Uncharted and Puzzles

Title: Uncharted 2

Developer: Naughty Dog

Release Date: October 13, 2009

One series that is notorious for great puzzles is the Uncharted series. The puzzle I chose to discuss is in the chapter entitled Path of Light, where Nathan Drake is trying to get to a vault in the floor of a temple. In this puzzle, he manipulates lights as keys. There are limitations in this puzzle, where you can fall and would have to start over but overall it’s just fun. The player uses height to maneuver light throughout the single area.

The first beam of light is given to the player in the center of the room and is an indicator to what the player has to do throughout the area. In addition to that, the narrations seamlessly guide the player through the puzzle. This first light is moved by Nathan to point at a statue head. Once the player walks up to that head after a cut scene, there’s an instant interaction with the statue. The player will notice 3 blades that need to fall into the center of the room, having 1 blade already down as an indicator of what to do next.

The player is then prompted to climb the vertical blade that falls as a result of interacting with the statue head. Once climbing that blade the player would begin to climb a face. As they tried to move back and forth towards the eyebrow, a cut scene plays automatically, opening another path for the player to climb and another blade to fall.

After the player climbs, he will yell at his partner to move a light. That will set up the light to again be manipulated by the player, pointing towards another face statue across the room. The player will move over to that face statue, causing another automatic cut scene of another blade to falling in the center of the room.

Nathan will then climb the blades again, almost repeating the same steps but once he gets to the top, he climbs across the third blade. During this walk, a cut scene automatically goes with the final blade breaking in half. While it breaks, Drake saves himself and gives the player an opening for shooting another face statue that the light needs to go into after Drake adjusts the final mirror.

Once the light goes into the final area, the player will go towards that same final statue, seeing another cut scene of him using his key.

At that point, the player will open the hole he needs to jump down to finish the puzzle and get into the floor of the temple. This happens to be going down the throat of a statue head.

This puzzle is compelling because it’s built into the story and required for progression. If you haven’t played Uncharted 2 already, get a PS4 and pick up the Nathan Drake Collection.

Thanks for reading my post!

-Nastassia

Photo Source:

Path of Light - Uncharted 2. (2011, October 1). Retrieved from http://www.ign.com/wikis/uncharted-2-among-thieves/Path_of_Light