User:Bearsona/Nathan Drake

Nathan Drake, sometimes referred to as Nate Drake or simply Drake, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Uncharted series, created by Naughty Dog, and is a playable character in the two games in the series: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. He also appears in a series of motion comics entitled Uncharted: Eye of Indra, a prequel to the video games. Drake is voiced by actor Nolan North.

Naughty Dog designed Drake to resemble the heros of Pulp magazines, novels, and films. In an effort to make the character relatable to players, they gave Drake an everyman persona, with his costume consisting of a white or black t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Drake's persona derived inspiration from a variety of sources, including Johnny Knoxville and Harrison Ford, with aspects from other action-adventure characters drawn from. The directors gave North the opportunity to influence the character himself, allowing him to ad-lib lines and influence the direction of the character as well. Drake possess a strong personality, and often makes wisecracks and quips during the game. The designers gave him realistic reactions to his environments, so that he stumbles while running, just barely makes jumps, and recognizes how absurd the situations he finds himself in are.

Nathan Drake has been called the new mascot of the PlayStation 3, and is increasingly identified with the console. Many reviewers have called Drake a likable character, commenting that hey felt they knew him or that he came across as a regular, fun guy thrust into dangerous situations. His design and actions have drawn comparisons to many different film and video game characters. He is regularly compared to Lara Croft and Indiana Jones, and the similarities between them noted. Reviewers have also pointed out that Drake provides a rare example of a highly attractive character who is not exploited by designers and turned into eye candy or a sex object. GameDaily named Drake the third greatest gaming hunk.

Character design
Kory Heinzen did pre-visualization and concept design on Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and also performed character designs. He took the designs in a direction contrary to his previous work. His designs differed little from the finished character. The production staff drew great inspiration from pulp adventure genres when creating the game, and based Drake on the stereotypical characters of adventure films and novels, giving him wit, resourcefulness, and strong principles.

While creating the games in the Uncharted series, the Naughty Dog staff wanted the gameplay to develop the design and character of Nathan Drake. The designers hoped to evolve Drake through his reactions with his environment. They developed a wide range of animations for Drake which allow him to display his reactions and personality in context. His animations were designed to be fluid and believable; if an animation did not react as planned, or the reaction time took too long, the production team cut it out. The blended animation system in the game, where more than 30 animations comprised one movement, was implemented to make Drake a more relatable character. Further, the linear design of the game contributed to Nathan Drake's character, as player's were forced to see the world through his eyes, and not identify themselves as the main character.

The Naughty Dog staff drew inspiration from a number of sources in creating Nathan Drake. Drake's basic look and wit were based largely on actor and comedian Johnny Knoxville. Lead game designer Richard Lemarchand wanted Drake to reflect the "coolness and goodness" he saw in Knoxville. Series writer Amy Hennig described Drake as a gritty, charming mixture of Harrison Ford and Bruce Willis. She went on to say that Drake came in large part from romantic action-adventure heroes, including Cary Grant: "we even went back to the earliest movie serials, movies from the '30s and the '50s, and the more recent revivals of the action-adventure genre in the '80s, and even recently with movies like National Treasure. There are certain traits that a lot of those characters have in common -- that irreverent, roguish sense of humor, that charm". Robert Lemarchand, lead game designer, listed Doc Savage, Tintin, and John McClane as inspirations for the character. They modeled his physical prowess on Savage, while taking the vibrant color and globetrotting persona from Tintin.

When planning the protagonist of the Uncharted series, Naughty Dog wanted Drake to embody the everyman character. E. Daniel Arey, former Naughty Dog creative director stated, "I can tell you from our experience that there is a fine line between jerk and lovable rogue. We developed Nathan Drake determined to make him more human and accessible than most videogame heroes. Heroes can be cocky, (in fact, if they’re not, you run the equal risk of making them inactive and only reactive – the kiss of death), but if a hero constantly shows their human side, we relate and forgive any seeming overconfidence because we’ve all been there." The team further designed Drake's character to be very believable, reacting as an average person might. As Neil Druckmann, lead designer of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves stated: "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." Hennig commented, "when we set out to do Uncharted, we decided we wanted to tackle one of these beloved action-adventure games in the spirit of this whole tradition. We knew that in order to pull it off, we had to have a hero who was completely relatable, just a regular guy. So when people saw him and said "Why do I want to play a guy in t-shirt and jeans" that was a deliberate move on our part, to say look, he's just a guy. He's just like you and me." Josh Scherr, leader of the Uncharted: Drake's Fortune story sequence team, stressed that they created Drake as an "ordinary guy", who had no special powers, but rather got visibly nervous, just barely made jumps, and stumbled while running. The characterizations were meant to stress Drake as a frail character. Unlike many video game characters, he is not a master of hand-to-hand combat, but throws punches without incredible style or skill. Sam Thompson, producer of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, described Drake's martial arts abilities as "fallible." Sam Thompson, Sony Entertainment of America line producer mused that Naughty Dog had created very iconic characters before, including Crash Bandicoot. With Nathan Drake, the company wanted to produce someone more average, who did not possess the same amount of confidence, who was more realistic and humble.

Nolan North, the voice actor who played Drake, also had a large part in developing the character. Unlike in many games, the Uncharted series used the actual voice actors for motion capture, who acted out the scenes as if performing in a movie. Motion capture was done on a soundstage, so that the lines reciting while also acting out the script were used. During the process, North was allowed to ad-lib lines, and develop Drake in directions not originally in the script.

Drake's character design changed little between Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The programmers simply improved on the original design, making him more believable and giving him more realistic hair, while also developing the character further.

Personality
Drake has a strong personality, as the creators did not want him to come off as a caricature or "cardboard cutout." Series writer Amy Hennig choose to constantly develop Drake's character through in-game dialogue and interactions with other characters, rather than exclusively through cutscenes. Drake reacts to events in a human way, often commenting on the absurdity or difficulty of the situation he finds himself in. While traveling through levels, Drake frequently makes sarcastic quips and taunts. Matt Casamassina of IGN commented on the character interactions during gameplay that reveal Drake's nature: "it's lighthearted and amusing, but it also demonstrates that Nate is aware of how absurd his predicaments sometimes are. It's a small, unimportant communication, but it makes sense that the two would behave exactly as they do."

Drake says what he is thinking outloud, reacting to situations around him, a move designed to correlate with the likely thoughts and reactions of the player. Amy Hennig called Drake a "Die Hard guy that gets in there and just takes care of the situation; 'the fly in the ointment'". Nolan North was told to bring his own personality to the character while voice acting.

Outward appearance
Drake's outward appearance is fairly generic. Drake wears a simple white shirt and pants in the first game, and a black shirt in the second. Hennig - "We deliberately costumed him very simply, in his t-shirt and jeans, because we wanted him to be almost a blank slate, to give him the “everyman” quality we were going for. To give his motion a believable human quality, we created a layered-animation system that allows us to blend animations for an almost infinite variety of poses, reactions and emotions. And we gave him a very complex facial rig, and used wrinkle-mapping technology on his face, to give him a greater sense of emotional reality both during gameplay and in the cinematic cutscenes." He is in decent shape, but not amazing, muscular shape.

Drake underwent minor changes to his appearance in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Writer Amy Hennig stated that Drake was skinnier than intended in the first game, and thus the designers bulked him up for the second.

His shirt is always tucked in on one side, and untucked on another, an attribute which commentators have labelled the "halk-tuck". The term, first coined by video game designer Tim Schafer, has led to Naughty Dog altering Drake's appearance to have his shirt almost tucked in from the front, and half tucked in at the back, an inside joke Griffin McElroy of Joystiq labelled "three-quarters-tucked." Tim Schafer commented "It was all super next-gen, but the most next-gen thing about it to me was Drake's shirt. Check it out: Somehow it's tucked in, and yet not tucked in, at the very same time. Of all the technical marvels contained in Uncharted, this was the one that really mystified me."

Uncharted: Eye of Indra
Uncharted: Eye of Indra is a series of motion comics taking place before the first game. In an effort to raise the money necessary to raise Francis Drake's coffin, Nathan Drake works for an American turned Indonesian crime boss named Daniel Pinkerton. He seeks the fabled Eye of Indra in India. There, Drake meets Eddy Raja, who appears in the first game, and becomes romantically involved with his sister Rika Raja.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
As the game opens, Drake, accompanied by reporter Elena Fisher, recovers the coffin of his ancestor Sir Francis Drake, which he located from coordinates on a family ring he wears around his neck. The coffin contains the diary of Sir Francis Drake, which give the location of El Dorado. Pirates attack and destroy his boat, but Drake's friend Victor "Sully" Sullivan rescues the two. When Sully and Drake follow the diary to the indicated spot, they learn that El Dorado is really a giant golden idol, and that the Spanish had tried to remove it from the island centuries ago. After finding a U-boat, mercenaries led by Gabriel Roman intercept them and shoot Sully, but Drake manages to escape to an island that a page from Francis Drake's diary claims holds the idol.

On the way to the island, anti-aircraft fire forces Elena and Drake to bail out of the airplane. Drake heads toward an old Spanish fort to find Elena. Though briefly captured, Drake and Elena reunite and flee for the old customs house on the island. There they find that Sully has survived his gunshot wound. Drake discovers that the idol still rests near the custom house, and eventually finds and rescues Sully. However, he realizes that the idol is cursed, and turned the Spanish and Kriegsmarine searching for it into zombified monsters. Drake attempts to stop Roman from extracting the idol from the island, and arrives in time to see Navarro, a man hired by Roman to find the statue, trick Roman into becoming cursed. Drake then jumps on to the statue and rides it as it is airlifted to a boat in the bay. There he defeats Navarro and manages to sink the idol to the bottom of the ocean. Sully arrives and Elena and Drake leave the island with several small boxes of treasure, after displaying affection towards each other.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Drake returns as the protagonist of the second game in the series. A wealthy benefactor hires Drake, Harry Flynn, and Chloe Fraizer, to steal a small lamp from a Turkish museum. Between the games, Drake and Fraizer have developed a romantic relationship. Once in the museum, however, Flynn betrays Drake, leaving him to be imprisoned. Drake theorizes that the true goal of the theft was to discover the location of Marco Polo's lost fleet. Flynn brings the information obtained from resin found in the lamp to his boss, Serbian war criminal Zoran Lazarevic, who seeks the Cintamani Stone that the fleet was supposedly transporting. Once Fraizer and Sully secure Drake's release, he follows Lazarevic, and discovers that the fleet did not possess the stone, but had clues to the location of Shambhala. Drake heads to Nepal to find the next clue, though Lazarevic has initiated a civil war in the region in order to find the temple containing the clue. In the city, he finds Elena and her cameraman Jeff, who gets executed by Lazarevic.

Drake pursues Lazarevic and the discovered key to Shambhala, only to have the train they are on explode, leaving him stranded. He passes out after finding the key (a Kīla), he awakens in a Tibetan village, where he finds Karl Schäfer, a German who had lead a Schutzstaffel expedition to Shambhala, though he had killed them all to protect the world. Tenzin, a man who speaks no English leads Drake through an ice cave, where they are attacked by giant horned monsters. Lazaravic commences an attack on the village, kidnapping Shäfer. Drake and Elena track him to a monastery, where they find the entrance to Shambhala. Once inside, they discover that the monsters are guardians of the city, and are apprehended by Lazaravic, escaping when the guardians attack. Drake confronts Lazaravic at the Tree of Life, the sap of which comprises the Cintamani stone. Drake wounds Lazaravic, leaving the guardians to kill him, and returns to the village, where he and Elena kiss and begin a relationship.

Merchandise and promotion
In 2009, right before the release of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, a series of four urban vinyl toys based off Nathan Drake were released. Erick Scarecrow, founder of ESC Toys, designed the dolls in a number of colors; only 2500 were released worldwide. Reviewers were not enthusiastic about the design, calling it "freaky". Luke Plunkett of Kotaku commented, "while none of them have names, it appears there's Drake, Hellboy Drake, Berlin Nightclub Drake and Radioactive Drake."

Naughty Dog has also released an airsoft replica of Nathan Drake's gun, a Beretta m92f. In 2007, Sony ran promotional material in Empire Magazine which stressed Drake's everyman personality and showcased his close relations to film adventure characters.

Reception
Reception towards Nathan Drake has been mainly positive. Many comments have focused on the likability of the character. Tom Cross of Gamasutra called Drake a "lovable jerk" who is "light, flippant, and just plain fun", calling him a perfect caricature of a scoundrel. Stephen Totilo of Kotaku remarked that "the short take is that Nathan Drake has attitude without being a jerk, and he cheerfully but woefully gets in over his head. This helps make him charming rather than annoying." Comparing Drake to a character he found similar, Matt Casamassina at IGN claimed, "Nathan Drake, the hero in Naughty Dog's Uncharted 2, is more realistic, funny, charming, likable and altogether human in 30 minutes than Leon S. Kennedy is through an entire career of Resident Evil games." Rush Frushtick at UGO admitted that Drake may come across as a dick, but that he was a likable dick.

Commenting on the everyman angle given to Drake, Tom Hoggins of the Daily Telegraph called Drake's vulnerability "endearing", while Chad Sapieha of The Globe and Mail labelled him "one of the most expressive video game characters ever created." Nick McKavitt of Kombo felt like he could identify with the character, and react to events in a similar fashion, adding that he hopes Drake's design will influence the entire gaming market. However, Ben Kuchera of Ars Technica criticized the everyman design, stating that Drake was like numerous other characters, and lacked individuality. Develop's Owain Benallack further criticized Drake's blandness, doubting whether a player could adequately describe him as a character. Dan Hsu of Bitmob felt that, though other characters like Master Chief may stand out more, Drake came across as an "old pal".

Nathan Drake has been compared to numerous other video game and film characters, most notably Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider franchise and Indiana Jones, due to the similarities between the characters and the storylines they appear in, with Johnny Minkley of Eurogamer and Lee Ferran of ABC News calling the associations "obvious" and "unavoidable". In fact, Drake has been called a mixing of the two characters. Drake was hailed as the "new Lara Croft" after the Uncharted franchise sold well. His similarity to the character has earned him the moniker "bloke raider". Michael Owen-Brown of the The Advertiser remarked that Drake distinguished himself from Croft with his wit, while director of the Uncharted series Bruce Straley claims that Drake has already exceeded Croft in popularity. CBS drew strict distinction between Jones and Drake, pointing out that while Jones acts altruistically, Drake is in it for the profits. Mike Harradence of Kombo remarked of Drake, "essentially, you could liken him to that of a modern day, albeit digitalized incarnation of Indiana Jones." Avi Arad, director of a planned Uncharted film, drew a similar conclusion, remarking that while Jones was always good, Drake is not necessarily the good guy. Designer Neil Druckmann, however, has stated that he believes Drake stands out and on his own from Jones and Croft.

Other reviewers have compared Drake to different characters, including Jack Colton from the film Romancing the Stone. As Nolan North voices both Drake and The Prince in the 2008 video game Prince of Persia, leading to comparisons between the two characters, with The Prince described as a rougher, more abrasive form of Nathan Drake.

Drake's physical attractiveness has been another area of commentary, with at least one reviewer declaring a man crush for him. Drake has been described as "dreamy", and a "handsome, charismatic hero." His attractiveness has been cited as an example of a character who, while attractive, was not designed to be a sex object. One commentator pointed out, "Nathan Drake is one of the few male video game protagonists not portrayed in a degrading, sexual manner." Steve McGarvey of GameSpy commented that Drake was "oozing with machismo". Drake's attractiveness drew criticism from Meagan VanBurkleo of Gameinformer, who stated that he did not "stand out much among the crowd of other ideally proportioned and intentionally unblemished gaming icons." GameDaily named Drake the third greatest gaming hunk.

The good sales of the Uncharted series and the growing identification of Drake with the console have led some to claim he now represents the PlayStation 3 as a de facto mascot for the PlayStation 3. Adam Hartley at TechRadar UK claimed, "throaty-voiced protagonist Nathan Drake is the rightful heir to the 'PlayStation Hero' crown." With Now Gamer claiming Drake as the new PlayStation 3 poster boy. Drake was nominated for "Most Compelling Character" at the Inside Gaming Awards.