20 Things You Didn't Know About Uncharted

19. Uncharted 2's Story Was Originally More Linear

Uncharted 2 Among Thieves
Naughty Dog

Uncharted 2's opening sequence - where Nate is trapped inside a train that's hanging off the edge of a cliff - is one of the most iconic video game intros of all time.

After Nate climbs the train and reaches solid ground, the game flashes back to a meeting between him, Chloe Frazer and Harry Flynn, before flashing forward to the present, where he has to navigate the massive wreck in front of him.

After another flashback (featuring a sexy scene between Chloe and Nate) and another bit of train wreck platforming, the game flashes back for a final time, and the rest of the story builds to reveal how Nate ended up dangling from a crashed train.

This type of non-linear storytelling is something you don't see a lot in the action-shooter genre, but it works really well here.

Interestingly though, Naughty Dog had originally planned to keep things simple, with a linear three-act narrative. The decision to start the game with the train sequence wasn't suggested until late in development, by lead writer Neil Druckmann.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!