The Game Awards 2016: Who Deserves To Win Each Category

19. Best Narrative - Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Nominations:

Firewatch

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

INSIDE

Mafia III

Oxenfree

Thanks to revisiting Drake as more of a family man, A Thief's End became a game about the rekindling of youth, how we can get lost in reminiscing and not looking forward, and all the regressive pitfalls that come alongside.

Naughty Dog don't break the fourth wall necessarily, but they ostensibly write a meta-narrative about Nate's longing for the 'good ol' days' of the original trilogy's events, before marrying that to the whims, intents and feelings of the player. The result is one of the most unique extensions of a video game narrative, where precisely because we've played through all of Nate's past adventures and have all sorts of personal memories for them, it meant we came into Uncharted 4 with a mindset mimicking his own.

It's nothing short of genius, and by proving they could make a fourth instalment of an otherwise concluded franchise - one that was fresh and a direct continuation of what went before - it proves precisely why Naughty Dog are so immortally special.