Fans are holding onto hope that there will be information on an Uncharted 5 release date. Considered one of the greatest video games ever made, Uncharted 4 was released in 2016, developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Seven years since its release, news has been dead silent on another instalment of the game franchise, however.
If you don't know what the game's about, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is an action-adventure game set several years after the events of Uncharted 3 wherein players control Nathan Drake, a former treasure hunter coaxed out of retirement by his presumed-dead brother Samuel. They search for clues to the location of Henry Avery's long-lost treasure.
Uncharted 5 release date speculation
As of writing, nothing has been revealed yet on an Uncharted 5 game. In an interview with Buzzfeed back in January 2023, Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann said the following about a potential sequel:
"For us, Uncharted was insanely successful — Uncharted 4 was one of our best selling games — and we're able to put our final brushstroke on that story and say that we're done. We're moving on."
While Uncharted 4 wrapped things up for Nathan's character, fans of the franchise hope to see more of the world's other characters such as Chloe and Nadine.
While Druckmnan seems to end all rumours on a fifth game, fans still haven't given up hope due to a small section of an advertisement called Live from PS5. The ad from Sony featured clips from games such as God of War Ragnarök and Horizon Forbidden West. However, at the end there was a brief clip featuring a young woman in what seems to be a tomb, blowing dust off an old relic.
With that little snippet, fans were led to speculate whether this was Cassie, the daughter of Nate and Elena introduced in the epilogue of Uncharted 4. As nothing hasn't been confirmed yet, we're yet to see who this woman is and what game Naughty Dog will be coming up with in the near future. For now, players can brainstorm what features they want to see in a potential Uncharted 5 game.
Five things we want to see in Uncharted 5
There are a couple of things players and fans alike want to see in a fifth instalment of the game.
Exploration of other characters
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+ 5As Nathan's story ends, people have been speculating who could take up his mantle in a potential fifth game. A lot of fans believe that Cassie could be the next lead character, the daughter of Nathan and Elena. This seems to be the most obvious choice as it can carry out the legacy Nathan left. However, fans would also love to see Chloe or Nadine adventuring again.
It would be nice to see the perspectives of other characters from the main cast of the franchise. However, taking a turn from this would give a lot more potential in expanding the world of the game. There could be more thrill and perhaps a better experience players could have by playing through a story that's completely different from what they're familiar with.
Skippable cutscenes
click to enlarge + 5While not having the option to skip cutscenes forces players to pay attention to the game's story, having these skips gives breaks to players. Despite cutscenes being able to hint at what a player should do next in a game, having the option to skip these allows them to figure out the game on their own, giving them their own experience of puzzle-solving and cherishing more of Uncharted's gameplay.
Character skin options
click to enlarge + 5When it comes to skin options, you'll be able to change up the clothing styles of characters such as Nathan, Samuel, Drake, Victor, Elena, Nadine, and Rafe. However, you won't be able to change the character's skin itself. Perhaps you want to use character skins such as characters from previous games. But this isn't actually possible, unlike the main trilogy.
Having character skin options would make the playing experience more fun for fans of the game since they get to further customise who they're adventuring as. In Uncharted 5, players hope that they could get back the character skins they loved in the previous games.
Improvements in loading
click to enlarge + 5While playing on devices such as the Steam Deck or on the PS4, some players have encountered excruciatingly long wait times during checkpoints. Some of these loading times reach up to four minutes, which can make one worry if the game is running well on their device or not. While it's understandable that the content of this game is quite a lot, these wait times may not exactly always be worth waiting for.
Hopefully, Naughty Dog can get this right in the next game they plan to release, so players wouldn't have to worry too much about their game running badly. Players should only have to wait for a couple of seconds to at most a minute or two for the game to load properly.
Adding supernatural elements or entities
click to enlarge + 5In Uncharted 4, players feel that the developers wanted to take a more serious tone, hence having to omit supernatural elements in the fourth game. Despite the game aiming to be grounded in reality, a lot of players truly appreciated the fantasy that came with the main trilogy of the Uncharted series.
Seeing supernatural elements or entities return in a fifth game doesn't sound too bad, as long as Naughty Dog executes its ideas well. While we still have no news on what a fifth game could have, there's still a lot of room for ideas that could make curiosities in the next Uncharted game more alluring.
That's all for now on the Uncharted 5 release date and what we'd love to see. For more content like this, feel free to check out our other pieces such as our Bloodborne 2 release date speculation and our Dark Souls 4 release date speculation article.