Uncharted tricked players with an unusual difficulty system. Now everything has been revealed

The first Uncharted used an unusual dynamic difficulty system that deliberately slowed down overly skilled players to extend the short campaign.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune holds an interesting secret. As former Naughty Dog designer Benson Russell revealed, the difficulty system was not so much for adapting challenges to player skill as it was for increasing the game's length.

Towards the end of development, the creators realized that without multiplayer, the campaign could be completed in about five hours. At a price of $60, this raised concerns. “We can’t sell a five-hour game for $60,” this approach forced Naughty Dog to find a solution.

Developers tested the game and determined the average completion time for each battle. If a player finished faster than average, the game increased the difficulty of subsequent encounters. The better they played, the tougher the enemies became.

Later, the system was changed. In Uncharted 2 and Uncharted 3, it adapted to the specific player's skills, rather than artificially slowing down their progress.