The last thing that I thought I’d be writing about is Uncharted 5, but the latest PS5 spotlight ad sparked some speculation with a few familiar scenes and a character that looks a lot like Cassie Drake — daughter of Nathan Drake and Elena Fisher.
What we can say for certain about Uncharted 5 is that Naughty Dog is not developing it. The company stated in the past that Uncharted 4: Thief’s End and Lost Legacy were the last of the series it’d make. That means someone else is at the helm.
Here’s everything we know so far about Uncharted 5, from the release date and story to the gameplay and PC requirements.
Uncharted 5 release date
If Uncharted 5 is real and this was just a soft tease for the game, that means they’re past the conceptual stage and have moved on to fully developing it. However, that could mean anywhere between one to five years of development, depending on how deep this mystery team is into it.
Considering this was in a PS5 ad, it will likely launch on PS5. Since the Uncharted games eventually landed on PC, we can’t rule that out, but it’ll likely come after the console debut.
Uncharted 5 story
According to the brief clips, we might be following Cassie Drake in some tomb raiding escapades. I loved Uncharted 4’s ending, and I wouldn’t want that to be tarnished with a sequel of a gun-toting old-man-Nate, but his daughter is a different story.
In the PS5 ad, we see the protagonist loaded with a backpack and a torch, seemingly spelunking in a desert cave, discovering an artifact on a pedestal. It’s a very simple scene that reveals a few things. This is a feminine protagonist with blond hair — Cassie Drake matches this description. She’s a treasure hunter — Cassie Drake matches this description. She’s on a PS5 — Cassie Drake matches this description. Yeah, I buy it.
Cassie’s character has so much potential, and if Kaitlyn Dever comes back to play her, we’ll have some amazing talent to back it. Sure, the Drakes are legitimate treasure hunters now, but there’s bound to be some nefarious forces going after the same salvage. That’s an easy instigating plot point.
The real question is what fabled treasure are we going after? We went from El Dorado to Shambhala, then to Ubar, and finally Libertalia. What lost city will end up in ruins because of another Drake? Atlantis could be fun, or maybe even Aztlan, the mythical home of the Aztecs.
Uncharted 5 gameplay
The mechanics of Uncharted 5 are bound to be different from the previous games due to the presumed move to a new developer. But I do hope it’s able to recreate the incredibly smooth and versatile combat.
Cassie Drake should also play and feel a lot different from Nathan, who traditionally plays like a brawler and a swashbuckler. Don’t get me wrong, I still want some swashbuckling, but I can see Cassie prioritizing stealth more than her old man.
We see the protagonist carrying around a torch and a ton of tools on their back. This is a bit abnormal from how we see Nathan with his everyman’s half-tucked shirt and gun holsters. It’d be nice to see a more grounded approach to how Cassie Drake’s treasure hunter gets around.
I want the grappling hook back and maybe a small hand glider — those are my official requests.
Uncharted 5 PC requirements
It’s unclear what engine Uncharted 5 would be running on, but for all of our sakes, it should either be Naughty Dog’s or Unreal Engine 5. Let’s look at the current specs for Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection to see what kind of laptop you might need.
The minimum specs for Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection require you to have an Intel i5-4430 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 or AMD R9 290X GPU. The recommended specs include an Intel Core i7-4770 or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a GTX 1060 6GB or RX 570 GPU.
Considering that the best cheap gaming laptops can run laps around those specs, you might be good for Uncharted 5 with an RTX 3060 GPU. However, given that we are projecting the game to arrive anywhere from 1 to 5 years from now, the requirements could escalate if it’s on the latter part of that timeline.
Outlook
I’d love nothing more than to get my hands on an Uncharted 5, but we don’t actually know that this game is coming, and if it is, it’s likely not being developed by Naughty Dog. That leaves me with some hesitation. I don’t necessarily trust other companies to do what Naughty Dog can, but I am keeping an open mind. It would be really neat to see Bluepoint Games get a crack at it, especially since they’re responsible for the Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection.
Stay tuned to find out more about Uncharted 5, or whatever it may be called. Regardless, I doubt we’ve seen the last of the Drakes.
