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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Uncharted’s best-known action sequences work because they are more than cinematic interruptions: the player keeps making decisions while the world changes around them. But building that kind of spectacle takes bespoke technology, scripting and story work. A former Naughty Dog designer later argued that trying to add more set pieces to Uncharted 3 made the game less even, not more effective. The tension is between making each sequence playable and memorable—and making sure it belongs in the game around it.
What counts as a set piece in Uncharted?
There is no formal definition from Naughty Dog in the sources discussed here. For this article, a set piece means a conspicuous, authored sequence built around a major action or spectacle beat: a train journey under fire, a collapsing structure, or another event that gives a stretch of play a distinctive shape.
The important distinction is that a set piece is not just a dramatic image or explosion. In Uncharted 2, the ambition was to make blockbuster moments “actively playable”—to keep the player involved rather than take control away for a long cinematic. That aim grew out of a smaller idea in the first game: after the player shoots an explosive, a truck falls from a broken bridge. Richard Lemarchand recalled that the team wondered how it could create more moments like that while preserving player control in his 2010 Uncharted 2 postmortem in Game Developer.
How did Uncharted 2’s set pieces get built?
Start with a playable event, not just a shot
A sequence that lets the player act while the spectacle unfolds needs more than a camera move. The game must handle movement, hazards, enemies and environmental changes without losing the player’s sense of control. Evan Wells, then Naughty Dog’s co-president, described the labor involved in a 2009 Joystiq 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 said this applied both to major action and to smaller environmental details.
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Build technology that supports the sequence
The train in Uncharted 2 illustrates how closely spectacle and systems work can be linked. Lemarchand’s postmortem describes a chain of train cars moving through streaming environments, alongside a dynamic-object traversal system that let Drake, allies and enemies use their abilities on moving objects. The team could then apply related work elsewhere, including the collapsing hotel and smaller collapsing-balcony moments.
That is a useful test of a sequence’s production value: does the work enable only one spectacular moment, or does it create tools and interactions that can serve other parts of the game too? Reuse does not make a sequence effortless, but it can give substantial technical investment a wider role.
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Plan early, then integrate the event
Lemarchand described Uncharted 2 as a 22-month development effort. A 2010 GameSpot account of his DICE presentation says preproduction took six months and concluded with a 70-row macro-design spreadsheet. The same report says Lemarchand put the final game’s deviation from that macro design at 5 to 10 percent; that figure is his reported account, not an independent project audit.
Those numbers help explain why an elaborate sequence cannot simply be dropped into a nearly finished game without consequences. It needs time for design, implementation and polish, plus a place in the larger flow. Wells’s account of custom scripting and Lemarchand’s description of early planning show that the spectacle is a production commitment as much as a dramatic idea.
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Why did Uncharted 3’s approach raise a “too many” concern?
Former Naughty Dog designer Benson Russell recalled a change in emphasis across the trilogy in an interview with FRVR. In his recollection, the first two games began with story as the priority and one or two major set pieces in mind. He said the Uncharted 2 train sequence was the one set piece devised before development properly began; its technical demands then informed other uses of moving objects.
After Uncharted 2 succeeded, Russell recalled an Uncharted 3 brainstorm that put “10 or 12” ideas on the board. He expected the list to be cut down at a later meeting, but said the team instead tried to realize ideas until time or technology forced some aside. That is Russell’s retrospective recollection of a brainstorm, not a count of sequences that shipped.
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Russell’s criticism was not that spectacle itself is a mistake. He argued that pursuing more set pieces, rather than stronger and better-integrated ones, made Uncharted 3 feel uneven and required writer Amy Hennig to accommodate a sequence. In his words: “I think that was a big flaw, trying to design that way.” This is one former designer’s judgment, not a documented studio-wide consensus or a measured verdict from players.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why does pacing need quieter stretches?
Intensity needs contrast
In a GameSpot interview about Uncharted 4, co-writer Josh Scherr explained why 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?” His point is about dramatic range: if every stretch is treated as a peak, the game has fewer ways to make the next peak feel distinct.
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Naughty Dog’s official description of its 2017 GDC session on cinematic environments makes a related point. The team wanted to balance “larger than life destinations and set pieces” with quieter, more intimate exploration and character-building moments. Those sections can give a player room to notice a place, understand a relationship or absorb what just happened; they are not automatically filler between action scenes.
But cutting a sequence can create its own problems
In the same GameSpot interview, Neil Druckmann said removing a sequence that was still coming together late in Uncharted 4 could risk damaging pacing and story when the team had to stitch the game without it. That complicates any simple rule that fewer set pieces are always better. A sequence may be expensive and still serve an important connective or narrative purpose; cutting it can leave a gap that is difficult to repair.
How can you judge whether a set piece earns its place?
The production accounts suggest five useful questions for evaluating a major sequence. This is an editorial framework drawn from those accounts, not a published Naughty Dog rubric.
- Does it grow from the story? A sequence should reveal character, change circumstances or make the surrounding narrative more legible—not merely arrive because the game needs another spectacle.
- How much control does the player keep? The Uncharted 2 ambition was to make blockbuster moments actively playable. Consider whether the player is still navigating and responding, or only watching.
- Does its technology or mechanic do more than one job? The moving-object work associated with the train also supported other scenes. Reusable systems can make a large investment more consequential.
- How does it change the rhythm around it? A peak has more impact when exploration, traversal or character interaction gives it contrast—and when the game has room to recover afterward.
- Are its production demands justified by what it contributes? Bespoke scripting and integration consume time. The sequence needs to offer enough in play, story or both to justify that cost.
Is there a proven number of set pieces that is too many?
No number is established by these accounts. Russell’s “10 or 12” refers to brainstormed ideas he recalled for Uncharted 3, not a verified inventory of the released game. The sources also do not provide a quantitative player study measuring fatigue from set pieces. “Too many” is therefore best understood here as a design criticism: a sequence count can become a problem when spectacle is treated as a requirement, story has to bend around it, the rhythm loses variation, or the production work cannot be integrated successfully.
The practical question is not whether a game has a high or low count. It is whether each major sequence remains playable, serves the story, earns its production effort and leaves room for the changes in intensity that make action matter.
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