Every Uncharted Game, Ranked

Uncharted is, without question, one of the biggest PlayStation franchises ever. While it has more or less been dormant for the better part of the past decade, during the PS3 era, Uncharted became PlayStation’s flagship series and helped make developer Naughty Dog one of the most well-known studios in the world. It went on to receive new games on the PS Vita, PS4, and was eventually adapted for the big screen with none other than Tom Holland in the role of protagonist Nathan Drake.

In total, there are currently eight Uncharted games that have appeared across a multitude of platforms since the franchise kicked off in 2007. Ahead of the inevitable Uncharted 5, here’s every current installment in the Uncharted series from worst to best.

8. Uncharted: Fortune Hunter

When I said we’re ranking every Uncharted game, I really meant every Uncharted game. Uncharted: Fortune Hunter is a free-to-play mobile title that launched in proximity to Uncharted 4. Rather than focus on the fast-paced action found in the main Uncharted series, Fortune Hunter was all about solving puzzles. And while it takes the final spot in this Uncharted ranking, the simple puzzle gameplay was actually pretty good.

Unfortunately, Uncharted: Fortune Hunter has since been delisted, meaning that it can’t be downloaded and played on mobile platforms any longer.

7. Uncharted: Fight for Fortune

Uncharted: Fight for Fortune is definitely the weirdest Uncharted game. Released in 2012, Fight for Fortune is a digital card game that features famous heroes and villains from the mainline series as cards that you can collect and do battle with. It was also exclusively available for PlayStation Vita, which explains why you may have never heard of it.

Despite being a truly bizarre idea, Fight for Fortune featured some pretty engaging gameplay. Sadly, being gridlocked to Vita kept it from ever finding much of an audience, which led to support coming to an end rather quickly.

6. Uncharted: Golden Abyss

Here’s where we get into the real Uncharted games. Golden Abyss was the first Uncharted game developed for Vita and was the platform’s biggest launch title. Serving as a prequel to the first Uncharted, Golden Abyss follows Nathan Drake on one of his earliest adventures alongside some new companions not seen in other entries.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss is actually an extremely impressive game and greatly adapted the experience from the PS3 titles to a handheld device. What keeps it from ranking higher is that much of Golden Abyss feels like a retread of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, especially in its look. This, combined with some awkward gameplay mechanics and controls that were tied to the Vita as a system, keeps it firmly entrenched beneath the home console games.

5. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

The game that started it all, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune does a lot of heavy lifting. Not only does it establish Nathan Drake, Victor Sullivan, and Elena Fisher as the main characters within the series, but it created the framework and tone for the series that would later be built off of the ideas seen in Uncharted 1.

Drake’s Fortune isn’t a bad game by any means and is still the Uncharted entry that everyone should begin with. Still, it’s hard to rank it higher in this list given that just about everything that is found here was later improved upon in one way or another.

4. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

The one Uncharted game to not feature Nathan Drake in a major role, The Lost Legacy proves very much capable without him. Centered around side characters Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross, The Lost Legacy is more or less a much shorter version of Uncharted 4, as it originally began as DLC for the PS4 game.

Despite being a smaller-scale Uncharted title, Naughty Dog got quite experimental with The Lost Legacy, which was much to the game’s benefit. Its vast, open areas and optional side content were unique and helped evolve Naughty Dog’s open design concepts which were eventually expanded upon in The Last of Us Part II. In spite of its positives, though, The Lost Legacy fails to have a major and memorable action sequence that many other Uncharted games are known for.

3. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Uncharted 3 really tries to prove that bigger is better. Its setpieces are more bombastic and over-the-top than ever, with Drake finding himself dangling out of cargo planes and attempting to escape capsized cruise ships. Beyond this, it leans further into the mystical elements of the series more than before, making it one of the memorable on more fronts than one.

What’s most impressive about Uncharted 3 is that it intertwines these moments with ones that are more heartfelt than ever before. Although its pacing is off at times, especially in the final hours, Uncharted 3 is without question one of the high points of the series.

2. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

Uncharted 4 really should be the best game in the series, but it has just a bit too much holding it back. From a pure gameplay perspective, this is Naughty Dog at its best. New features like the grappling hook work perfectly in tandem with the game’s expanded playgrounds, which let you take on combat situations in ways that previous games couldn’t allow for.

The only major downside to Uncharted 4 is that its runtime is a bit more bloated than other games and can definitely be felt, especially on repeat playthroughs. Additionally, as great as Sam Drake is as a new character, the concept of Nathan Drake having a secret brother that he never once talked about in past games is something that still doesn’t make sense. Even with these caveats, Uncharted 4 packs more of an emotional punch than any other game and is an excellent send-off for Nate.

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted 2 is undoubtedly the best game in the Uncharted franchise. While future entries would refine the gameplay mechanics and improve the visuals, Among Thieves is the best-paced Uncharted entry of the bunch and never lets up throughout its 12-hour runtime. It’s the best mix of gameplay and story not only in the Uncharted saga, but in video games as a whole.

Without Uncharted 2, Uncharted as a whole would never have become the iconic pillar of PlayStation that we know it as. Its importance to the action-adventure genre cannot be understated and it still holds up phenomenally to this day despite being almost 20 years old.