The Uncharted series, created by video game developer Naughty Dog (with one title developed by SCE Bend Studio), features many characters. The series includes the video games: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, as well as upcoming Uncharted: Golden Abyss and a motion comic prequel; Uncharted: Eye of Indra. It primarily focuses on the exploits of treasure hunter Nathan Drake and his associates as they hunt down various mystical items. In Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, he must stop a group of mercenaries from collecting a cursed golden idol known as "El Dorado" and using it as a biological weapon. In Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, he races a homicidal war criminal to find the powerful and mythical Cintamani Stone in Shambhala. In Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, he competes with a secret order to search for the fabled 'Iram of the Pillars', and in the prequel comic Uncharted: Eye of Indra, he works for an Indonesian crime lord in order to get the money needed to raise the coffin of his supposed relative Sir Francis Drake.
Nathan Drake is the playable character and protagonist of the series. He has a shady past, in which he associated with a number of thieves and black market salesmen in order to obtain various valuable items. The development team sought to make him a generally average and likable character. He is accompanied by a number of characters,the main ones being Elena Fisher and Victor Sullivan. He has had two love interests in the series so far; the before mentioned Elena Fisher, a reporter and now his wife, and Chloe Frazer, another treasure hunter and an old flame, but was involved with Rika Raja in the motion comic. He is also accompanied by his longtime friend, associate, and mentor Victor Sullivan. Each instalment also has a antagonist that Drake must compete against throughout the story.
A team at Naughty Dog designed the character appearances, and Amy Hennig was the main writer of their personalities and mannerisms. The voice actors were given considerable license to improvise the lines and influence character personality, and also performed the motion capture work for their characters. Many of the characters were meant to highlight different aspects of Drake's personality. Reception to the characters in the series have been fairly positive, with most commentators focusing on the believable nature of the characters and their interactions with each other. The inclusion of strong female characters has also received praise, though one commentator pointed out that the women still fall into cliché roles. The voice acting has also received acclaim, including two Interactive Achievement Award nominations.
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Illustrator and designer Kory Heinzen worked on pre-visualization and concept design for many of the characters in the Uncharted series.[1] Early on, the Naughty Dog development team drew a number of concept sketches depicting characters hanging from cliffs and handling weapons awkwardly; many of these concepts directly translated into the final character products. The more fluid character motions were improvised on a motion capture stage, and were not scripted or drawn beforehand.[2] Amy Hennig, the series writer, designed the character's personalities and mannerisms. The production team sought to capture a certain tone in the character design, and closely studied the pulp adventure genre for inspiration. This included drawing characteristics from Tintin, Doc Savage, and a number of movies.[2] They tried to contrast with other western games, which lead game designer Richard Lemarchand described as "overwrought and all a bit emo."[2]
The game developers and animators worked closely together to ensure that the expressions and movements of the characters matched with the desired tone of the games.[2] The character designs were kept intentionally simple, as the designers wanted character personality defined by actor performances, rather than "trinkets attached to the character model."[3] Focus was instead placed on a realism in the animation to highlight character humanity.[3] A blended animation system developed especially for the game allowed one character animation to begin before the previous one had ended, aiding this realism.[4] The ultimate goal was to make the characters react as if they were real people in a realistic world.[5] To accomplish this, many of the character reactions were conveyed through facial expressions and body language rather than explicit dialog.[3]
Hennig believes character emotion grew from the "production of the game as if it were a traditional movie or stage play."[6] The two lead actors were cast because of their experience on stage and film works.[6] The cast had a large role in developing the characters. They were allowed to ad-lib dialog and participate in revising the script. The actors also read lines together on a sound stage, allowing them to play off of one another and organically grow the character relationships.[7] Both games used the same actors for both motion capture and voice acting. The actors did a number of read-throughs and practiced to get the motions correct before capturing.[3]
Naughty Dog consciously avoided action game stereotypes, including super-powered heroes and overly sexualized female characters.[8] They included a large cast of characters to ensure that the story was character-driven rather than story-driven.[9] Co-president of Naughty Dog Evan Wells stated, "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."[10] Many of these characters were specifically designed to highlight different facets of Nathan Drake's personality.[11]
Nathan "Nate" Drake is the main protagonist of the Uncharted series. Nolan North voices Drake and had considerable influence in the development of the character, mixing his personality with Drake's.[12] Drake is a playable character in all three video games of the series: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. He is also the lead character in the motion comic Uncharted: Eye of Indra.
Drake is depicted as a professional treasure hunter with a shady background involving various people from the underground illegal goods market.[13][14] He is a very intelligent man, self-educated in history and various languages, and a supposed descendant of Sir Francis Drake.[15] In the first two games, he seeks a mythical treasure. In Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, he uses the diary of Francis Drake to track the mythical El Dorado to a small island in the Pacific Ocean. He and his partner Victor Sullivan discover that El Dorado is actually a large golden statue that curses those who attempt to steal it.[16][17] Drake must stop pirates led first by Gabriel Roman, and later Atoq Navarro, from using the statue's power to turn people into zombies as a weapon. In Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, he is hired to steal an oil lamp from a museum that might point to the location of Marco Polo's lost fleet.[10] When his employer betrays him, Drake sets out to stop war criminal Zoran Lazarevic from discovering the location of Shambhala and the mystical Cintamani Stone.[18] Drake tracks him to a monastery, where he discovers the entrance to Shambhala. Lazarevic locates and consumes part of the Tree of Life, but is killed by Drake and the guardians of Shambhala.[19]
Naughty Dog gave Drake a very strong personality, as they did not want him to act blandly.[6] He often thinks out loud, and comments on the absurdity of his situations, a tendency Matt Casamassina of IGN called "lighthearted and amusing".[10] Drake's appearance is generic,[20] usually appearing in a plain shirt and jeans.[21] This was to make him seem like an "ordinary guy".[22] Throughout the series, he has various romantic interests. In the first game, there is tension between him and Elena Fisher, a reporter filming a documentary on his findings.[23] In Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Drake enters an affair with his crime partner Chloe Frazer. However, by the end of the game, he has become involved with Elena Fisher again and by Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception he marries her.[24]
Elena Fisher is the main love interest for Nathan Drake having married him by Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. Emily Rose voices Elena, and also acted as her motion capture performer.[1][10] In Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, she can be controlled during one sequence, where she fires a grenade launcher from the back of a personal water craft.[25] She appears in all of the three video games in the series: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception.
Elena is a professional journalist, who first focuses on documentary work, and then moves into news broadcast.[26] In the first video game, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Elena follows Drake, filming a documentary on his archaeological findings. Her network has instructed her to film him while he raises the coffin of Sir Francis Drake from the bottom of the ocean, which he locates from coordinates on a family heirloom ring he wears around his neck.[27] After she and Drake are attacked by pirates (Drake fought them off), he abandons her and leaves with Victor Sullivan to find the lost treasure of El Dorado. Despite Drake's attempts, Elena manages to find him, but when they attempt to fly to another location, they are shot down by anti-aircraft warfare. They meet up with Sullivan, who they thought had been killed.[28] After discovering that the statue is cursed, Drake must stop Gabriel Roman from using its power, and save Elena in the process. After doing so, Elena, Drake, and Sullivan drive off into the sunset a boat loaded with several small boxes of treasure[23] In Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Elena happens across him in Nepal. Elena now acts as an investigative journalist; she and her cameraman Jeff are attempting to prove that war criminal Lazarevic is alive, contrary to the beliefs of the United Nations.[29] After Lazarevic executes her cameraman, she manages to escape with Drake. She goes ahead of him to a village in Tibet, where she meets Karl Schäfer, a German who had led a Schutzstaffel expedition to Shambhala. Drake and Elena track Lazaravic to a monastery, where they find the entrance to Shambhala. Once inside, they discover that the monsters Drake has been seeing in the area are guardians of the city. Lazaravic apprehends them, but they escape when the guardians attack. Drake confronts Lazaravic at the Tree of Life, the sap of which comprises the Cintamani stone.[19] Drake wounds Lazaravic, leaving the guardians to kill him, but Elena almost dies in the process.[30] When she recuperates, the two return to the village and begin a relationship.[24]
Naughty Dog designed Elena as a sidekick and a romantic interest to Drake, and her personality to complement his.[31][32] However, she proves just as capable as Drake at gun battles and resourcefulness.[33] Her voice actor commented, "In the first game, she's a lot younger, she's a lot more naive, and she looks at things as being very possible, and in the second (game), has seen murders and adventure...the way that any person grows, you see that in her. She's a little bit more hesitant, a little more cynical".[34] Commentators have mentioned how unusually strong and resilient Fisher is for a female character, and GamesRadar UK called her one of the strongest heroines in video gaming.[35]
Victor "Sully" Sullivan is the longtime partner of Nathan Drake, and a treasure hunter as well. Sullivan has mentored Drake for some time, and is a father figure for him.[36] Richard McGonagle voices Sullivan for all three games in the series but appears only briefly in the second.[1][37] Sullivan first appears near the beginning of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune when he rescues Drake and Elena from a pirate attack at sea with his seaplane.[38] Sullivan and Drake quickly abandon Elena, using a map found in the coffin of Francis Drake to hunt down the treasure of El Dorado. After discovering that the Spanish had removed the statue centuries before,[16] the two come across a U-boat in the middle of the jungle. There, Gabriel Roman takes Sullivan hostage, eventually shooting him.[39] Though presumed dead, Sullivan shows up later, and Drake must rescue him from a group of mercenaries, who are forcing him to help them find the statue. Sullivan manages to mislead his captors, allowing he and Drake to escape.[28] The two realize that the statue is cursed, and Sullivan provides covering fire for Drake as he goes to stop Navarro, one of Roman's henchmen, from taking to statue to sell as a biological weapon. After Drake succeeds, Sullivan arrives in a boat full of several boxes of treasure, and picks up Drake and Elena.[23] He appears briefly near the beginning of the 2009 video game Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. He first shows up to bail Drake out of jail, using the remainder of his fortune and some of his own money to bribe officials into doing so. Afterward, the two go after war criminal Lazarevic in Borneo.[40] After destroying the base there, he is not seen again until the final cutscene of the game. He also appears as a playable character in the multiplayer mode of the game.[41]
Sullivan is a business partner of Drake's.[26] He was meant to act, not only as a partner, but as a mentor to the main character, and to provide insight into his criminal activities.[42] In both games, Sullivan wears a bowling-style shirt, dockers pants, and chews on a cigar wherever he goes.[43] He is constantly in enormous debt, but is likable enough to pull people into investing in his ventures.[44]
Chloe Frazer is a love interest for Nathan Drake.[24] She appears in the second video game, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, where Claudia Black voiced the character.[37] Black's interactions with Drake's voice actor Nolan North played a large role in developing the character.[45] In Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Frazer begins as a business associate of Drake and Harry Flynn when a benefactor hires the group to steal an oil lamp from a Turkish museum. When Flynn betrays Drake, he ends up in a Turkish jail, and Frazer must bail him out.[46] She then begins traveling with Flynn and Lazarevic, and discovers that they are after the fabled city of Shambhala and the Cintamani stone, seeking immortality.[10] Acting as a double agent within Lazarevic's group, she helps defeat his army in Shambhala.[47]
Series writer Amy Hennig designed Frazer to act as a foil to Drake, as such, she acts to highlight various parts of his personality.[48] She contrasts to other main characters, and is essentially a darker version of Drake, and the "bad girl" version of Elena.[49] Frazer is a professional thief, and often acts impulsively.[50] She looks out for her self above all other people.[48] She is a strong female character, and is very sexually forward compared to other women in video games.[48] Tom Cross of Gamasutra commented that she was perhaps a first in video games as a confident woman every bit the equal of the lead male character.[48]
Charlie Cutter first appears in Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. He is a friend of Nate's and suffers from severe claustrophobia, though first poses as one of Marlowe's employee's. He helps Nate, Chloe and Sully in the first part of the game with finding the clues to the Iram of Pillars. He's injured when jumping off a tower in Syria and tells Nate to go on and stop Marlowe or he'll never forgive him. Despite looking like a blunt, common thug, he appears to be well educated, quoting John Stienbeck's Of Mice and Men and correcting Sully's mistake when quoting Macbeth. He is voiced by Graham McTavish.
Atoq Navarro is the primary antagonist and the final boss battle of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Robin Atkin Downes provided the voice and motion capture work for the character.[51] At first, he is the lieutenant of Gabriel Roman, and helps him hold Sullivan and Drake hostage. He follows Roman to an island in search of El Dorado.[52] When Roman finally has the statue, Navarro reveals that he has planned to double-cross him the whole time. He convinces Roman to open the statue, fully aware of the zombification effects it will have on the man; after that, he kills him with a gunshot to the head. Navarro plans to take the statue and sell it as a biological weapon.[53] When Navarro airlifts the statue out by helicopter, Drake follows, and a gun battle between the two ensues. During the fight, Drake is disarmed, and pushes the statue into the ocean, the rope and netting used to airlift the statue wraps around Navarro's ankle, and he is dragged to his death. Navarro uses a SAS-12 shotgun with a laser as his main weapon.[54]
Gabriel Roman is the tertiary antagonist in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. He is voiced by Simon Templeman.[1] Roman first arrives while Drake and Sullivan are exploring the wreckage of a Kriegsmarine U-boat beached in the Amazon Rainforest. Roman, leader of a group of pirates and mercenaries,[55] has loaned Sullivan a large sum of money in the past. Sullivan had called him, assuring him that he would soon find "something big", and then have the money to pay Roman back. Roman, however, decides to steal the information that Drake and Sullivan have gathered and find the treasure for himself. To force Drake into compliance, Roman holds Sullivan hostage, and eventually shoots him, nearly fatally.[39] Roman discovers the directions to El Dorado, but fails to capture Fisher and Drake.[52]
Roman forces Sullivan to work with him in finding the treasure.[28] Despite numerous warnings that the treasure and the island are haunted,[56] Roman continues to use his men in search of the treasure.[57] Roman captures Fisher, but Drake and Sullivan catch up to him, just in time to see Roman about to leave with the statue. However, Navaro tells Roman the real treasure is inside the statue. Roman opens the statue to collect the riches inside. As soon as Roman does, he is cursed and zombified. Navarro shoots Roman in the head, revealing that he intended to sell the statue as a weapon the whole time.[58][53]
Eddy Raja is a character who appears in the first video game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, as an secondary antagonist, and then the motion comic Uncharted: Eye of Indra as one of the main protagonists. Voiced by James Sie,[51] he is a longtime rival of Drake.[59] Raja first met Drake before the events of Uncharted: Eye of Indra, where they worked together on a job. Drake double-crossed him, however, and Eddy continues to hold a grudge.[60] Raja again encounters Drake during Eye of Indra, where Drake enlists his help in stealing the valuable Eye of Indra from Daniel Pinkerton.[61] In Drake's Fortune, Eddy is the leader of a gang of pirates hired by Gabriel Roman. Raja helps Roman capture Drake, though he and Elena escape. After large numbers of his men begin mysteriously dying, Raja becomes convinced that the island is cursed, and tries to convince Roman to stop looking for the treasure. When he does so, Roman accuses him of cowardice and fires him; Raja pulls a gun on Roman, but is stopped by Navarro. Raja is next seen looking for the treasure himself, and tries to have Drake killed one last time by sending the last of his men after him and Fisher. When Drake and Fisher find the room where El Dorado is supposedly located, they are followed by Eddy and his last surviving pirate, running from a large number of cursed Spaniards. He and Drake briefly work together to fight the creatures while Elena tried to find a way out for them, but Raja is dragged down a hole but his fate is unknown for now.His famous line is "Don't mess with Eddy Raja!"[62]
Zoran Lazarevic is the primary antagonist of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.[63] He is voiced by Graham McTavish.[37] He is a homicidal terrorist and Serbian war criminal.[64][65] The majority of the world believes him dead after a bombing, but he survives with half of his face scarred.[66] Lazarevic pays Flynn to betray Drake, tricking him into giving Flynn information on the location of Marco Polo's lost fleet and causing Drake's arrest.[10] In reality, Lazarevic wants to possess the mythical Cintamani Stone, which the fleet was supposedly transporting. He discovers that the fleet never had the stone, and dispatches a group of mercenaries to Nepal for clues to the location of the legendary city of Shambhala.[18] He incites a civil war in the region to aid in his search and distract from any possible discovery.[63] In Nepal, Lazarevic personally executes Fisher's cameraman Jeff, and follows Drake after he discovers the location of Shambhala's entrance. Lazarevic invades the small Tibetan village harboring Drake, seeking the key to reveal Shambhala. He kidnaps Schäfer and forces him to reveal the general area of the entrance. When Drake and Fisher follow, Lazarevic apprehends them and forces Drake to reveal the entrance to Shambhala. There, he drinks the sap of the Cintamani Stone, which is made of the sap of the Tree of Life.[19] He battles Drake with his newfound powers, but is defeated by the guardians of Shambhala and assumingly killed when the temple fell apart. Lazarevic uses a sawed-off shotgun as his main weapon.[67]
Harry Flynn is a longtime business associate of Drake's and one of the secondary antagonist in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. He is voiced by Steve Valentine.[37] In the second game, he approaches Drake, convincing him to help steal an oil lamp from a Turkish museum for a wealthy client. The two, along with Frazer, plan to keep the lamp for themselves, believing it will lead to the location of Marco Polo's lost fleet and the treasures it holds.[40] In reality, Flynn is working for Lavarevic, and betrays Drake, taking the location coordinates and landing Drake in prison.[68] He then works with Lazarevic in searching for the Cintamani Stone. When Lazarevic apprehends Drake, he has Flynn force him to find the location of the entrance to Shambhala. There, Lazarevic and his men, Flynn, Drake and company are attacked by the Guardians, where Flynn is gravely wounded due to a gunshot wound. Flynn ultimately commits suicide while attempting to blow up Drake but severely wounds Fisher with a grenade.[69] Naughty Dog used the dialog in the game to hint at the relationship between Drake and Flynn, but desired ambiguity regarding the exact nature of their past dealings, and to show what Drake could have become.[49] Flynn mainly served to hint at the darker past where Drake performed less heroic activities.[49] Flynn was not written as a British character; the casting of a British actor was mere coincidence.[49]
Lt. Draza is Zoran Lazarevic's right-hand man and the tertiary antagonist in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. He is voiced by Michael Benyaer (but is credited just as "Serbian Soldier". Lt. Draza was first seen with Lazarevic, when they met(for the first time)' face to face with Nate. Lazarevic gave him the Phurba from Nate. Later, when Chloe was taken to the train by Flynn, Nate tried to save her, but Draza was in charge of the train and fought against Nate, but was defeated by Nate, who took back the Phurba. However Draza woke up and try to kill Nate, but was shot dead by Chloe. According to some articles, Draza and Lazarevic knew each other a long time ago. He uses a M4 carbine rifle as his main weapon.
Daniel Pinkerton is the main and only antagonist of the Uncharted: Eye of Indra motion comic. Fred Tatasciore provides his voice. Pinkerton is an American who has become a crime boss in Indonesia.[70] Pinkerton hires Drake, who is seeking the funds to raise the coffin of Francis Drake, to find the valuable Eye of Indra.[70] After discovering that Pinkerton has unknowingly had the Eye in his safe the whole time, Drake attempts to retrieve it by raiding Pinkerton's home.[71] Pinkerton captures Drake, and tortures him when he refuses to reveal the treasure's location. When Drake eventually reveals the location of the Eye of Indra, Rika Raja shoots and kills Pinkerton, and the two take the Eye of Indra for themselves.[72]
Katherine Marlowe is the primary antagonist of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and is voiced by Rosalind Ayres. Marlowe is the coldly calculating leader of a secret society whose roots date back over four hundred years to the court of Queen Elizabeth I. She has a long-standing rivalry with Nathan Drake over Sir Francis Drake’s ring – something they both contend is rightfully theirs and is also the key to an ancient mystery. Katherine Marlowe is a much more cerebral enemy than Drake has confronted in the past, using both psychological and physical tactics to get what she is after. Marlowe also has the assistance of her team of highly-trained agents in this secret society – they are far more elusive and dangerous than the hired guns Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan have faced before. She treats her subordinates with slight disdain, getting annoyed with Talbot for hiring Charlie Cutter. Marlowe appears to have studied Nathan's past and reveals that he's not actually the direct decedent of Sir Francis Drake-he merely was in an orphanage named after the great explorer. She first meets a teenage Drake in Colombia, forcing him to give he the Cipher disk he had just stolen from a museum to her but fails to get Sir Francis Drakes ring when he runs off. Twenty years later, she meets with Drake in an Alleyway and steals his ring. However, she soon discovers it's a fake and promptly loses both the disc and the ring when Drakes associates steal both and makes a spectacular escape from her London headquarters. Marlowe then sends Talbot and her agents to France and Syria and successfully gets the clues to the Iram of the pillars. She then captures Nate and Sully and leaves for the lost city. Nathan eventually finds her using a winch to drag out King Solomon's hallucinogenic Talisman from the lakes in Iram of the Pillars and destroys the foundations of the city, causing Marlowe to fall into a pool of quicksand. She goads Drake to save her, asking if he can earn his surname but is promptly consumed by the quicksand.
Talbot is Marlowe's right-hand man and secondary antagonist in Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. He is voiced by Robin Atkin Downes. He is the one who hired Charlie Cutter to provide security for the deal in the first level. He has a rivaly with Nathan Drake and according to the developers acts as the "anti-Drake", with similar looks and free running skills to rival Drakes own. He is the secondery antagonist. Talbot is seen almost every time with Marlowe, and later ordering Cutter to shoot Nate and Sully.Despite being normal sized, he is an extremely dangerous hand to hand combatant, being able to throw Nathan Drake through a window with one hand and use a combat knife with high proficiency in his final confrontation with Drake and Sully in the disintegrating Iram of Pillars. He also has a special weapon: a dart gun loaded with a special drug which grants him some hypnotic influence over people (he uses it to make Charlie Cutter disarm himself). Despite being treated with near indifference, he appears to care deeply for Marlowe, begging Nathan to save her from being consumed by the quicksand in the Iram of the pillars, and is driven mad when Drake fails. He tries to murder Drake on top of a collapsing cliff overlooking the Iram of the pillars but is briefly distracted by Sully who shoots him in the shoulder with a Walther P99. He is then finally killed by Drake who puts several bullets into him before he can flatten Sully's skull with a rock, and plummets to his death.
Rameses is the tertiary antagonist in Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. He is voiced by Sayed Badreya. Shortly after Drake is drugged and passes out, he is taken to a shipyard. Rameses tied him to a chair and demanded him to tell him where Atlantis of the Sands is located. When Drake told Rameses that he honestly did not know, Rameses walked out and threatened to interogate Sully. After Drake breaks out of his capture and defeats all of the guards, he climbs onto Rameses' cruise ship. From there he find a decoy of Sully and realizes that he was never there to begin with. Rameses tells him that he lied - he is after all a pirate. Drake then shoots him, critically wounding him. After Drake makes his way into the ball room (the ship turned onto its side at this point because it was sinking), Rameses shoots the glass window and causes the rest of the ship to flood in the progress, he dies by the gunshot wound fired by Nathan Drake. Drake survives by drifting to shore on a piece of flotsam.
Karl Schäfer is a main supporting character appears in a remote town in Tibet in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and is voiced by René Auberjonois.[37] At the time of his appearance, he has been living in the village for 70 years.[73] During World War II, he had led an Ahnenerbe expedition to find the entrance of Shambhala.[73] However, afraid of what the Nazis would do with the power found in the Cintamani Stone, Schäfer shot and killed all of the members of the expedition but himself.[74]
When first met, Schäfer sends Drake to look for the Cintamani Stone, after explaining what the jewel can do.[75] While he is gone, Lazarevic invades the village and kidnaps Schäfer, and uses him to tell him where the entrance to Shambala is. Shäfer dies of his wounds following his capture, not before he told to Nate and Elena that they need to stop Lazarevic and Flynn.[76]
Tenzin is a main supporting character and the leader of a remote Tibetan village in the Himalayas.[9] In Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Pema Dhondup provided the voice and Robin Atkin Downes did the motion capture work.[37] When Drake first wakes up, Tenzin leads him to Fisher and Schäfer.[9] He is a Sherpa guide who leads Drake through the mountain passes surrounding the area.[77] There, he helps Drake through various challenges that require more than one person to pass.[77] Despite acting as a guide, Tenzin cannot speak any English.[78] After returning, Drake and Tenzin find that the village has come under attack by Lazarevic.[79]
The developers felt that the sequences involving Tenzin leading Drake through the cave systems, and then seeing his village burning, would create an emotionally moving experience for the player.[9] Tenzin has a daughter named Pema.
Jeff is a supporting character in Uncharted: Among Thieves. Jeff is Elena's cameraman. He is voiced by Gregory Myhre. Jeff, along with Elena, went to Nepal to prove that Lazarevic was alive. He and Elena run in with Nate and Chloe in Nepal,were they team up to find Shambala. after Nate and Chloe investigate a Temple with clues as to where the location of Shambala are , they return to find Jeff injured by a bullet wound to the abdomen , Nate escorted by Chloe and Elena , take Jeff to safety ,in the process they are caught and Lazarevic kills Jeff by shooting him in the head.
Rika Raja appears in the motion comic Uncharted: Eye of Indra as one of the main protagonists. While she never appears in any of the one-player campaign games, she can be purchased as a skin for the Uncharted 2: Among Thieves multiplayer mode.[80] She is voiced by Gwendoline Yeo in the motion comics. Rika saves Nathan's life from two thugs that get in a fight with him in her bar.[81] She then decides to help Drake on his mission to steal the Eye of Indra from Daniel Pinkerton. She double crosses Nathan as well as Eddy leaving with the Eye of Indra. She is the younger sister of Eddy Raja.[61]
Salim is a supporting character in Uncharted: Drake's Deception. He is voiced by TJ Ramini. After Drake defeats the henchmen in the desert ghost town, Salim comes to him on horseback and helps him escape. After Drake was rescued, Salim tells him that the Atlantis of the Sands is a dangerous place and that Marlow cannot enter because of the deadly powers within. Drake believes that she could use these powers to contol others through fear and that it was not treasure they were after. When Sully is rescued, Salim brings both of them to the open desert where the Atlantis of the Sands is located. Salim heads off and gets separated from Drake and Sully because of the heavy sandstorm. After Talbot is defeated and the pillars collapse, Salim appears in time to save them.
Jason Dante is a main character in Uncharted: Golden Abyss. He is Nate's old friend who helps him to find a lost city of Spaniards. He has a rivalry with Marisa Chase. He is voiced by Jason Spisak.[82]
Marisa Chase is a main character in Uncharted: Golden Abyss. She is the granddaughter of an archeologist who has mysteriously vanished without a trace. She has a rivalry with Jason Dante. She is voiced by Christine Lakin.[82]
Matt Casamassina of IGN praised the characters of the Uncharted series for their growth and development, calling them strong characters. He also noted what he found as superior voice work and chemistry between the actors.[10] He commended series writer Hennig for never having the characters say anything unnecessary that did not add to the relationships in the game.[10] GameZone called the characters "endearing", "charming", and "unforgettable", and claimed that they had more personality than characters in most other video games.[55] Ryan Clements of IGN praised the acting, claiming it brought a lifelike quality to the characters.[83] He went on, "the sexual tension, detailed character expression, natural voice acting and charming dialogue make... cutscenes a supreme treat to watch."[63] Jeff Haynes said that the game was anchored by the strong characters.[83]
Ellie Gibson of Eurogamer said that the characters were easy to sympathize with because they were so realistic.[84] Edge claimed the characters "sizzle with zip and pith", and praised the believable interactions between them.[85] Ars Technica called the characters "oddly human" when discussing their realism.[86] Ars Technica's Ben Kuchera also gave the voice acting high marks, claiming it set a new bar for video game voice acting.[86] Johnny Minkley of Eurogamer claimed simply that players will care about the fate of all the characters in the series.[87]
Tom Cross of Gamasutra commented that the characters in the Uncharted series were some of the few in video games to portray human sexuality realistically.[48] However, he complained that the roles were predictable when compared to other fictional movie and television roles.[48] He criticized, "while Among Thieves creates interesting, fun characters, it still pigeon holes them into stock character story arcs: the good girl, the guy who will become good, and the bad girl, who is allowed to be sexually suggestive because the plot will ultimately remove her as a viable partner for the ultimately good guy."[48] Peadar Grogan of Edge commended the series for including strong female characters.[88] Chris Roper of IGN stated that the characters of Uncharted are all unpredictable, and have a high level of character development.[89] Andrew Reiner of Game Informer found this exploration of character emotion integral to the series story development.[90] The character acting in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves received two nominations at the 13th Interactive Achievement Awards, for the acting of North as Drake and Black as Frazer.[91]
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