20 Things You Didn't Know About Uncharted

Uncharted fans: you owe Gears of War your gratitude.

Uncharted 2 Train
Naughty Dog

The Uncharted series is up there with the most important exclusive properties in Sony's stable. When the PS3 was struggling due to its ridiculously high price point, Drake's Fortune was a game that got many people onboard with the console, and since then, the franchise has delivered some of the greatest games across a variety of PlayStation hardware, from the underappreciated PS Vita to the mighty PS4.

But as is the case with most success stories, it hasn't always been smooth sailing.

Before Uncharted, Naughty Dog was known for its cartoony platforming games, and there were plenty of detractors who doubted they could make a polished third-person shooter. On top of that, the original game was a nightmare to develop: the PS3 was notoriously tricky to work with, and the studio had never made a game like this before.

There were plenty of stressful moments and lots of last-minute changes, but in the end, Uncharted became a smash-hit, a big crown jewel of the PlayStation family.

So, in honour of the series, let's delve a little deeper into this world of fortune hunters and cheesy one-liners, uncovering some of the behind-the-scenes treasures and interesting facts that you may not know about...

20. Sharpies And Highlighters Doubled As Sully's Cigar

Uncharted 2 Train
Naughty Dog

One of Victor Sullivan's defining traits is his deep love of cigars. There are many, many scenes throughout the series where he can be seen avidly chomping on one, but when shooting these moments, certain other items had to be used in place of a real cigar.

Over on their YouTube channel Retro Replay, voice actors Nolan North (Nate Drake) and Troy Baker (Sam Drake) once revealed that Richard McGonagle (Sully) doesn't actually smoke cigars. Still, during motion-capture sessions, a real cigar was used initially, but because it was in McGonagle's mouth all day, it eventually turned wet and unpleasant. Not nice - especially for a non-smoker.

As a result, the crew gave McGonagle Sharpies and yellow highlighters to stick in his mouth instead, which doubled as the cigar for filming purposes.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.