While Nathan Drake’s third outing received plenty of critical praise, it also drew ire from fans for what some perceived to be bad writing. The target of these claims was in part the way characters dropped out of the story without sufficient exposition. Cutter and Chloe’s sudden departure without reappearance is often cited, and those who lament their absence claim sloppy writing as the culprit.
In an interview with IGN, former Naughty Dog Producer Richard Lemarchand defends these decisions as crucial to the Drake’s development as a person throughout the game. “The way that Drake’s friends fall away over the course of Uncharted 3, finally leaving him alone, is an important and deliberate part of the game’s intertwined storytelling,” he declared. “. . . Uncharted 3 is about how relentless Drake can be when he’s pursuing a goal, and the dangers of that single-mindedness. He’s so fixated on following the chain of clues that the story puts in front of him, and in such disregard of the growing danger around him, that he barely notices as his friends drop out of the adventure one by one.”
According to Lemarchand, the decision to highlight Drake’s mistreatment of those loyal to him sets the stage for the game’s unsettling finale. “So when he ends up alone for one of the later sequences of the adventure, he’s really facing one of his deepest fears. We all fear being alone, but it’s a particular demon for Drake, given what we learn about his background early on in the game.”
It’s comforting to know that Naughty Dog is willing to forgo conventional storytelling to advance the tale of such an important character. If anything, their willingness to experiment within and redefine the writing space has us even more excited for The Last of Us – the studio’s new IP that won our hearts at E3.