User:Bearsona/Nathan Drake/Notes

Nathan Drake

General facts

• Nolan North voices him.
• Japanese voice actor: Hiroki Tōchi.

Creation and design

• "The whole team, as well as myself, Amy, and Evan thought the reason characters like Han Solo (and his emotional twin, Indiana Jones) are likable is the fact that these characters constantly butt up against their frailty and often get in way over their head, barely finding a way out of predicaments. We can all relate to that! Couple this lovable trait with humor and a quirkiness about life, and you get a character you want to watch and play. (The kind of person you’d like to go have a few beers with.)" - E. Daniel Arey, former Naughty Dog creative director.
• "I honestly think that the key element, if you really want to boil it down, is characters. People will tell a story, but if it's not a character-driven plot then you are missing something. If you look at what's new and exciting about Uncharted 2, I think it's the characters and how they interact with each other that's so interesting" - Evan Wells, Naughty Dog Co-President.
• "Naughty Dog worked with the actors playing parts in Uncharted 2 for more than a year, two or three times per month. Not just recording sessions, but also table readings, which are uncommon in the games industry because actors must be paid for their time whether or not they're actually laying down audio. And, of course, budgets simply aren't as bloated as they are in Hollywood".
• "The bulk of software houses creating story-driven games record character dialog and then hire a motion capture actor to go into a studio and pantomime to the audio. In contrast, Naughty Dog approached Uncharted 2 as though it were theater, TV or film and hired actors who could do it all as if they were on stage. And then it actually did throw the actors together to see how they interacted".
• "Once we cast Nolan North as the lead, we always had him come in to read against the other actors to see how they would play off each other because we knew that they would be performing together in a more traditional acting role," said Wells. "That's a really important ingredient to how we got the performances that we did" - Wells.
• "Uncharted 2 marries writing, motion capture, facial animation and lip-synching flawlessly. Had the company sacrificed just one detail -- say, lip-synching -- everything would've fallen apart. As I played through the game, I found myself genuinely cracking up at some of the statements Nate made as he explored the terrain and fought enemies".
• "It really was just like shooting a TV show or a film where the performance that we got on the stage was the performance that went right into the game" - Wells.
• The game was made intentionally linear, allowing the story, character, and personality of Nathan Drake to be studied and developed more in depth and realistically - Neil Druckmann, lead designer on U2.
• "You guys are constraining the player, and there are a lot of developers who are all about letting the player do whatever they want. Obviously, that's not necessarily what you guys wanted with Uncharted.

• ND: That could work in something like GTA, where you're a criminal and a murderer and it's okay for you to run people over and shoot them. But that wouldn't be true to Drake's character. We have to contextually change what your mechanics are to make you feel like that character. You're not playing yourself. You're playing Nathan Drake, and everything you do has to be appropriate to Nathan Drake's character."
• "Another question I had is about creating a strong lead character. It sounds like a lot of it is keeping him within certain boundaries of what he would and wouldn't do. What else is there to creating that strong personality?

• ND: The thing with Drake is that he's a very strong character but a very grounded character. A lot of the stuff he does is what players would do themselves. And even the things he says. He has the same reactions as a lot of our players have. When he sees a building collapse, he's like, "Holy crap, we were just in that!" That's what the player is feeling. That helps us mirror at least some of the emotions that players are feeling.

• Also, what makes a character more rounded is contradiction. Here you have a guy who is a criminal and hangs out with criminals, but has a conscience. That's what differentiates him from Chloe or Flynn, to some extent. That contradiction is what makes him interesting and gives him depth.

• And surrounding him with interesting characters as satellites brings different characteristics of his personality out. Chloe is there for a reason. Elena is there for a reason. Flynn in there for a reason, and he has less altruistic emotions than Drake, whereas Elena pushes him the other way."
• "People have referred to him as a mix between Indiana Jones and Lara Croft. Do you think that's accurate?

• "ND: Yeah, we wanted to show a different side of Drake that you didn't necessarily see in the first game. In the first game, he starts out in these special circumstances where he's already out on an adventure and already on the island. You don't get to see him and what he does day-to-day."

• "Amy Hennig: Just a couple of years because we left the characters in sort of this Sullivan/Nathan/Elena snapshot leaving at the end of the first game, but we pick up a couple of years later and obviously things have changed. Drake's in a slightly different place in his life -- or back to the place he used to be. He's good at being the romantic lead and the hero when he's called to but probably not very good at human relationships back in the real world. He's better at being a little bit of a shady guy. And so, our starting point is that he's a little down on his luck at the beginning of this one -- again, not necessarily a darker place but back in the world he normally occupies -- and we sort of explore a little bit of how he got there and where he's going from there. Again, without the expectation that anyone had to have played Uncharted 1 to enjoy Uncharted 2, but for those that did play Uncharted 1, they'll get a lot more of those resonances". Amy Hennig.

• "Another challenge is, because we want the player to identify with Nathan Drake, we don't ever want to put the player in a privileged position like you could in a film. So for instance, we never can cut away and say, “Meanwhile back at the ranch here's what the vilains are doing.” The player doesn't see or experience anything that Drake doesn't. That makes the storytelling that much more complicated because we can't fill in information; all the exposition has to happen right there in the game" - Amy Hennig.

• "We didn't want our characters to be caricatures or cardboard cutouts. We wanted an emotional authenticity. That's why a Harrison Ford is more memorable than some forgettable actor in a forgettable film ... because he can create a character that seems believable. We wanted to tone back the squash-stretch exaggerations of nonrealistic characters and do something that's actually low-key and believable with the kind of depth you don't ordinarily see in a video game" - Amy Hennig.
• "1UP: OK, first off: Should we consider Nathan Drake to be a sociopath? I ask this because I realized that while I was playing Uncharted, it felt odd that he would be this charming everyman kind of guy, but he also killed about 400 guys by the time the game was done, and it's just something that's been in the back of my mind that I can finally ask...

• Amy Hennig: Yeah, it's funny -- it's actually a dilemma that we're going to face more in this medium now that characters are getting more well-rendered -- I mean in all forms, not just visual rendering -- in characterization, in acting, the performances, and all that stuff. I've heard some people refer to this as a sort of "uncanny valley of characterization." I'm not sure how we deal with it in the industry. Because you don't want to constrain yourself to saying, "well, we can only tell certain kinds of stories and games, and it's all got to be soldiers; they've all got to be hard-bitten, and it's all going to be post-apocalyptic and grim; there can't be any humor or any romance or anything like that because it's still a game, and you want to be shooting things and having combat.""
• "Bitmob: How did you guys decide, “OK, we want to make Drake so talkative” even when no one’s around to listen to him?

• AH: The fact that we’re a third-person action-adventure game means that he does have more of a tangible presence in the game than, say, in first-person games when you’re looking through the eyes of your avatar. So we already knew that he can’t be a silent protagonist for that reason alone.

• A lot of it has to do with making him relatable. The challenge with a character who speaks a lot is that you don’t actually want to alienate the player and make them feel like they’re a passive observer of this completely discreet entity. Even though they’re not necessarily embodying that character, we want them to identify with the character.

• We find that people identify with Drake a lot because he says what they’re thinking, or he says what they’re saying, at the exact same time when they say it. When he’s taking cover and makes some little comment to himself, people will laugh and say, “Oh my God, I said exactly the same thing at the same time he did!" - Amy Kennig.

Everyman

• "But Mr Lemarchand says hero Nathan Drake is more of an Everyman character than typical video game heroes" - Richard Lemarchand, lead game designer on first game.

• "We're looking at Drake in a t-shirt and jeans... how do we sell this guy? He's not Kratos and he's not a space marine, so how do you communicate this somewhat ambiguous message that if you buy this game you'll be playing a summer blockbuster?" - Amy Hennig.

• "ND: The thing with Drake is that he's a very strong character but a very grounded character. A lot of the stuff he does is what players would do themselves. And even the things he says. He has the same reactions as a lot of our players have. When he sees a building collapse, he's like, "Holy crap, we were just in that!" That's what the player is feeling. That helps us mirror at least some of the emotions that players are feeling" - Neil Druckmann, lead designer U2.

• "We worked hard to make Nathan Drake feel like a real person, and as grounded a hero as we’ve yet seen in video games, ” said Straley. “He’s not your typical video game hero, destroying 50 foot aliens in his armored space suit.”“He’s a real dude existing somewhere on this planet right now, dealing with the people he’s surrounded himself by, and the situations he finds himself in" - Bruce Staley, U2 Game Director.

Influences

• Used.

• Used.

Appearances

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

• In the first game, Drake seeks El Dorado, which turns out to be a large golden idol.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

• "Uncharted 2 follows Drake, a fortune hunter, on a quest around the world to find Marco Polo's lost fleet".
• "the story of Nathan Drake continues and this time, he is on a quest, started by Marco Polo, for the Cintamani Stone, a Buddhist sapphire with mystical properties in the legendary kingdom of Shambhala (otherwise known as Shangri-La)".
• "In this adventure, Drake seeks answers to the mystery of Marco Polo's lost fleet. Great riches and wisdom are tied to the fate of ships and treasure that left China with the famous explorer at the end of the 13th century, but did not arrive with him back home at his final destination. Although Marco Polo took the secrets of the lost ships and crew to his grave, Drake seeks answers on a journey through history, to the fabled Himalayan valley of Shangri-La. The key to the mystery may be a legendary sapphire, known as the "wish-fulfilling jewel." Magical properties or no, the billions of dollars the stone would be worth in modern markets should be enough to make nearly any wish come true. In addition to the main single-player story, the game features cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes. Among Thieves was developed by Naughty Dog, the studio that created the original Uncharted as well as other successful Sony-system exclusives".

Comic

• "The story will follow Drake as he teams up with a Daniel Pinkerton, an American who has become a big bad criminal in Indonesia. Now, Drake usually doesn't team with the really bad guys, but in this prequel he's trying to save up the money to raise Sir Francis Drake's casket. He's desperate and willing to do what he has to, according to Neil Druckmann, Naughty Dog co-lead game designer and the writer of these Motion Comics... The duo is on the trail of the Eye of Indra, but Sony's promising that a whole bunch of familiar faces from both games are going to pop up in the four-part adventure. A new love interest will play into the comics (Nate, you cad!), but the cast members you know and love from the games are on hand to reprise their roles and Naughty Dog even let them stick to the traditional format of improvising some of their lines" - Greg Miller, IGN.
• "Nathan Drake has more character contained in his movements and mannerisms than a hundred other PCs, and he keeps his weapons on his person, in plain sight" - Tom Cross, Gamasutra.

Reception

General

• "Nathan is a puppy of a protagonist, filled with primary emotions and perpetually ready to play fetch. There's an implicit peril whenever a character this willfully impulsive is at the center of a story. I get the sense he'll be able to get himself into the worst possible scenario if only given enough time to make a mess of things". -Mike Thomsen, IGN.

• "Seriously, Nathan Drake ought to consider a circus career. His leaping skills along cliffs, his ability to grapple from one precarious toehold to the next, often defies gravity" - Matt Slagle, FOXNews.

• "While the matinee plot is never less than entertaining, it’s the characters and locations that make Among Thieves such an enthralling ride. Drake, voiced with exceptional skill by Nolan North, is a terrific lead. His exploits spill into the shadier side of treasure-hunting –ably demonstrated by the aforementioned heist, a spectacular, stealthy early section of the game- but he’s an undisputable good guy. A handsome, roguish, all-American boy with a big mouth. By rights, Drake should be an annoying brat, but thanks to a script laden with wit and North’s expertly judged voicework, he’s one of the most rounded and likeable video game characters of a generation." - Tom Hoggins, The Daily Telegraph.

• "one of the most expressive video game characters ever created. Whether he's furrowing his brow in disbelief or rolling his eyes in frustration, we often know exactly how he feels even before he begins speaking" Chad Sapieha, The Globe and Mail.

• "The wisecracking Nathan Drake makes for a truly likeable protagonist" - Sam Kieldsen, Electricpig.

• "Drake is meant to be less an action hero than a plucky overmatched victim of circumstance" - Stephen Totilo, MTV.

• "Nathan Drake brings a humanity and believability never seen before in video gaming, enabled entirely through PS3 technology advancements" - Andrew Burnes, Voodoo Extreme.

• "Nathan Drake’s appeal as a videogame protagonist lies in the fact he’s just a regular bloke thrust in to extraordinary situations. Over the years, videogames have churned out a worrying chunk of intrinsically one-dimensional types endowed with unbelievable dexterity and strength – ideal for dispatching hordes of foes in high-octane fashion, but inherently useless from an emotional point of view. Not so with Drake. Throughout his adventures, our loveable treasure hunter displays on ample occasions that he is – as daft as the notion sounds – human; he’s not a near-invulnerable killing machine, and he certainly doesn’t always make the right judgment call. These factors alone facilitate Nate's universal appeal as a character whom anyone can relate to, and one that players can instantly embrace" - Mike Harradence, PlayStation Universe.

• "Charming rogue" - Nolan North.
• "Nathan Drake is light, flippant, and just plain fun" - Tom Cross, Gamasutra.

Lara Croft

• "I'd like to think he's his own character. Especially in Uncharted 2, he gets out there on his own. It's definitely cool to be compared. We're all fans of Indiana Jones and the Lara Croft games, but by now, we think we've carved our own niche and our own gameplay enough to stand out" - Neil Druckmann.

• "Drake's a nice guy, but Lara works alone. Also Drake's an Everyman, but Lara is one-of-a-kind" - Eric Lindstrom, creative director on Tomb Raider: Underworld.

• "3. Nathan Drake Is Cooler... You’d have to be mad to think that stuck-up English aristocrat Lady Croft is anywhere near as cool as Uncharted’s gung-ho American hero, and descendant of Sir Francis Drake, Nathan. Plus, Uncharted is a full on Hollywood blockbuster with some of the best platforming thrills and gun-toting spills currently available on the current-generation of consoles, outdoing anything the Tomb Raider has done to date" - Tom Hopkins, Now Gamer.

Indiana Jones

• "At first blush it would be easy to compare Nathan Drake, the treasure-hunting star of Sony's new adventure videogame "Uncharted" with "Tomb Raider's" Lara Croft. But Drake leaves Lara in the dust, delivering the Indiana Jones experience better than garners have ever seen it before, thanks to an intriguing plot, intense action, emotive graphics and the sort of true character development rarely found in a videogame" Brian Crecente, Variety.

• "The character of Nathan Drake is one you've seen before: he's Indiana Jones, he's Han Solo, he's whoever Nicholas Cage plays in those National Treasure films. A lovable rogue with just enough charm and luck to get out of the last scrape and into the next one" - Ben Kuchera, Ars Technica.

• "Protagonist Nathan Drake's face was hugely expressive and convincing, while his dirty clothes and stubbled face harked back to an Indiana Jones-style hero" - IGN Staff.

• "Expanding on that, Nate Drake is the type of video game character you'd want to sit down and have a beer with. Resembling Indiana Jones, you can't help but feel a connection there. His witty one-liners and likeable, slightly sarcastic attitude make him one of the best new video game stars to come along in age" - Ryan Olsen, Kombo.

• "ND: I'd like to think he's his own character. Especially in Uncharted 2, he gets out there on his own. It's definitely cool to be compared. We're all fans of Indiana Jones and the Lara Croft games, but by now, we think we've carved our own niche and our own gameplay enough to stand out."

Romancing the Stone

• "I couldn't quite put my finger on it personally, but my wife really nailed it. She compared it to "Romancing the Stone," the 1984 adventure film in which Michael Douglas plays a rugged bounty hunter in the vein of Uncharted's hero, Nathan Drake. Sure enough, outside of a grand finale involving emerald-swallowing crocodiles, it's certainly got the charm of that '80s gem" - GameSpy.

Violence

• "As a friend of mine pointed out, Drake hilariously transforms from a pacifist wary of harming museum guards to a guy who shoots down a helicopter in the middle of a crowded city with nary a thought of collateral damage" - Eric Wittmershaus, The Press Democrat.
• "Nathan Drake isn't a murderer, he's just a guy trying to save the world without getting shot. If that means sending a well-armed guard to his death, so be it" -

Robert Workman, GameDaily.

Attractiveness

• "Rakish adventurer Nathan Drake" - Lou Kesten, Newsfactor.

• Seraphina Brennan of Massively.com remarked that Nathan Drake is one of the few male video game protagonists not portrayed in a degrading, sexual manner.

• "Drake from Uncharted: Ruggedly handsome, athletic, witty and from what I can gather from Uncharted 2, sleeps around a lot. What’s not to like?" - Tuffcub, The Sixth Axis.

• "This is why we like Nathan Drake. This is why we like Solid Snake. We don't define these guys solely by what they want to put their penises into, but it certainly helps our understanding of them. Nathan's dealings with Elena Fisher, especially in Uncharted 2, contextualize most of his actions -- we see how much he relies on her and how far he's willing to go for her sake, and the conversations he has with both her and Chloe are a heck of a lot more entertaining thanks to the sexual, quasi-flirtatious undertones" - Anthony Burch, Destructoid.

• "With a pair of $800 sunglasses instead of an AK-47, Nathan Drake wouldn't have been terribly out of place on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood" - Greg Mueller, Shacknews.

• "Immaculately groomed" - Chris Plante, UGO Networks.

Film casting

• Nolan North would like to play Drake in the film, but said Hugh Jackman would be a better fit.
• "Even Nolan North isn't Nathan Drake. Nathan Drake is more than an actor; he's a larger than life character that I feel like I personally know through the games. No one should be playing these people because they already exist in the game and that's who they are" - Greg Miller, IGN.
• "Think Colin Farrell would make a decent Nathan Drake?" - Bryn Williams, GameSpy.
• Nathan Fillion. - Jem Alexander, Joystiq.