Jonathan Cooper, an animator for Naughty Dog, tweeted a gif of Nathan Drake in "Uncharted" 4 taking on a hail of fire like he was running through the rain. The accompanying description talks about how he learned only upon joining the team that Drake doesn't actually get hit when the red bars of the HP indicator are onscreen.
Those little red bars represent Drake's luck slipping from him, bit by bit, before the lucky shot from an enemy eventually kills him and takes the player back to a checkpoint screen. This best explains why hiding from his opponents quickly heals Drake from what can usually be considered very grievous wounds; he was never hurt in the first place!
"Uncharted" creator Amy Hennig tweeted that such a representation of Nathan Drake's luck pays homage to a vast range of adventure films that have inspired the "Uncharted" series. At the same time, the mechanic does not take away from "Uncharted's" narrative, being explained by either Drake's extreme luck as a hero or the incompetence of his opponents. The similarities to movies such as "Raiders of the Lost Ark," with its narrative themes of adventure-driven exploration, have made “Uncharted” a valued brand that has solidified Hennig as a gaming industry great.
In an interview reported by VentureBeat, Hennig expressed concern about the viability of narrative games in the evolving gaming industry, saying that narrative-focused games might not be making back their money at their current prices, which are tied down by brick-and-mortar sales models.
"Uncharted 4," which was released back in 2016, is part of a franchise known for its narrative focus amidst the multiplayer shooters that were flooding the market at the time it was released. The same studio that produced it, Naughty Dog, was behind 2013's award-winning narrative action game “The Last of Us”.
