Uncharted Devs: We're Not Afraid to Kill Off Characters

[Greg Tito]

Uncharted Devs: We're Not Afraid to Kill Off Characters

The storytellers behind Uncharted want you to believe that no character is safe.

Naughty Dog has always made the Uncharted story feel authentic. But like the adventure genre that spawned it, the events of the game stretch the limits of possibility. Really? People were able to survive a building falling over? Apparently, for Uncharted 3 coming out on the PS3 this November, the guys at Naughty Dog want to preserve some dramatic intensity without feeling like the characters are immortal. Even Wells, co-President of Naughty Dog said that they are not above killing off supporting characters like Elena or Chloe from Uncharted 2 but he wouldn't do so needlessly.

"We're not dogmatic about anything," Wells said. "If that is what it takes, then that's what it takes. And not just for dramatic shock value - it would definitely have to tie into the narrative that [we're] trying to tell and expose an aspect of Drake's character that we would want to delve into."

Perhaps this time around, the ladies surrounding Nathan Drake are a little more disposable because the story focuses elsewhere. "We are trying to keep things fresh and draw certain aspects of Nate's personality out as well as the characters he's surrounded with," he explains. "Chloe and Elena are back but they aren't the emphasis of the story the way they were in Uncharted 2. This time round the emphasis is on Victor Sullivan and his mentor/protégé relationship with Drake."

Hot off of watching Game of Thrones, it would certainly be nice to play a game that ok with killing off major characters. The hard part is to make it seem like a natural progression, instead of just meaningless slaughter, which it seems Evan Wells is aware.

Either way, I'm interested to see where the Uncharted story leads.

Source: CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/307086/news/naughty-dog-wed-kill-off-lead-uncharted-character/]

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[fangclaw]

Kill the main guy, quickly, like in the first few minutes, please.

 

[Macrobstar]

Kill the main guy, quickly, like in the first few minutes, please.

Why would you play it if you don't like nathan?
My bets on sully dying

 

[Proteus214]

Spoiler

Translation: Sully dies.

RIP mustache

I honestly don't know any other way to interpret that.

 

[standokan]

Wooo spooky, so they can kill anyone?

Pooh, I'm sure that it won't be the old guy because mentor/father types rarely die and that would be really unpredictable.

 

[killamanhunter]

I bet the world just explodes and then explodes again. Making Glekkon down in the dumps alien on E-141 the new adventurer.

I'm telling you, no one would see that one coming.

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

If they kill off any of the main three (Drake, Sully, or Elena), I'm quitting the series.

 

[TheIronRuler]

I don't care about the series.
I started playing the first and it simply put me off.
Kudos for killing off main characters if needed, and not to squeeze a salty tear from players.
At least I hope this is the direction they're going with, since none of these characters are ones you can relate to, instead you feel sorry for other people getting shot at. By you.
It reminds me Metro 2033, which at some point ambushing three soldiers I felt sorry a few seconds before I threw a knife in a skull, blew him up behind sandbags and shot the third with a shotgun in the head. Twice.

 

[AlternatePFG]

Sully is going to die, he is the "I'm too old for this crap" kind of character, which pretty much mean he is guaranteed to die.

 

[Azex]

If they kill off any of the main three (Drake, Sully, or Elena), I'm quitting the series.

itll be too late by then. after 3 they just gonna make the racing one then move onto sony's next console. some other dev will make cheap versions from then on

 

[Ironic Pirate]

Hmm. The problem is that characters in Uncharted are the Main Character, one of his two side-kicks, or an enemy. All the others are pretty much inconsequential, with the exception of Chloe. So either they kill off an extremely important character, or one who gets introduced in the third game and we may not care about at their time of death, like that one old guy in UC2.

Hot off of watching Game of Thrones, it would certainly be nice to play a game that ok with killing off major characters. The hard part is to make it seem like a natural progression, instead of just meaningless slaughter, which it seems Evan Wells is aware.

Wait till it gets to the third season (assuming they keep going with the season to book ratio).

 

[mjc0961]

The problem will still remain that they aren't going to kill Drake and thus he looks like some kind of super hero rather than a regular dude. Uncharted 1 was, as the box art stated, "one ordinary man, one extraordinary adventure." Then Uncharted 2 came out and Drake was not an ordinary man anymore. He should have died 2 or 3 times in that game at least, but he just shakes off his injuries within hours, a day or two at most, and goes right back to kicking ass.

And we've already seen preview trailers where Drake gets shot after that lady steals his ring, so it's already obvious that they're going to do the same thing in Uncharted 3. Killing Sully, Elena, or Chloe isn't going to rid the game of the "Drake is immortal" stink it will have just like it's older brother Uncharted 2 had.

 

[Cowabungaa]

[HEADING=2]Touch Sully and you will PAY!!! PAY I TELL YOU!!![/HEADING]

*ahem*

Well, sure beats having casts that seem immortal. That usually takes the excitement out of a story, knowing it'll all end up alright. I want to feel tension dammit!

 

[Feylynn]

See saying something like that ruins the entire story in my mind because it spoils it with the a or b set up of:
A: They go through with it and have literally just told you the ending. Wow, dicks.
B: They don't, and this is just words, or worse yet it could be construed as them trying to convince you they are Joss whedon and will actually kill your favorite character for no good reason other than they want you suffer for narrative pacing, which they obviously aren't, because they didn't.

 

[Azaraxzealot]

well that's good. give the audience a little something to worry about. some suspense.

on another note, i need help with a forum issue, i can't seem to make new threads because i have a permanent "Captcha Error" when there IS no captcha to begin with! I don't even have the option to type one!

 

[Zhukov]

Ditto first comment. They could improve the series by several orders of magnitude by killing off Drake.

 

[icame]

Now THAT is what I liked to hear. A character, dieing can be a fantastic event for the story, assuming it is done well. A good example is *SPOILERS FOR VALKYRIA CHRONICLES* *SERIOUSLY... LEAVE NOW* when Isara dies in Valkryia Chronicles.

 

[Falseprophet]

Hot off of watching Game of Thrones, it would certainly be nice to play a game that ok with killing off major characters. The hard part is to make it seem like a natural progression, instead of just meaningless slaughter, which it seems Evan Wells is aware.

On that note, Greg, looking forward to your analysis of the finale!

 

[NickCaligo42]

This seems like a pretty pointless thing to come out and say... three games into the series, doesn't it? Even if you like these games you have to admit that they've already firmly established a goofy, implausible tone that's sucking on Hollywood's safe and marketable cock and that it's a little bit late to go, "ooh, watch out! We're going to get EDGY any second now!"

 

[Undead Dragon King]

Killing characters off has always been a tricky issue with game serieses, especially concerning characters that carry over to the sequels. I think that Mass Effect 2 did it best. Characters, even old favorites, can and will die but it is wholly dependent on how much of a completionist you are as well as your tactical choices on the final mission.

Killing characters off as simply "part of the storyline" simply sounds lazy today. If this press release is implying that, then there are going to be angry mobs at Naughty Dog's door when Drake's Deception hits shelves.