Uncharted and the Issue of Character 

I do love how Nathan is a literal one man army. Even murders thousands and shows no signs of ptsd.

I'm not sure how the enemies got hired to be mercenaries and assassins. Imagine going through years of training just to get killed by a very lucky guy

I used to think about the killing in these games, I couldn’t figure out if it "fit" but then I realised that Nate is actually quite ruthless, despite his approachable exterior. He is genuinely dangerous if you’re his enemy and if you try to kill him or someone he cares about, he will shoot you in the head and crack a joke about it hurting in the morning, because, to him, you’re just an asshole who tried to kill him. I think the fundamental issue is not that Nate kills remorselessly, that makes sense, it’s the video game nature of the sheer number of fights that a real person could never consistently survive, and that conflicts with the realistic presentation of the characters. The gameplay seems 'video-gamey' in comparison.

I think "ludonarrative dissonance" is the term for when story/characters and gameplay act separated. Granted, most players don't care and figure out unless it's really obvious, but for other who pay atention, it's noticeable. While it has his uses (to create hypocritical characters for example), it's kinda hard to not ignore once you see it.

Gotta say, the unescapable gunfights where it's literally shoot or get shot is excusable. It's the stealth kills for me. Sometimes when taking down an enemy in stealth, Nate would just ram a goon to a wall that's very clearly not lethal. But then other times, he just straight up snaps their necks. Maybe that could still be explainable with the Drakes and Sully since they've lived a life of danger for a very long time. But I draw the line at Elena being able to just casually snap necks, no problem. Hell, even when you've been spotted and a gunfight ensues and you melee, they merely just knock them out. There's just something about the casual snapping of necks in this series that irks me. What really got to me is when I played Uncharted 4 with my cousin watching and he said, "I wonder how many women and children are waiting for these men at home" after I snapped a Shoreliner's neck. I guess it's because I played a lot of Metal Gear 5, and that game actually punishes killing, even when it's an option.

The video essay on Uncharted that has resonated with me the most so far. Snapping necks and eliminating dudes that haven't attacked Nathan first, always left a bad taste in my mouth. Even in the fourth game he calls the enemy faction "Shoreline jerks" and treats them dismissively. That is not what I would expect from somebody who only from his known adventures, has killed close to twice as many people as Hurricane Katrina.

Excellent video! I never thought about just how the two different eras of Uncharted set up their grunts before. I’d make two counters (well, one counter and one expression of personal preference): 1) I think by U4, you’re supposed to feel like Drake is not doing the right thing by killing all these guards. At first, his actions are justified because he wants to save Sam from Salazar, but once that’s exposed for a lie, Nate has zero justifications for his actions and the narrative leans heavily into that direction. 2) While I really did like your analysis of Chloe’s characterization tying into her gameplay, I found Chloe’s character arc far less compelling than Nate’s in U4. Following in her father’s footsteps and ultimately standing up for the good of her country, while absolutely thrilling in the gameplay department (the helicopter! the train sequence!) felt a lot more hammy and continually took me out of the moment. Especially how lightning quick Nadine goes from, ‘don’t let me ever see you again,’ to, ‘hey, nice to see you again.’ Anyway, those are my two cents, but I’m definitely going to keep an eye on your channel!

Your material is excellent, going through your backlog now. I have no idea how you have so few subscribers with such strong content. Please, keep it up.

Awesome underrated video essay!

I've heard these arguments before but I've always disagreed. What exactly did you want from Nate here, he only kills when put in situations where either he's be hounded by a million guys and needs to fight back or to save someone else who needs help. In both cases it's kill or be killed. I don't expect someone in that situation to be concerned with non lethal take downs. Even the series itself acknowledges this with one of my favorite trophies you can get called Ludo Narrative Dissonance which you get after 1,000 kills, directly addressing the complaints about Drake being a "crazed serial killer". I will agree though that highlighting that stealthing through sections is a viable option would have definitely helped, especially as a fan of stealth games. But it's also worth noting that Uncharted 4 is all about letting go of this life and putting away these treasure hunting ambitions. But I don't care for the most part for another reason, I only care about these kinds of things if the story draws attention to it, if I'm meant to examine it, because games are unfortunately not often given the same level treatment with their stories in favor of being more fun for the player, so I'm always willing to meet it on its own terms and examine the story as it's meant to be. That's the only fair way to do so in my opinion.

Underrated video.

I think the video is about how mechanics and gameplay can support, or in this case conflict with the suggested characters in the game world. How their implementation into gameplay acts as an interactive representation of their personalities. I'm not sure if that's an exact definition, but it feels right. I think the title of the video doesn't convey it too well. Maybe something like Uncharted: Putting characters in convincing context... or something simpler if that's possible. Really good video though, very thorough and sharp, picking up on something not immediately obvious and supporting it with explanations.

Great video!

You overthinking too much Those guys tries to kill nate, nate defend himself end of the question And its not ludo-narrative dissonance Lazarevic in the end of the 2 acknowledge the fact that nate murdered entire armies Also its very badass Ans the gunplay/combat was always amazing since the 2, i would say its the best TPS gunplay/gameplay even Even the grapping weapon by the air was made in uncharted 3 first and 4 removed some features like grenade takedowns or stealth bonuses

Interesting...

Great video...as a new sub i hope you get back to making new content soon

Pizza Time

Nah

Haha if you are having those kind of problems mate go play tetris. Stay the hell away from manhunt