapter – if the story isn’t motivation enough, which honestly it was for me because as a game it’s so much more interesting than the previous one with an engaging story, fun settings and, best of all, no terrible boat mechanic -, we revisit the trash crash and the events leading up to it later in the game. It’s at this point we discover that the wound in Nate’s side wasn’t a result of the train crash but rather a gunshot wound. There’s a nice scene of him staggering through a speeding train, clutching at his side and almost falling several times. After the train crashes we then get to play the opening scene all over again, this time with zero interruptions. It’s a great chapter in which you can really feel his exhaustion as he struggles to push on through a worsening blizzard. Inevitably, it all gets too much as he collapses one final time in the snow. In the chapter’s final shot, we get a glimpse of a saviour – once again, luck is on our hero’s side.
Ladywhumpers, this game has your back too! Towards the end of the game, Elena is caught too close to an explosion and is severely injured, leaving her barely coherent and suffering from what I’ve always assumed to be severe internal injuries as well as several bleeding wounds on her body and arms. What follows are a trio of lovely scenes of her being carried and encouraged to “hang in there”, all the while she’s so weak that she can’t stand and can only let out agonised moans and whimpers. Despite not being a huge fan of Elena in the early games, I couldn’t help the whumperflies that the pained noises and increasing struggle sparked in my stomach.
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
If Uncharted 2 has the best whump in the franchise then Uncharted 3 has the most frequent whump. I got whumperflies several times throughout this game, and not just for Nate and Elena either. In fact, the first time I got whumperflies was during a scene with an Englishman named Charlie. Early on in the game, he’s shot with a dart which causes anxiety and paranoia – something that doesn’t help with the claustrophobia he’s already experiencing (because apparently treasure hunting involves a lot of crawling around in small spaces…couldn’t have mentioned that to him sooner, could you Nate?). While under the influence of the fear-inducing drug, Charlie is gently encouraged forwards by Nate who stays close to him as they squeeze through tight cracks in a cave and continuously reassures him, “you’re gonna be alright buddy. You’re alright. Take it easy,” in a voice that I would love to hear used for all of my whumpees from now on.
As a little bonus, this whump then leads to Nate being whumped as Charlie, overwhelmed by his fear and convinced he’s been taken prisoner, snaps and attacks Nate. Even as you try to fight him off, he starts to strangle Nate and has to be talked down by another friend, Chloe, who I’ll discuss more later. There’s some coughing and spluttering as Nate is released, and even a croaky voice which is too often missing from the aftermath of choking scenes. The only thing missing from that scene is the hand-shaped bruising around his neck, but as visual injuries are almost over skipped over in mid-2000s video games – *sighs* – I won’t hold that against them.
Now I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is yes – Nate is also affected by the fear-inducing drug during the game. He’s shot with a dart about midway through the game and becomes so afraid of Elena and Sully that he can’t help but run away. The gameplay in this scene is excellent, with slow motion and motion blur used to show how disoriented Nate is. He flees through the busy streets of an unfamiliar city, becoming more and more anxious all the while a voice tries to reassure him that “it will all be over soon”. This scene turns out to be a drug-induced hallucination, and as he returns to his senses he finds himself in the hands of this game’s villains having told them everything he knows about the treasure they’re after. After an escape attempt which ends with him being knocked out, he’s recaptured, tied to a chair and beaten by mercenaries in a scene that should be nice, but it’s too short and very little actually happens before Nate once again makes his escape. Seriously Nate, I’m really glad that you’re ok but can’t you hang around just a little longer to give us whumpers what we want?
And very soon, the game is forgiven. After a shipwreck – which doesn’t contain any whump as far as I can recall so I’ll skip over it -, we have a nice comfort scene between Elena and Nate in which Nate staggers home, exhausted after an eventful 24 hours, and curls up on Elena’s lap, looking so drained and vulnerable that all I wanted to do during that entire scene was hug him. It’s also a nice little breather for him before things get really tough.
Now, remember that snow scene in the last game? The one with Nate staggering through the snow after a train crash, weakening with each step until he collapses? Well the writers must have loved that scene because this game has its own version – and this one is even better. There’s a plane crash which Nate manages to escape from unscathed. But he and the plane land in the middle of a desert. A desert with the sun beating down on them both, and with no signs of civilization… What follows is a long chapter of Nate attempting to traverse the desert, getting more and more exhausted as dehydration and heat exhaustion kick in. There are mirages, hallucinations and scenes of Nate curled up in what little shade he can find in an attempt to hide from the oppressive heat. You can really feel the hopelessness of the situation even as he forces himself to push onwards. It’s my favourite chapter of the entire game and one of the reasons I love heat exhaustion as a trope. When he finally finds civilization, it’s filled with enemies and the adrenaline kicks in. There’s a small part of me that wishes they’d been able to portray some of that exhaustion in the combat which follows, but that’s just me being picky.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
Now this is where my opinion of these games becomes much more complex. Where in the previous two games the whump has been a major contributing factor towards why I like them, Uncharted 4 is the odd one out – whump wise, there’s some but not much, but this is by far my favourite game in the franchise. It has so many of my favourite moments; climbing a clocktower in Madagascar, scrambling up cliffsides in the Highlands in Scotland, sitting on a sofa with your wife playing a game within a game. Yes, that’s right – you get to play Crash Bandicoot as Nathan Drake! Honestly, for me it’s those moments that make this game more memorable than its predecessors. It’s the game in the franchise that made me realise that I wasn’t just playing these for the whump anymore – I was playing them because I cared about Nate, and I cared about where the story was going to go.
Of course, that didn’t stop me from enjoying the whump – it just made the whump an added bonus.
We also have a new whumpee in this game in the form of Nate’s brother, Sam, who Nate has long thought dead. In reality, Sam has been in prison for the past fifteen years but now reaches out to Nate, who has given up the adventuring game, with a treasure hunt. Just like the good old days. I won’t go into a lot of detail with Sam’s story because it is arguably the biggest twist in the entire franchise – or at least the one that got the biggest gasp from me as I played through the games. So all I will say is that, at least in my opinion, Sam makes a very good whumpee.
The whump, admittedly, is rather slow to start. There are some fights throughout the first half of the game in which Nate gets beaten up, but there aren’t really any consequences and they are pretty short. The whump really starts about a third of the way through the game with a car crash which leaves Nate trapped in an upturned car which is slowly catching fire. It’s a short scene, admittedly, but between the few moments of disorientation when the car stops rolling and the pained expressions as he worms his way out of the car, it’s a nice little scene and I enjoyed it.
The car crash is the beginning of a few chapters of fairly steady whump moments. Not long after this, there’s a boat crash in the middle of a storm, and we join Nate dragging himself out of the ocean looking cold, exhausted and drained. For about ten minutes, Nate stumbles along the shore of an island in a search for Sam, who was also on the boat. This is a chapter much like the desert one in the previous game, where you can really feel how cold and miserable he is. There’s even one part in which he’s clambering up a cliffside in order to get to higher ground, and his grip fails. He falls from the cliff and lands hard on the ground, passing out from exhaustion. I love chapters like this one; in some ways they’re better than the rest of the whump in these games because you get to fully experience their struggle. It’s not like some instances in which injuries disappear as soon as the cutscene is over.
There’s one more instance of whump in this part of the game, and this time it’s for both Sam and Nate. There’s a standoff between them and this game’s antagonists at the edge of a cliff – which is just asking for trouble, really. There’s a gun being waved around and things are very quickly getting out of hand. As Nate is about to be shot, Sam jumps in front of the gun and takes a bullet in the shoulder. But, and here’s the kicker, the impact of the bullet forces him backwards into Nate, who falls from the cliff, hits his head and passes out. In the final moments before a flashback, Nate is found by Elena, unconscious and bleeding. By the time we see them next, Elena is cleaning his wounds and he seems much more coherent. It’s a nice scene between the two of them and a good way to slow down the pace after a tense couple of chapters.
Unfortunately for Sam, we don’t get many consequences from his injury other than a blood-soaked bandage around his upper arm. But with Sam, I’ll take what I can get.
The final instance of whump in this game is once again a Sam moment. He’s pinned under a beam following an explosion, on a boat which is on fire. After a fight with the main antagonist, Nate attempts to rescue his brother but is unable to move the heavy wooden beam. There are a few moments of genuine panic in which Sam tries to insist that Nate leave him behind, and because it’s right at the end of the game I was so nervous that this would need to happen. Luckily Nate is able to come up with an idea to rescue Sam – rupture the side of the boat in order to fill the room with water, allowing Sam a way to escape. It’s a really great scene, but I just wish there were actual injuries from being pinned instead of Sam being able to walk and swim away with ease. Plus, as the cavern they found the boat in is starting to collapse, we could have had a great scene of Nate trying to swim while supporting Sam, trying to get both of them to safety before they’re trapped.
But no such luck.
And so ends the final chapter of Nate’s story. It’s been a long, whumpy journey which I’ve really enjoyed. But don’t worry, we’re not quite done yet.
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
A lot of people I know who have played through the Uncharted franchise skip this game because it’s technically a spin-off which doesn’t feature Nate. And to tell you the truth, I did too for a long time because I love Nate and I loved the whump. I was also of the opinion that Nate was the person who made the Uncharted franchise what it was, and changing the main character just felt wrong. I also hadn’t been the biggest fan of this game’s characters in their previous appearances.
But honestly, I’m glad that I got around to playing it. It has some of my favourite puzzles in the entire franchise, and the scenery is so stunning throughout that you can’t help but pause and admire it – I have quite a few images saved on my laptop of beautiful shots within the game that I am seriously considering my background. It also has possibly my favourite relationship in the entire franchise.
This game features Chloe, a character from Among Thieves and Drake’s Deception, and Nadine, who was originally a villain from A Thief’s End on the hunt for the tusk of Ganesha. These are two characters who I never realised I needed to see together until now – there’s a lot of chemistry between them and seeing them grow from reluctant allies to friends to…well, there’s not any actual romance, but I like to think that it’s on the cards for these two.
They both whump very nicely too, with several instances of being punched, strangled or generally beaten up. What makes that more satisfying for me is that the game makes it very clear how capable they both are of fending for themselves; they can give as good as they get and that’s something that’s really important for me when it comes to ladywhump. There’s also a moment in which they get hit by a car as it crashes through a wall – which, admittedly, I had to really step back from because with the speed of that car and the flying debris, neither Chloe nor Nadine should have survived that. Welcome to video game whump – it’s not always realistic, and borders on just plain silly at points. But I’m not complaining, it’s a great scene.
There’s a great moment about halfway through the game in which Chloe is knocked unconscious while escaping from the game’s main antagonist – which is a very nice scene because Chloe and Nadine are overpowered and have no choice but to flee. Upon waking, she finds Nadine hovering anxiously over her, seriously concerned for her wellbeing. What’s even better, at least in my opinion, is that the concern doesn’t end there. Chloe is clearly struggling and in a lot of pain, and Nadine is quick to tell her to slow down. Even in the gameplay following this cutscene, Chloe is clutching at her ribs and her steps seem unsteady. At least until the game gets bored of that.
There’s another moment I want to talk about that isn’t particularly whumpy, but it has so much whump potential that I can’t hold back. Chloe, Nadine and a character from a previous game who joins them about two thirds into the game – I won’t spoil who – are left handcuffed to a statue in a room which is rapidly filling with water. Chloe, able to pick the handcuffs fairly easily, manages to free herself and Nadine, but before she can rescue the third person, they’re submerged. There are a couple of moments of minor panic before Nadine comes to assist with freeing them, and I was honestly a little disappointed that there wasn’t more peril in this. Can you imagine the potential? The panic from the person who’s trapped, afraid of being left to drown? The increasing desperation from the others as they realise how rapidly time is running out?
Maybe I’ll write that concept in fanfiction one day. Or maybe I’ll forget. Who knows.
Oh, and Chloe also crashes a car into a train in order to save Nadine. I don’t have much to say about that because I spent most of that scene thinking, “why aren’t you dead?!”
CONCLUSION
I think I’ve rambled on enough, so let me conclude here. If you want to play as a stoic whumpee, if you want to experience some of the fun moments I’ve mentioned here, or if you just want to play a great adventure franchise where you get to hunt for treasure and look at so many beautiful locations, I would highly recommend this franchise.
And if you’re not much of a gamer, remember that the film is coming out in February 2022 (if it doesn’t get delayed again). If it’s anything like the games, we whumpers are going to be in for a treat.
About the Author: Claire (she/they) is an avid gamer and has been since she was very young. Her favourite games include Dark Souls, Final Fantasy XV and Spyro the Dragon. You can find her under aravenwood for more of her writing, or as aravenwhumper on Tumblr.
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