14 DAY TRIAL // I killed a lot of people in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, a game for which we now have a review up on the site. Yes, all of them were bad, mercenary types that dressed in drab gray or in black and that wore a much-too-heavy armor for their own good (although I suppose that it kept warm that way up there, in the Himalayas). All of them were out to also kill me. But that did not make it easier. The killing is all Hollywood-like, with little blood, very clean corpses and the advantage of picking up ammo and weapons from their bodies.
But there's also civilian death in Uncharted 2, most clearly shown in the idyllic, little Sherpa village that you get to after getting shot in the gut and train wrecked. These people tend to Nathan Drake and then you, the player, take over and go out searching for the biggest treasure you have ever seen, courtesy of Marco Polo. When you return a proven war criminal has assaulted the village and seems to be murdering quite a lot of its inhabitants. And here Uncharted 2 misses one of its biggest chances to be a bit more than a B-quality action shot.
The devastation is very real, with houses blown apart, resistance fighters gunned down and children fleeing from the face of danger. But it never really registers on him, with all the bright colors around the player and with the urgency or progress bearing down on the gamer. Drake doesn't stop to think about them, to deliver one of his smart lines about the situation, to mention that maybe the quest for the stone should be stopped so that a little damage control could be implemented. Only at one point does he tell Elena to take care of the villagers while he runs off in search of glory and enemies to kill.
This makes Nathan Drake very much an immoral character. If it only were for his killing of bad guys and plundering of treasures, then he would be only amoral, lacking a clear ethics compass. When adding his disregard, at least in the way Naughty Dog created him, for almost every other human life around him, except Elena and Chloe, this makes him as immoral as his backstabbing pal Flynn and just a shade better than the man who is a war criminal. By the way, Lazarevici is pretty much spot-on when he asks Drake how many people he has killed that day so far.