Nathan Drake

Character design

Illustrator and designer Kory Heinzen worked on pre-visualization, concept and character design on the video game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, developed by Naughty Dog. Heinzen's initial concept differed from the finished character. The production staff drew inspiration from the pulp adventure genre when creating the video games in the Uncharted series, and based Drake on the stereotypical characters of adventure films and novels, giving him wit, resourcefulness, and strong principles. Naughty Dog wanted to highlight Drake's personality through his interactions with the environment during gameplay. To do this, they developed a wide range of animations for Drake, allowing him to display reactions and his snarky disposition in context. These animations were designed to be fluid and believable; they removed any animation that did not promote this fluidity or took a large amount of time to execute. The blended animation system in the game, with more than 30 animations comprising one movement, was implemented to make Drake a more relatable character.

Series writer Amy Hennig described Drake as a gritty, charming mixture of actors Harrison Ford and Bruce Willis, with additional influence coming 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.

Lemarchand listed comic characters Doc Savage and Tintin, as well as Die Hard protagonist John McClane, as inspirations for the character. Drake's physical prowess was modeled on that of Savage, and his personality inspired by the vibrant color and globetrotting identity of Tintin.

Naughty Dog wanted Drake to embody the everyman archetype. E. Daniel Arey, former Naughty Dog creative director, said that "there is a fine line between jerk and lovable rogue", and that they developed Drake to be more human and accessible: "If a hero constantly shows their human side, we relate and forgive any seeming overconfidence because we’ve all been there". Neil Druckmann, lead designer of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, explained that Drake was meant to react to situations in the manner that the average player might. Hennig commented:

Attributes

Personality

Drake has a distinct personality, as the creators did not want him to appear as a caricature or "cardboard cutout". Hennig constantly elaborated Drake's personality through in-game dialogue and interactions with other characters, rather than exclusively through cutaway scenes. Drake reacts to events in a human-like way, often commenting and complaining on the absurdity or difficulty of his situation. While traveling through chapters, Drake frequently makes sarcastic quips and taunts. Self-educated in history and various languages, Drake is also highly intelligent. Matt Casamassina of IGN commented on the character's 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 aloud, a feature 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'". North was instructed to imbue his own personality into the character.

Outward appearance

Drake's outward appearance is fairly generic, consisting of either a plain T-shirt or henley, jeans, and a gun holster on his back. He was deliberately costumed in a simple shirt and jeans to provide a "blank slate" on which the everyman persona could be imposed. The programmers designed a layered-animation system to make Drake's motions realistic by blending multiple poses and reactions together. This allowed a complex facial and wrinkle mapping system, which provided Drake more human emotional reactions. Drake's physique is fairly fit, but not overly muscular.

Drake's appearance underwent minor changes in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Hennig said that Drake was skinnier than intended in the first game, and thus the designers bulked him up for the second.

Drake's shirt is always tucked into his pants on only one side, an attribute which commentators have labeled the "half-tuck". The term, first coined by video game designer Tim Schafer, 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 Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells labeled a "three-quarters-tuck". The half-tuck was part of a larger effort to ensure Drake's design was asymmetrical. Tim Schafer commented that "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".

Appearances

Main series

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Drake tracks the lost treasure of El Dorado located on a remote tropical island. As the game opens, Drake, accompanied by reporter Elena Fisher, recovers the coffin of his "self-proclaimed" ancestor Sir Francis Drake, which he located from coordinates inscribed on a family heirloom: a ring Drake wears around his neck. The coffin contains Sir Francis Drake's diary, which gives the location of El Dorado. Pirates attack and destroy Drake's boat, but Drake's friend Victor Sullivan rescues the two. When Sully and Drake follow the diary to the indicated spot, they learn that El Dorado is a large golden idol that the Spanish had tried to remove from the island centuries ago. After finding a U-boat, mercenaries led by Gabriel Roman intercept Drake, Fisher and Sully. Sully is shot but Drake manages to escape to an island where Sir Francis Drake's diary claims the idol is located. On the way to the island, anti-aircraft fire forces Elena and Drake to bail out of the airplane and they are separated. Drake heads toward an old Spanish fort to find Elena. Though briefly captured by pirate leader Eddie Raja, an old acquaintance, Drake and Elena reunite and flee to the old customs house on the island. There they find that Sully has survived his gunshot wound. Drake discovers that the idol is located near the customs house, and finds and rescues Sully. Drake realizes that the idol is cursed, and that it turned the Spanish and Kriegsmarine searching for it into zombified monsters. Drake attempts to stop Roman from removing the idol from the island, and arrives in time to see Atoq Navarro, a man hired by Roman, find the statue. Navarro tricks Roman into becoming cursed. Drake then jumps onto the statue and rides it as it is airlifted onto 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 chests of treasure, after displaying affection towards each other.

Drake returns as the protagonist of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves in 2009. A wealthy benefactor hires Drake, Harry Flynn, and Chloe Frazer to steal a small lamp from a Turkish museum. Drake and Chloe, having dated in the past, renew their romance behind Flynn's back. Once in the museum, Flynn betrays Drake and Drake is 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 employer, war criminal Zoran Lazarevic, who seeks the Cintamani Stone that the fleet was supposedly transporting. Once Chloe and Sully secure Drake's release, Drake follows Lazarevic, and discovers that the fleet did not possess the stone, but had clues, including a phurba, to the location of Shambhala. Drake travels to Nepal to find the next clue, although 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, the latter of which is executed by Lazarevic. Drake pursues Lazarevic and then discovers the key to Shambhala, but the train they are traveling on explodes, leaving Drake stranded. Drake loses consciousness after finding the phurba and awakens in a Tibetan village. Here, he finds Karl Schäfer, an SS officer who had led an Ahnenerbe expedition to Shambhala, though he had killed them all to stop the Nazis from obtaining the power in the city. Tenzin, a man who speaks no English, leads Drake through an ice cave, where they are attacked by giant horned monsters. Lazarevic attacks the village, kidnapping Schäfer. Drake and Elena track Lazarevic to a monastery, where they find the entrance to Shambhala. Once inside, they discover that the monsters are guardians of the city. Drake and Elena are apprehended by Lazarevic but escape him when the guardians attack. Drake confronts Lazarevic at the Tree of Life, the sap of which comprises the Cintamani stone. Drake wounds Lazarevic, leaving the guardians to kill him, and returns to the village, where he and Elena kiss and begin a relationship.

Other games

Drake features in Uncharted: Drake's Trail, an online browser game and prequel to Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, released in 2007. He also stars in 2011's Uncharted: Golden Abyss, which was released on Sony's PlayStation Vita. The game's events take place sometime before those of Drake's Fortune, though developers have stated that it is not a prequel to Drake's Fortune but rather a separate original story. Nathan Drake was also on the shortlist for being a guest character in Street Fighter x Tekken, however the idea was scrapped. Additionally, Drake makes a cameo appearance in Astro's Playroom, a launch title for the PlayStation 5 designed as a celebration of the PlayStation brand, as well as its sequel. He was also added to Fortnite Battle Royale with Chloe Frazer in February 2022.

Drake is a playable character in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale released on PlayStation 3. Drake also features in Uncharted: Fight for Fortune, a turn-based card game released for the PlayStation Vita, and Uncharted: Fortune Hunter, a free-to-play mobile game released in 2016.

In other media

Uncharted: Eye of Indra is a 2009 prequel series of motion comics. Their events occur before the first game, but the series was released after the second. In order to raise the money to find Sir Francis Drake's coffin, Nathan Drake works for an American-turned-Indonesian crime boss named Daniel Pinkerton. Drake seeks the fabled Eye of Indra in Jakarta, where he meets Eddy Raja – who appears in the first game – and Drake becomes romantically involved with Raja's sister, Rika Raja. In 2011 Uncharted: The Fourth Labyrinth, a standalone novel written by Christopher Golden was set between the events of the first and second game, and involves Drake working to uncover the mysteries of King Midas and several ancient labyrinths. Drake has also appeared in the 2018 live action fan film, and was played by Nathan Fillion. DC Comics released a six-part comic book miniseries in 2011, titled Uncharted, set between the events of the second and third game, which sees Drake searching for the legendary city of Agartha. Tom Holland portrayed Nathan Drake in the 2022 film adaptation.

Reception

Nathan Drake has attracted mainly positive reviews, many focusing on his likable personality. 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 similar character, 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 appear to be "kind of a dick", but that he was "a likable dick". GamesRadar listed Nathan as one of the 25 best new characters of the decade, contrasting him with characters like Halo protagonist Master Chief and Marcus Fenix of the Gears of War series in that unlike them, Drake is never in control of the situation. GamesRadar later ranked Drake in 2012 as the third "most memorable, influential, and badass" protagonist in games, saying: "With his half-tuck, quick wit, wry grin, and messy hair, Nate perfectly captures the sentiment of being the guy all the other guys want to be and all the gals want to be with..." Empire included Drake on their list of the 50 greatest video game characters, ranking him in 22nd place. In 2009, Drake was featured as one of 64 characters in GameSpot as the "Greatest Game Hero" poll, in which he lost to Pikachu. Drake was voted as the fourth best character of the decade in a 2010 poll conducted by Game Informer, and was voted as the 16th top video game character of all time by the readers of Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition in 2011. Nathan Drake is also seen as a PlayStation mascot. He was ranked as one of the best video game characters of the 2010s by Polygon staff and writer Colin Campbell wrote that "he is apt to make jokes about the sticky situations he finds himself in, and the many convoluted conspiracies he faces. But he also displays loyalty to those close to him". In 2021, HobbyConsolas also included Nathan on their "The 30 best heroes of the last 30 years." In 2024, a poll conducted by BAFTA with around 4,000 respondents named Nathan as the twentieth most iconic video-game character of all time.

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". Claudia Black, who portrayed Chloe Frazer in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, admitted having a crush on Drake as well. Drake has been cited as an example of a male character who, while attractive, is not over-masculine. One commentator pointed out: "Very few of our protagonists (Nathan Drake and Alan Wake to name a few exceptions) depict men in what I would call a non-degrading manner". Steve McGarvey of GameSpy wrote that Drake was "hardly oozing with machismo compared to the likes of most gaming protagonists". Drake's attractiveness drew criticism from Meagan Marie of Game Informer, 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. GamesRadar named Drake "Mister 2007", stating that he was not picked just because they could "stare at his ass for hours on end", but because he is heroic and has a "winning attitude". In 2014, La Nueva España included him the top ten sexiest video game characters of both genders.

Merchandise and promotion

In 2007, Sony placed promotional material in Empire stressing Drake's everyman personality and showcasing his similarity to adventure film characters. Naughty Dog released an airsoft replica of Nathan Drake's gun, a Beretta 92FS.

Shortly before the release of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, four urban vinyl toys based on 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, and Luke Plunkett of Kotaku commented, "while none of them have names, it appears there's Drake, Hellboy Drake, Berlin Nightclub Drake and Radioactive Drake".

In February 2016, Naughty Dog announced the release of a 7-inch Nathan Drake action with articulated joints and an arsenal of gear and accessories. This action figure is being made by the toy company National Entertainment Collectibles Association, also known as NECA.