User:Bearsona/Nathan Drake/Notes/All

Nathan Drake

General facts

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

Creation and design

 * In Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, the designers gave Drake more realistic hair.
 * "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" - E. Daniel Arey, former Naughty Dog creative director.
 * "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 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 approached the game story as though it were film or theater and recorded its scenes using full motion-capture on a sound stage... The actors interacted with one another throughout the recording process".
 * "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.
 * "Furthermore, Hennig seems to understand how integral it is that characters behave like real humans as opposed to videogame cliches. When Chloe and Nate approach a building ledge, she asks, "Do you reckon we're going to have to climb that thing?" Nate muses, "Yeahhh -- that's usually what happens."


 * This exchange alerts you to your next objective without beating you over the head with camera sweeps or an unnecessary cinematic. 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".
 * "and that the lead character, Nathan Drake, is better-developed" (in U2) - Kris Graft, Gamasutra.
 * 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: 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."
 * "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."
 * "If there was something we really wanted to see Nate do, but it was going to feel sluggish or unresponsive, we killed it and came up with a different way to do it. So there are certain cases where we'd love his animation to be even smoother, but it would have sacrificed responsiveness, and that's got to be number one. That's why coming up with this blended animation system was such a priority, and actually an absolute necessity. We couldn't have done the game without it. It's the basis of everything, to be able to say I can be running along and still be loading my gun and still be reacting to the gunfire around me and still sort of launching into my next move. Because some of Nate's moves...you're not aware of it playing the game, but there may be literally 30 animations blended up on top of the one motion he's going through right then and there" - Amy Hennig, writer and creative developer.
 * "For us, with the blended animation system, the goal wasn't to say look how clever we are, it was to say this is why Nate's going to be a relatable character. This is why you're going to feel for him. It's because he's more human and flawed and vulnerable than most video game characters" - Amy Hennig, writer.
 * "The goal was to make Nathan Drake an "ordinary guy," albeit one who was good with a gun and whom you believed was capable of all the feats of daring you see in the game. Our biggest challenge was creating a fully fleshed-out character rather than a quip-slinging caricature.


 * We did this a few different ways. The cutscenes got up close and personal with Drake, establishing his character and sense of humor through dialogue, and showing his interaction with other characters.  His gameplay animation sold the idea he was not a superhero-acrobat-commando, but someone who really had to work hard for every leap and climb, and who got visibly nervous when under fire. Last but not least, his dialogue during gameplay fleshed out his character by allowing him to react appropriately to each situation" - Josh Scherr, leader of story sequence team for U:DF.
 * "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.
 * "Well he was a little skinnier in the last game than we actually intended him to be in some ways. But sometimes when you've made a decision you just have to go with it because there's no time to keep revising. And so we wanted this one to just give him a little bit more bulk, but we don't want to take it too far because he's supposed to be a regular guy. But when you watch him climb around like a monkey--as he does often--you know he's got to have some muscles on him right" - Amy Hennig.
 * "On the other hand, it's a piece of Drake's personality that he's the "Die Hard" guy that gets in there and just takes care of the situation; "the fly in the ointment," to borrow a phrase" - 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.
 * "We allow a certain degree of improvisation among the actors" Script not set in stone.
 * "Amy: Well, once we established that we were going to embrace the pulp adventure genre, we knew that our hero had to have certain qualities. The best adventure heroes are essentially ordinary, believable guys – but what makes them extraordinary is their wit, their resourcefulness, their humor and their tenacity. So we realized we not only had to cast the role carefully (and we found a great actor in Nolan North), but we needed to model him with an “everyman” quality, and we had to write a bunch of proprietary code to give him (and the other characters) an emotional reality we hadn’t seen in games before.


 * 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.


 * Ultimately, we wanted him to be a fallible hero, with all the human frailty that makes heroes endearing. He gets dirty and sweaty; he reacts realistically when under gunfire, flinching and wincing; he doesn’t always land his jumps gracefully, and stumbles sometimes under pressure. We want him to feel like a real flesh-and-blood guy, right at the limit of his ability. That’s the great tradition of pulp adventure heroes" - Amy Hennig.

Half-tucked shirt

 * "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" - Tim Schafer.
 * "However, the savoriest meats in the interview come at the end, when the two finally start discussing the degree of tucked-innedness that is applied to Nathan Drake's shirt. Tim Schafer was the first to notice this phenomenon in the first game, coining the phrase "half-tuck." Now it seems the folks at Naughty Dog are kicking it up to notches unknown. Get this -- front of the shirt? Almost fully tucked in. Back of the shirt? Half-tucked. Put it all together? Three-quarters-tucked. Oh yeah -- this baby's got "Game of the Year" written all over it" - Griffin McElroy, Joystiq.
 * "1UP: So it's official: Nathan Drake's shirt is more tucked-in. //   EW: It's a little more than last time. You can notice if you put [the two games] side-by-side" - Evan Wells.

Everyman

 * "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. Maybe a little bit extraordinary in the sense that he's got stronger fingertips. [Laughs]" - Amy Hennig, writer.
 * "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.
 * "With Uncharted, despite any troubles and tribulations we went through, the spine of the thing always remained unchanged. Our high concept from the very beginning was to capture the two-fisted action/adventure vibe of the classic pulp genre, but with a contemporary "everyman" hero, and to make a game that truly felt like an interactive adventure movie" - Amy Hennig.
 * Reactions with Environment "Richard Lemarchand: We're big believers that great animation grounds a character in the reality of a world better than almost anything else, and so we're paying lots of attention to giving Drake a very wide range of context-dependent animation that helps sell what's happening around him in the world... One new animation feature for Uncharted 2 is that, if he hasn't been spotted by the enemies in an area that he enters, Drake will hunker down and look as if he's trying to keep a low profile as he walks along, in order to get the drop on his foes. Drake still stumbles over uneven terrain or if he only just makes a jump, and he will look stressed while he's in combat, as we layer additional animations into both his posture and his facial features." - Richard Lemarchand, co-designer on U2.
 * "In his sequel he will be even more the human hero. In the short section of the game Thompson played through — a gunfight down a cluttered Asian street — I saw some of this. Drake stumbled. He hung dangerously from outcroppings. He was constantly outgunned. Thompson didn't show me, but described Drake's hand-to-hand combat skills as even more fallible than in the first game. Players will still have to time button-presses to fist-fighting animations, but in the new game, a missed roundhouse punch from Drake will lead to an enemy catching his arm or grappling a hold onto Drake. You'll feel that" - MTV Multiplayer and Sam Thompson, U2 producer.
 * "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.
 * "With Drake, Naughty Dog is working on creating a hero who is physically fit and rather agile, but obviously not a bald space marine. The developer's goal with Nathan Drake is to put you in the role of a guy who's in decent shape, but is obviously being pushed to his limits" - Sterling McGarvey, GameSpy.
 * "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.
 * "WE drew a lot of the inspiration for our characters from the classic pulp adventure stories" everyman with normal strengths and flaws.
 * "Shack: What motivated the decision to make Drake's character fairly generic, but not really an everyman or a Lester the Unlikely-type character? //   Sam Thompson: Naughty Dog comes from a very iconic background where they had a very noticeable very known, pronounced character. Crash Bandicoot was obviously very recognizable. Jak from Jak and Daxter. Again, another very unique lead character. Very stereotypical--saving the world, heroic, master of all things, born a leader.    //    What we wanted, and what Naughty Dog really wanted when approaching this story is they wanted something that was a little bit more realistic, a little bit more humble. They were kind of tired of one man that saves the world and is very confident of himself. They wanted a fallible hero. Someone that you could relate to and say, this is possible, I could see somebody like this doing this." - Sam Thompson, Sony Computer Entertainment line producer.

Influences

 * "But cool and realistic animations hardly mean a thing without solid character designs. Early Uncharted concept footage showed Naughty Dog's desire to base the look of Nathan Drake off of real life actor Johnny Knoxville. Lemarchand said that Knoxville has a certain "coolness and goodness" to him, and that is something Naughty Dog wanted to capture with Nathan Drake" - Jimmy Thang, IGN.
 * "Nathan Drake is based -- in part -- on Johnny Knoxville" - Greg Miller, IGN.
 * "She describes the central character of Nathan Drake as very gritty, "very Harrison Ford, very Bruce Willis, with a charm that we wanted when we cast our hero" - Amy Hennig.
 * Nolan North told to bring part of his personality to the character. "Unfortunately, my personality matches that of a about 28 year old guy" ... ad-libbed.
 * "Uncharted 2’s co-lead designer, Richard Lemarch, has said that the developers looked to action films with real-style heroes when creating and honing Nathan Drake... We took new directions in our approach to storytelling. It led us to take an approach that was different from what most games take,” Lemarch told VentureBeat. “As a character, Nathan Drake is quite different from other video game characters. He is recognizable as a regular guy. That was important for us. We wanted him to be a fallible hero — that was common as a thread in all of the pulp fiction we looked at. Our research for the original Uncharted took us all the way back to the beginnings of adventure storytelling... We looked at Robert Louis Stevenson and Robinson Crusoe. We zeroed in on early 20th century stories like Doc Savage, who was a finely honed physical specimen. That led us to heroes like Tintin. There you get more color in the characters, and more globetrotting in the stories. We looked at John Mclane from Die Hard" - Richard Lemarch, U2 co-lead designer.
 * "Amy Hennig: The Johnny Knoxville thing is actually a misunderstanding. I wouldn’t want people to get too hung up on that -- he was one of the contemporary people we looked at. There are a lot of different people in him, physically, as well as coming from sketches from our concept artists.  //    From a persona aspect, Drake comes from a long tradition of romantic action-adventure heroes. Cary Grant...and 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.    //    All games seem very dark, gritty, and serious -- we thought there was plenty of room in this industry for a game with more of a sense of humor, a game that didn’t take itself quite as seriously and hearkened back to the tropes and conventions of screwball comedy and even romantic comedy. That’s where a lot of Drake’s persona comes from.   //    Casting Nolan North in the role was [also huge] because he’s such a great actor. So much of who he is imbues Drake with his character.    //    When we hired Nolan, we really let him know that we just wanted him to be himself. He’s got so much charm in his own persona, and we wanted to bring that out. I’d say that, in a way, our greatest inspiration was Nolan himself" - Amy Hessig.

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.

General

 * "He plays a variation on his Nathan Drake persona, taking away some charm and adding a few rougher, abrasive edges" - Tom Cross, Gamasutra.
 * "lovable jerk" - Tom Cross, Gamasutra.
 * "Nathan Drake is light, flippant, and just plain fun" - Tom Cross, Gamasutra.
 * "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" - Stephen Totilo, Kotaku.
 * "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" - Matt Casamassina, IGN.
 * "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.
 * "He stumbles through the environment, gasping and grumbling, stretching for every handhold with excruciating effort. The animation to pull off such a tangible connection to the world is astonishing, and it gives Drake an endearing vulnerability sorely lacking in so many of gaming’s superhuman heroes" - 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.
 * "You can point to a half-dozen heroes Nathan Drake looks and sounds like" - Ben Kuchera, Ars Technica.
 * "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.
 * "Take Mr. Nathan Drake, here. An undoubtedly handsome man, with his fit physique, his raven black hair, and his penetrating intelligent stare; he looks on the surface to be your standard exploratory male action hero. However, I was wrong about this when I began to play the game and found out how different he is from the usual male lead for this type of game. The comparison that initially came to mind was the link between the audience and the young character of Luke Skywalker when he glimpsed the Millennium Falcon. "What a piece of junk!" A phrase that encapsulated more or less what the members of the audience were thinking at the time. // That's what I felt when playing with Mr. Drake in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. After completing a difficult series of jumps which would have met instant death for my character, whereupon he stopped to catch his breath while saying "Oh, thank god, I can't believe I made it through that," which was exactly what I was thinking. Some of you may think this make Drake a wimp, but I think that this not only changed the map for this genre of game but also provided a more immserive experience by giving me/you/us a character who though the same way that I did, and that all of you might have as well. // I was also glad to see that this continued with the currently in development sequel, where Drake was under attack by both a Hind helicopter and a grouping of goons who had him under fire. Drake cried out to the goons, "Don't you see the goddamn helicopter? I've got enough problems!" which is more or less what I would have been saying at just that moment. The writing of this character is amusing, true, but it's real triumph is creating a character who acts so much more real then any other character I've set seen so far. I hope Mr. Drake's influence broadens behind his genre and cause a further change in the gaming market" - Nick McCavitt, Kombo.
 * "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.
 * "He's not a super hero. In fact, he's kind of a dick. But he's a likable dick, who's willing to do anything to make a buck" - Russ Frushtick, UGO.
 * "Charming rogue" - Nolan North.
 * "Nathan Drake is light, flippant, and just plain fun" - Tom Cross, Gamasutra.
 * "But he's over-the-top and cliche in a way that feels honestly relatable, if completely unreal. He may be foolishly disbelieving and mysteriously jovial in the face of certain death and dark magic, but he does it in a way that feels grounded in the world. He's a caricature of a caricature, a man lovingly, perfectly constructed from the leavings of older, less self-aware scoundrels, but he relates to his world as if he lives in it" - Tom Cross, Gamasutra.
 * "Drake is a complicated character, according to Arad. "He's not a benevolent guy, but he's certainly not a great guy. Indiana Jones was always a good guy and he relentlessly did the right thing. Drake is a guy who's being hauled over to virtue throughout the game" - Avi Arad, producer of film.
 * "The caricature that is Duke Nukem will therefore live longer in the memory than Faith from Mirror’s Edge or Call of Duty’s Soap MacTavish. Or think of Naughty Dog’s output – from Sonic-rivalling Crash Bandicoot, through Jak and Daxter to Nathan Drake of Uncharted. The latter is richer in narrative than the previous titles or most other games for that matter, but could you honestly describe the hero?" - Owain Bennallack, Develop.
 * "We can’t call Master Chief one. Or Niko Bellic. Or even Mario. But somehow, Nathan Drake seems like an old pal...someone we’ve been chumming around with for years now. Sure, that may be a little delusional and even a bit pathetic, but you try naming a video game character that feels more real-life legit than Uncharted and Uncharted 2’s everyman protagonist" - Dan Hsu, Bitmob.

Lara Croft

 * "More than two million copies of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune were sold worldwide according to VG Chartz, and the game's protagonist, Nathan Drake, was hailed as the new Lara Croft" - Claudine Beaumont, The Daily Telegraph.
 * "Nathan Drake, a cocky but good-hearted adventurer who could be the lovechild of Indiana Jones and Lara Croft" - Steve Tilley, Edmonton Sun.
 * "In fact, it's Drake's wicked wit that differentiates Uncharted: Drake's Fortune from the classic Tomb Raider franchise. That and the fact that Nate doesn't have Lara Croft's ludicrous pneumatic bosom" - Michael Owen-Brown, The Advertiser.
 * "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was a surprise hit for the PlayStation 3 in 2007. Now with sequel Uncharted 2: Among Thieves looming, Naughty Dog thinks Nathan Drake has taken an even bigger leap - exceeding Lara Croft's popularity with the PlayStation audience.
 * Asked by Computer and Video Games if Nathan Drake would ever be as popular as Lara, director Bruce Straley responded by saying, "Why, do you think he's not already there, if not beyond that point already, in terms of popularity?" //   He went to say that he felt Nathan Drake could hold his own in "any line up of the video game pantheon," saying that Naughty Dog had infused him with traits associated with a movie star as much as a video game character.   //   "I think people like him because he's compelling, and a much needed breath of fresh air in an industry that's been a bit stale for a while, in terms of characters," Straley said.  //   He may have a point in that Lara Croft's latest adventure in Tomb Raider Underworld didn't quite match sales expectations. But then again, Drake has yet to pose for British fashion mags or star in a high-profile action flick. As for whether he's a compelling character, we'll let you decide that for yourselves" - Kat Bailey, 1UP.
 * "Bloke Raider" - Edge staff.
 * "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.
 * "Despite fairly obvious similarities to 'er with the big 'uns, the creator of Crash and Jak insists our chiselled hero Nathan Drake is much more than a brainless Larry Cruft knock-off. You can now judge for yourselves in three tasty gameplay vignettes we've just whacked up on Eurogamer TV" - Johnny Minkley, Eurogamer.

Indiana Jones

 * Because of their similar nature, comparisons have been drawn between Nathan Drake and Indiana Jones, with Lee Ferran of ABC News calling the comparison "unavoidable".
 * "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.
 * "Nathan Drake, our story’s protagonist, is a modern day Indiana Jones but instead of exposing architectural finds in well respected museums, Nathan’s in it strictly for the fortune" - CBS.
 * "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.
 * "Ultimately, you feel as though you are controlling a flesh and blood hero. Elsewhere, Drake’s penchant for uttering witty one-liners combined with his unshakable sense of humour lend our hero a sense of charm which gamers can easily warm to, and path the way for some of Uncharted's lighter moments, from Nate's friendly banter with pal Sully to his tempestuous relationship with his female compatriots. Essentially, you could liken him to that of a modern day, albeit digitalized incarnation of Indiana Jones. Needless to say, we here at PSU Towers can’t wait to see what Drake gets up to next – bring on Uncharted 3" - Mike Harradence, Kombo.

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
Robert Workman, GameDaily.
 * "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" -

Attractiveness

 * "Rakish adventurer Nathan Drake" - Lou Kesten, Newsfactor.
 * "a brainy, dreamy adventurer with a perpetual five o’clock shadow and half-tucked shirt" - Eric Wittmershaus, The Press Democrat.
 * "He's a handsome, charismatic hero who's also highly intelligent, but he doesn't always make the smartest choices, as demonstrated by the fact that he chooses to ally himself with some unsavory thieves" - Matt Casamassina, IGN.
 * 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.
 * "rare is a character in gaming as intriguing as Nathan Drake, and it shows (I admit, I have a bit of a man crush on him)" - Colin Moriarty, IGN.
 * "Immaculately groomed" - Chris Plante, UGO Networks.
 * "Its hero, Nathan Drake, is hardly oozing with machismo compared to the likes of most gaming protagonists" - Steve McGarvey, GameSpy.
 * "Sure, Nathan Drake and Lara Croft are admittedly attractive, but they don’t stand out much among the crowd of other ideally proportioned and intentionally unblemished gaming icons" - Meagan VanBurkleo, Gameinformer.

Prince of Persia

 * Comparisons have been drawn between The Prince from the Prince of Persia series, mainly do to the similar performance of North, who voices both characters. They both come off as Americanized and carefree.

PS3 Mascot

 * "Throaty-voiced protagonist Nathan Drake is the rightful heir to the "PlayStation Hero" crown" - Adam Hartley, TechRadar UK.
 * "Now there is a growing feeling that Uncharted 2 could position Nathan Drake as PlayStation 3’s poster boy" - NOW Gamer.

Awards

 * Nominated for "Most Compelling Character" at the Inside Gaming Awards.
 * Gamedaily named Drake the third greatest gaming hunk.

Marketing

 * Vinyl toys designed by Erick Scarecrow, found of ESC Toy. 2500 pieces worldwide, released right before Uncharted 2.
 * One can buy Drake's gun.
 * "ESC-Toys will be releasing a line of four figures, all of Nathan Drake, all being weird, deformed vinyl sculpts. While none of them have names, it appears there's Drake, Hellboy Drake, Berlin Nightclub Drake and Radioactive Drake" - Luke Plunkett, Kotaku.
 * "Sony has also partnered with popular movie magazine Empire to create a piece about ‘every man’ heroes in film and how Nathan Drake shares their qualities" - Tim Ingham, MKV.

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.