Uncharted’s best set pieces work because they are more than cinematic interruptions: they let players take part in a spectacle while advancing the story. But they demand custom technology, scripting and integration. Former Naughty Dog designer Benson Russell later argued that Uncharted 3’s push to add more made the game less even; his is a retrospective design judgment, not a measured verdict from players as a group.
What counts as a set piece in Uncharted?
There is no formal definition in the cited production accounts. For this article, a set piece means a conspicuous, authored sequence built around a major action or spectacle beat: a collapsing structure, a moving train or another event designed to feel larger than routine traversal and combat.
The defining craft challenge is to make that spectacle playable. A cutscene can show a dramatic event, but an Uncharted set piece often asks the player to move, aim, climb or react while the world changes around them. It also has to connect to the level and story around it, rather than exist only as a dramatic image.
How Uncharted 2 made spectacle playable
A small moment suggested a bigger approach
In his 2010 Uncharted 2 postmortem, designer Richard Lemarchand described the goal as creating an “actively playable” blockbuster experience that kept the player in control. A moment in the first game helped inspire that aim: after the player shoots an explosive, a truck falls from a broken bridge. The team wondered how it could make more cinematic moments playable instead of taking control away. Lemarchand’s postmortem explains the ambition and the production work behind it.
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The train required technology as well as scripting
The train sequence was not simply a cinematic idea placed into a level. It required a chain of cars moving through streamed environments, along with a dynamic-object traversal system that let Drake, allies and enemies use their abilities on moving objects. That system also supported other scenes, including the collapsing hotel and smaller collapsing-balcony moments.
The work took substantial time and needed to begin early with the right staff. Evan Wells, then Naughty Dog’s co-president, described the scripting burden in a 2009 interview: “In order to get all those real big set pieces it requires a lot of custom scripting of events every moment of the way.” He was referring not only to major action but also to small environmental details. Wells’s interview makes clear why a sequence can involve far more than one spectacular animation.
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Production figures show the planning context
Lemarchand framed Uncharted 2 as a 22-month creation in his postmortem. A 2010 GameSpot report on his DICE presentation described a six-month preproduction period within that cycle, during which a macro-design spreadsheet grew to 70 rows. The report also said Lemarchand described the finished game as deviating from that macro design by 5 to 10 percent. Those figures are accounts of the planning process, not an independent project audit; they illustrate how much structure and iteration sat behind a game whose action can feel spontaneous. GameSpot’s report provides the details.
Why adding more set pieces became a concern
Former Naughty Dog designer Benson Russell recalled a different planning emphasis for Uncharted 3. In his account, the first two games had been planned with one or two major set pieces in mind, with story taking priority. He remembered the Uncharted 2 train as the one set piece devised before development properly began; the technical work it required then informed other uses of moving objects.
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After the success of those sequences, Russell said an Uncharted 3 brainstorm put roughly 10 or 12 ideas on the board. He expected a later meeting to narrow the list, but recalled that the team instead tried to realize ideas until time or technology forced some aside. Russell’s view was that the result emphasized adding set pieces rather than making fewer ones stronger and better integrated, and that the story writer, Amy Hennig, had to accommodate a sequence. Looking back, he said, “I think that was a big flaw, trying to design that way.” That is Russell’s retrospective interpretation, not a definitive count of what shipped or a statement of consensus across the studio.
The production mechanism behind his criticism is understandable: each bespoke sequence needs time, scripting and integration, and the story must make room for it. If a sequence is treated as a requirement before the narrative has a reason for it, spectacle can start to dictate the story rather than express it.
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Why pacing needs peaks and quieter stretches
High intensity depends on contrast. In a GameSpot interview about Uncharted 4, co-writer Josh Scherr said the team wanted more quiet, introspective moments than in earlier games: “We don’t want to stay at 11 the whole time, because it’s exhausting and also where do you go from there?” The line is Scherr’s, not co-writer Neil Druckmann’s. GameSpot’s interview sets out the team’s thinking about intensity.
Naughty Dog’s description of its 2017 GDC session similarly says the Uncharted 4 team wanted to complement “larger than life destinations and set pieces” with quieter, more intimate exploration and character-building moments. The session focused on cinematic environment production, from concept through polish. Exploration and conversation can therefore do distinct narrative work; a quieter section is not automatically empty space between action scenes. Naughty Dog’s GDC session description describes that production approach.
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Fewer sequences are not automatically better, either. In the same GameSpot interview, Druckmann said that cutting a sequence late and stitching the game together without it could risk harming pacing and story. A late cut may remove a transition or story beat that other scenes rely on. The useful question is whether a set piece earns its place, changes or develops the story, varies the rhythm, and can be completed and polished with the resources available.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.A practical way to judge a set piece
The production accounts suggest five useful questions when comparing sequences or games. This is an editorial framework, not a published Naughty Dog scoring system.
- Does it grow from the story? Look for a narrative reason the event happens, rather than an action idea the story must simply accommodate.
- How much control does the player keep? Consider what the player actually does during the spectacle, not just what the camera shows.
- Does its technology or mechanic support more than one moment? The train work also enabled other moving-object scenes; technology with broader use can make ambitious sequences more valuable to production.
- What is its intensity relative to the scenes around it? A peak has more impact when the game gives it contrast through exploration, traversal or character interaction.
- Are its production demands justified by what it contributes? Custom scripting and integration are worthwhile when the sequence serves play and story, not merely when it increases the spectacle count.
Is there such a thing as too many?
These accounts do not establish a universal limit or a quantified player-fatigue rate. Russell’s criticism concerns how Uncharted 3 was planned, while Scherr’s comments explain why the Uncharted 4 team valued changes in intensity. Together, they support a narrower conclusion: set pieces can lose force when they crowd out contrast, strain production time or make the story serve a checklist. The number alone cannot settle whether a game has too many.
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