Continue your adventure into Uncharted 2: Among Thieves with its Creative Director Amy Hennig, Co-President Evan Wells, and Co-Lead Designers Richard Lemarchand and Neil Druckmann.
How has Nathan Drake changed since the first game in terms of personality, abilities and his look?
Evan Wells: There’s no doubt that Drake is in a very different place than where we last left him, as the curtain rises on the story of Uncharted 2. He looks scruffier, rougher around the edges, and down on his luck. In the time that has passed since Drake’s Fortune, Drake has returned to his natural element – a treacherous world of thieves and mercenary fortune hunters. By placing Drake in this setting, it gives us an opportunity to populate the story with a more diverse cast of characters, all of whom reflect different facets of Drake’s personality – this enables us to explore his character in more depth.
What does it mean to be this kind of fortune hunter in the contemporary world? What kind of friends, partners and colleagues would you find yourself surrounded by? We pride ourselves in telling a character driven story, and in Uncharted 2 it’s important for us to be able to explore the complexities and contradictions in Drake’s character. He’s essentially a criminal, but we’ve seen that he’s got an ethical core – and although Drake has his own moral fabric, it’s not clear that all of his friends and colleagues are cut from the same cloth.
Despite being in a radically different place, mentally and physically, Drake still has the personality you’ve come to know him for. Although we’re tackling some more serious themes, and digging deeper into Drake’s character, he’s still the same likeable rogue we introduced in Uncharted. Humour is a critical part of this genre and to the Uncharted franchise – and it’s important to us that our game should never take itself too seriously.
Are there particular rules in the creation and progression of Drake as a character, in terms of dos and don'ts?
Amy Hennig: Well, there aren’t any hard and fast rules, but there are certain touchstones we keep in mind. First and foremost, we want Drake to be a relatable character – he’s not a superhero, he’s a regular guy who gets into scrapes and winds up facing overwhelming odds. What makes him engaging is his resourcefulness and tenacity, but mainly just his humanity – he’s a fallible, flawed human being with both strengths and vulnerabilities. Second, Drake’s wry sense of humour is an important part of his character. Of course when events turn especially dire he gets more serious, but his quirky, ironic humour is part of what sees him through.
What sort of partners and antagonists will Drake will be up against and what has happened to Elena and Sully from the previous game?
Neil Druckmann: The cast of characters in Uncharted 2 is definitely larger and more varied than in the previous game, but we’re not ready to spoil those details just yet– including what may or may not have happened to some of Drake’s close associates – hang in there!
We have revealed that Drake has a new partner and romantic interest in this game – an Australian adventurer named Chloe Frazer. Chloe operates within the seedy and criminal underworld of fortune seekers, just like Drake. These two have a long personal history with an on/off relationship. She’s an experienced fortune hunter herself, and Drake’s equal in every way – but she’s also more impulsive and reckless than he is, which makes her both exciting and a little unpredictable. Chloe is portrayed by Claudia Black, who will be familiar to fans of Stargate: SG-1 and Farscape. She and Nolan North [who voices Drake] have great chemistry, which will be immediately evident when you’ve seen some of our cutscenes. It’s been a blast watching these two riff off of our scripts on stage.
What have been the most challenging elements to convey so far in the game's creation?
EW: One of the most challenging elements to convey about the Uncharted franchise has been the fact that it is much more than a sum of its parts. You can talk about new weapons or new features or technology, but it’s hard to express in words the feeling you get from just experiencing the game. There’s something about the way in which the narrative draws you into the characters and the challenges that they’re facing that separates the game from most of the other action titles out there. We really are trying to tell a more sophisticated and emotionally engaging story than what you’ve traditionally come to expect from a videogame. From the anecdotal feedback that we’ve read on the blogs and in the forums it seems like a lot of people only really appreciate how much this matters after having played the game.
What were some of the film and other non-game influences on Among Thieves compared to Drake's Fortune?
ND: As we’ve mentioned, we want to delve more into Drake’s shadier side and his relationship with the fraternity of criminals he surrounds himself with. Without giving away too much about our plot, I can tell you we’ve gathered a lot of crime and heist films. We always make sure that we don’t limit ourselves to just modern films – in fact, much of our inspiration come from very character driven classics.
We also got into quite a few Nepalese movies to get a better feel for the region and the culture. These have really inspired some of the locales and characters Drake will come across in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
What sort of additions may you bring to Among Thieves via PSN?
EW: We’re going to be supporting PSN Trophies right out of the gate and we’re going to keep our Medal system first seen in Drake’s Fortune to allow for an even greater number of challenges to achieve. We are planning to have a ton of cheats, skins, concept art, secrets, and videos to unlock as rewards from attaining Medals and Trophies, just like in our first game.
We are also currently planning to add additional features to Uncharted 2 that will extend the gameplay experience and increase replayability. We’ll be unveiling these features closer to the worldwide release of our game in autumn of 2009.
What is your favourite part of the game so far?
ND: With Uncharted 2, we set out to create Naughty Dog’s most engaging cinematic experience yet. My favourite parts of the game are when all of our different technological and creative achievements come together to grab the player not only viscerally, but emotionally as well.
An example of this is our train level. By using object traversal technology, Drake and all Non Player Characters have the ability to jump from car to car, climb in and out of the side windows, and hold gun battles across multiple cars. All the while the train careens and buckles around corners through expansive vistas of a Nepalese countryside. Just the dynamic environment along with our traversal gunplay battles will leave players breathless – you’ve never seen a train fight like this! However, where Uncharted 2 really shines is that you’re not just playing to see the next big event; you’re running and fighting across the train in order to save a character you truly care about. You’re concerned about their outcome, because we’ve taken the time and energy to develop our characters and give them meaningful and complex relationships.
It is only through the combination of a character driven story and dynamic gameplay that we can honestly say a sequence is a cinematic experience.
