Colombia

Lore & Background

Colombia in *Uncharted: Drake's Fortune* is portrayed as a lush, untamed wilderness hiding the secrets of the lost city of El Dorado. The game opens with Nathan Drake recovering Sir Francis Drake's coffin from a sunken English warship off the coast, leading him to the Colombian jungle. Here, Drake discovers clues pointing to the golden idol, but also encounters the first signs of the game's supernatural threat—the mutated descendants of Spanish conquistadors.

In Their Own Story

The rain hammers the canopy as Nate wipes mud from his face. Elena's camera clicks, capturing the crumbling stone archway. 'This is it,' he mutters, pulling a tarnished cross from the moss. A distant roar—not an animal, but something worse—echoes through the trees. Sully's voice crackles over the radio: 'Find anything, kid?' Nate smiles, pocketing the cross. 'Just the start of a very bad day.'

Reader's Guide

Colombia serves as the opening act of *Uncharted: Drake's Fortune*, introducing players to the core gameplay loop of exploration, climbing, and combat. The level design is inspired by real Colombian geography, featuring dense jungle environments, crumbling Spanish colonial ruins, and fast-flowing rivers. Key set-pieces include a frantic chase through the jungle on a quad bike, navigating treacherous rapids in a jet ski, and the first encounter with the game's mutated enemies in a hidden temple. Environmental storytelling is woven into the ruins, with Spanish inscriptions and scattered artifacts hinting at the fate of the conquistadors who sought El Dorado. The traversal challenges emphasize verticality, with vines, ledges, and crumbling structures requiring careful timing and route-finding. The jungle also introduces the game's cover-based shooting mechanics, with enemies using the dense foliage for ambushes.

Did You Know?

• The opening sequence in Colombia was inspired by real-world treasure hunting in the Amazon basin.
• The jet ski river chase was one of the first set-pieces designed for the game to showcase dynamic water physics.
• The mutated enemies encountered in Colombia are based on the real-life legend of the 'Guardians of El Dorado' from Spanish colonial lore.
• The game's depiction of Colombia was praised for its lush, vibrant jungle visuals, which set a new standard for the PlayStation 3.