Foreshadowing

Uncharted Spoiler Warning. 

I decided that I should be respected as a gamer. I don’t play a vast quantity of games though, so that’s difficult. But I recently came to a point in my life where I could no longer justify respecting myself, much less expect it of others, without having played Uncharted. So with the assurance it would take me but a weekend to complete (by people whom apparently do not know me well at all), I played it. Oh, we have much to discuss. 

The first topic I want to tackle with Uncharted is its amazing use of foreshadowing. This is a literary technique, used to hint at something coming later in the story. I’ve heard to it referred to in theatre as “the gun on the bed”. If a character places a gun on the bed at the beginning of the show, you know the gun will be used - aye, the writer/designer has a responsibility to use that gun at some point. Otherwise, you’re teasing. Uncharted did not tease. 

Halfway through the game, the player begins to notice skulls placed on poles around the island. “Surely,” you think, “the criminals we’re fighting wouldn’t do such a thing.” You’re correct, but you don’t know it yet. There are then traps set which must be avoided and Drake comments on how they weren’t set by the bad guys. Hint hint. 

As you venture further and further into the game, the itching feeling of something out of the ordinary creeps up on you. This is done through foreshadowing. Eventually, mutant/zombie Spaniards attempt to ravage you and you must fight them off with Nazi automatic weapons. Fun. 

The art of foreshadowing must be sensitively subtle. Subtlety is the very nature of foreshadowing - otherwise, you’re simply telling the reader what will happen. The reason I’m writing this post is because Uncharted does subtlety so very well. I rarely see the technique used in gaming anyway, but here, it works to introduce an entirely new and difficult enemy. And here’s why foreshadowing is important - if they hadn’t set it up, those mutant zombies would have been dumb as hell, right?

That’s what foreshadowing does for a story element. It allows is a little breathing room, some time to settle in the player’s head-space. By the time those mutants appeared, you were prepared for “something” and those mutants fit the bill. Gradual reveal. A little taste here and there and before you know it, you’re swallowing medicine and calling it sugar. 

The lesson to take away here is that if you have something that seems to come out of the blue in your story/game, use foreshadowing to allow the player/reader to figure it out for themselves. Either they will and they’ll be proud, or they won’t, and will think how cool it was that the pieces finally fit together.