History Headscratchers / Uncharted

*** But ND frequently focuses on his abilities. And just because he can mow down mooks without blinking an eye doesn't mean it's necessary for a good shooter. In ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'', the titular character starts sounding a bit crazy after killing enough bad guys, and it's still a good game. VideoGame/MaxPayne also incurs psychological damage over the days his game takes place (or so I heard). The main character in ''ShadowComplex'' even has military training, and still ponders the morality of killing mooks. They just need to remove Drake's {{Bond One Liner}}s, and I'll take his persona as normal - if killing people is routine enough to joke about, well... But like I said, it's more ND's attitude towards him than the character himself - one liners aside, he's still pretty close to normal.

** Presumeably between ''Uncharted 2'' and ''Uncharted 3''.

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!! Navigation: [[Headscratchers/UnchartedDrakesFortune Drake's Fortune]] | [[Headscratchers/Uncharted2AmongThieves Among Thieves]] | [[Headscratchers/Uncharted3DrakesDeception Drake's Deception]] | [[Headscratchers/UnchartedGoldenAbyss Golden Abyss]] | [[Headscratchers/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd A Thief's End]] | [[Headscratchers/UnchartedTheLostLegacy The Lost Legacy]]
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%% Please add Headscratchers for specific games to their individual sub-pages

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:The Series]]

** That would all depend on where exactly the cities are, and whether or not they are near places with high air traffic. They are probably in out of the way areas that no one would have any reason to fly over and the entirety of the earth's surface isn't fully mapped out. Alternately, maybe it did happen and the pilots just weren't paying attention.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Drake's Fortune]]

* So the Nazis built this huge elaborate base on the Island, yet no one ever found any records back in Europe of them being there? That base must of taken years to build, hundreds (if not thousands) of skilled workers, and tons of material. Surely there would be records of these things going to the Island for the Allies to find after they defeated Germany.
* Was it so imperative that Nate solve all the puzzles? They only led to places which had already been explored and which were already swarming with enemies.
** Nate was following the treasure map. He was following an ancient path, discovered or established hundreds of years before. The puzzle were in the way to deter people way back when, and he's solving them because he doesn't want to lose the trail. As for his enemies, see below.
** The enemy placement was perplexing at times. As an example, Sully said he sent his cohorts on a red herring on the other side of the monastery yet not only do we still find enemies patrolling nearby but they're in areas that were supposedly unknown to anyone but Nate's party.
*** As mentioned above, Nate is following the path set out by the map. His enemies, however, don't have the benefit of the map, and therefore are tearing the island apart trying to find El Dorado. It makes sense that while Nate is doggedly determined to following the trail of the map for fear of getting lost, his opponents would be more interested in scouring every square mile of that dinky little island. As a result, they're ''avoiding'' the obstacles; just navigating past walls and doors and such where they can. The game is actually pretty good about not having normal enemies in areas they haven't found yet.

* How did Drake not see the giant Nazi radio tower? It is the tallest thing on the island and would be clearly visible. When playing the game, it is usually off screen and you'd have to move the screen up to see it so the player is unlikely to notice it on the first run through, but in game there is no excuse.
** People have a tendency to edit out things they don't expect. There's an experiment where people are asked to watch a video of a ball being passed from one hand to another, and count the passes to people in white shirt. After they're done, the experimenter asks them how many times the person in the gorilla suit crosses the screen. The subject often doesn't recall seeing them in the first place.
*** There's a difference between "not expecting something" and "paying close attention to something else". The argument you gave is the latter, the OP's question is the former. The mast should also stick out above trees, so just about every time Drake looks up, he should go, "Hey, what's that?" and not "edit it out", as you say.
*** Okay. Maybe he just thought it was built by the government for cell phones boat radios or something. I can't find any screenshots with the tower. Could someone post a link to a 'shot, or a video of a playthrough with a timecode? Also, for what it's worth, I watched a whole playthrough and somehow missed the tower. Then again, I occasionally miss things in real life that I've passed dozens of times, even when ''not'' distracted by folks trying to ventilate me.
*** The tower could be easily missed in a playthrough, and the camera might not even move enough for you to see it; the OP's got no problem with that. I think he's trying to get at something like "Drake sees radio tower, realizes there's buildings here more recent than the 17th century". Remember, Nate and Elena had no idea there was a Nazi base on the island before they were forced in there by the zombies.
*** I missed the tower on every playthrough of the game, and consider myself a pretty observant player - Drake probably missed the tower for the same reasons, i.e. that he was almost always being shot at or facing some other perilous danger. There wasn't any time for sightseeing and when there were moments of peace, he was in ruined cities or forests where there were plenty of other, more obvious, things to grab his attention.
*** Yes, because the camera is fixed in the third person. It points at Drake constantly. You ''can'' see the tower if you move the camera at the right time, but the fact that the ''player'' isn't going to notice it doesn't excuse why Drake doesn't. It should have been right in his line of vision.
*** So what? He has a lot more to look at. And the guy had no inkling at all that there may have been a Nazi base on the island, and we often miss what we don't expect to be there. I never saw the tower, and I made a habit of stopping to look at all the gorgeous scenery. If anything, Drake is more blind than the player because his viewpoint is closer to the ground, restricted to how far he can turn his head and can't be panned or zoomed.

* Seriously, how did that sub get up the waterfall. Wasn't the Nazi base at sea level? The seas would've have to have risen, what, something like a hundred feet for it to make it up there?
** I might be forgetting something, but isn't it said in-game that it was carried there by a tsunami? At the least, I think Sully theorises as such...
** This doesn't specifically answer the question, but a slight correction: the Nazi base was on a completely different island (for that matter, it's never stated that the first part of the game takes place on an island at all - it could just be some remote part of the Amazonian rainforest). Drake heads to the island ''after'' finding the map in the U-boat.
** I'm willing to bet that it got scuttled there, and a freak-of-nature earthquake pushed it up a hundred feet.
** Nate explicitly suggests it got stuck during flood season, when it would be possible for such a large boat to travel upriver. The crew must have been wiped out before they could leave at the next flood.

* Who was building the traps made out of the plane parts on the island? It wasn't Raja's men because he wanted to know, it wasn't Roman's men because he didn't know either, and the Descendants were too far gone to make anything that sophisticated.
** Judging from the footprints around the traps (at least the one made of airplane scraps) it probably was the Descendants. Maybe they're smarter than they show us in the game.
** Notice that the Descendants do actually wear loincloths and necklaces. Plus they appear to have stalked Drake for a while; after they encounter the trap Drake says "we're being watched", and you can hear them moving in a temple long before you actually see them. I think it's possible that the Descendants are actually sentient, but have an overpowering urge to protect El Dorado (or just really bad tempers) which makes them appear to be just animals.
** Since the Descendants spend all their screen time trying to kill somebody, it's anybody's guess what they get up to when no one is around. Their most obvious trait is that they are suicidally determined to kill any non-infected human they come across. Setting traps seems to be another means of doing that.

* If Nathan Drake has any doubt about not being a biological heir of Sir Francis Drake then why doesn't he go back to that cursed island and take Drake's dead body back to civilization? They can run a DNA test on the body and see if it matches with his; or would finding DNA in a corpse hundreds of years old be too difficult?
** If there's water where Drake's corpse is, it might make it exceedingly difficult. The theory of ancient DNA testing is split in half, one side saying it's possible, the other saying that it's impossible. There's been general infighting among the Egyptian Archaeological scene over the ability to test mummified remains, and Drake's corpse looks like it isn't a traditional, manufactured mummy.
** Plus, Drake would have to convince so many people to do a DNA test on him and Francis to see if they matched. Plus, there's a good chance Nate isn't descended from Francis, so why ruin the fun and mystery of it?
** The main reason is because a DNA test wouldn't have proven anything. Sir Francis lived several centuries ago, there's no way Nate and him share the same DNA. Tens of generations will have ensured that Nate and Sir Francis are as genetically identical as two random strangers on the street.
** ''Uncharted 3'' has made this moot since Nate is really [[spoiler:some orphaned kid with no verifiable connection to Francis Drake at all]].

* There is a door where you have to ShootOutTheLock. Nate can kick the locked door all day and not have it budge an inch, but after shooting the lock, he kicks the door and it falls off its hinges. How did the lock keep the door secured to the wall?

* How exactly are the Descendants ... ''descendants''? Did the Spaniards or the Nazis bring women with them in their units? Because I'm pretty sure those sorts of expedition crews were usually all men during both of those time periods. It doesn't help that all of the so called "Descendants" in-game appear to be universally male...

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Among Thieves]]

* Elena at the end of the game doesn't believe the "curse" of the cintimani stone, however this is the same lady who saw what the stone does to people, but more importantly the events of the first game!!! She forgot what she lived through or what?
** ArbitrarySkepticism at its finest - while she saw for herself what the El Dorado "statue" did, it could be that she's still dismissing that as a one-off and refuses to believe that on her next big adventure, she will once again encounter something supernatural (after all, in reality what would the chances be?). Also she had no chance to be skeptical about El Dorado - she didn't even know what it really was until ''after'' they'd encountered the mutant Spaniards - whereas she's known about the "curse" for a while and dismisses it as an urban myth.
** Exactly. You'd have to be touched in the head to think everything supernatural is true just because of ''one'' instance of seeing something like a zombie plague.
*** Also, Elena saw exactly how El Dorado's "curse" worked, whereas she had no idea about the details of the Cintimani stone's own curse or even any evidence that the stone itself existed. On the other hand, she has plenty of evidence to think Lazarevic is insane. The main reason a curse exists at all is because it's a story, and it would be a little anticlimactic if it turned out to be nothing special.

* Why, oh ''why'' did Flynn try to kamikaze Nathan's group? Yes, he's still pissed at Nathan... for... ''something''... but he appeared to be trying to spare Chloe, and didn't like Lazarevic one bit. Yes, Lazarevic most likely took his only gun, but at that point, he was separated from the group, due to the guardians, and could have snapped up a pistol from one of the dead goons.
** In fact, I still can't remember why Flynn hates Drake. Besides getting snarked at all the time.
*** I don't think it's so much Flynn ''hating'' Drake so much as it is him not caring about him. And caring about the money more. And possibly being terribly jealous of Drake's mad skills.
*** Flynn wouldn't have jihaded Nathan if he didn't care.
*** He was already bleeding to death from a gunshot wound. He just wanted to take as many people as possible with him. As for him hating Nate: remember that he was trying to spare Chloe. That means he wanted her for himself. He might have known about their relationship from the beginning and just played dumb like he did with the ships.
*** Given Chloe's "mostly professional" line and the fact that he specifically asked for her to be spared, it's possible he worked out that she and Nate used to be an item and got homicidally jealous.
*** Oh, Flynn knew, and he hated Nate's guts for it. If he didn't figure it out earlier, he almost certainly guessed when Chloe gave Nate the dagger in the monastery, which would have been a severe blow to the ego (the hot woman liked Nate enough to ''give him'' the key to Shambhala, and to top it off he swiftly worked out how to use it to open the door). Also, it was kinda because of Nate that Lazarevic shot Flynn. After thinking about it, I suspect Flynn's explodicide was aimed at both Drake and Elena - because killing Elena would take her away from Drake as Drake took Chloe from Flynn, one last great big "Screw You".
*** When Drake and Flynn are forced to work together near the end, Drake calls him a "backstabbing son-of-a-bitch", to which Flynn replies "Yeah, well you'd know all about that, wouldn't you?", so presumably Flynn feels that Drake betrayed him in some way. YMMV as to whether this refers to him screwing Chloe or some NoodleIncident in the past. If it was the latter, Drake apparently didn't think it was a major friendship-ending event, since he was happy to see Flynn at the start, and trusted him without question during the museum job.

* Nate's attitude toward Chloe in the second half of the game makes no sense. She pretends to be on Lazarevic's side to cover them, but when Lazarevic and Flynn walk in on her ''holding a gun on Nate's group'' (to cover for them, but the bad guys don't know that) and take her to the train, Nate thinks from some reason that she's being held prisoner and immediately risks ''everything'' to try to save her. Even a moron could tell that she was just playing along! Then, at the monastery, he runs into her again, still playing along. She claims that she didn't know they were there and is just trying to save herself (pretty obvious), and yet Nate still treats her like crap until she gives him the dagger. This is the dagger she ''needs'' to find the secret door with to live, so Nate's possibly sending her to her death without it. Pretty nice and observant guy, ain't he?
** When she's taken on the train, it's implied pretty heavily that Flynn has figured out she's betrayed him and is working with Nathan. IIRC this is confirmed when you find her on the train and she is being treated significantly worse by Flynn than she was during the opening portions of the game.
*** Flynn sure didn't act like he knew Chloe had betrayed him, and if so, it didn't look like he told Lazarevic. But if he did know, then why did a) she want to stay on the train, or b), he keep her alive? If someone sold me out, I'd kill them or keep them within sight at all times. If I was being held captive by someone who I sold out and they knew about it, I'd want to leave [=ASAP=]. If Flynn knows Chloe's not loyal to Lazarevic, she's nothing but a liability. I mean, when when Flynn comes after her on the train, just before Nathan blows it up, she's just killed one of his men, and she tries to defend Nate as he's running away on the train. Think of this from Flynn's perspective: he comes upon Nate and Chloe arguing. He shoots Nate, but Nate runs away, and Chloe attempts to defend him. And he still lets her roam fairly free without telling Lazarevic about it ''at all''. Double IdiotBall, maybe? And Nate ''still'' has no reason to treat her like he did in the monastery.
*** I think Nate was mad at Chloe mostly because of who she is. She has made it clear from past actions that at the end of the day she will always look at for number 1 - herself. While she'll try to help those she cares about, ultimately when she is backed into a wall, she put herself above others, which is the opposite of Nate. This becomes her turning point in character when she refuses to leave [[spoiler:Elena]] behind. Chloe defiantly has the most character development in this game.
*** Well, that makes sense. I guess it was just weird to see Nate swing from well-meaning on the train to jerk in the monastery. [[GrammarNazi And it's "definitely", not "defiantly".]]
*** [[OverlyLongGag Chloe has the most character development against all instructions to the contrary. She was specifically told to be a stagnating character but she just had to go ahead and grow a conscience.]]
* So, Elena apparently caught up with the train by "following the tracks to the wreckage". But at the end of the first train level, the helicopter blasts a car so that it winds up blocking the tunnel, rendering the tunnel unusable. Furthermore, how could Elena know where Nate went when she got to the wreckage? The falling snow would cover up most of his tracks.
** The road didn't follow the tracks exactly for most of the route anyway, so she probably saw roughly where the tracks were headed and took the nearest alterative route. We don't know how far Tamzin's village is from the wreck site, but it is connected to the road network - Elena likely saw that there was no trace of Drake at the wreck and headed for the nearest settlement to see if they knew anything.
* Late in the game, [[spoiler:Flynn]] conveniently runs off to talk to Lazarevic, thus getting out of the player's way. That is to say, he stopped his work to talk to his hair-triggered psychopath of a boss, after said boss furiously stated his displeasure with [[spoiler:Flynn's]] lack of progress in his work. He couldn't possibly be charming enough to survive ''that''.
** And nobody is good enough to survive getting in Nathan Drake's way. Doesn't mean they KNOW that, though. The same explanation goes for the Lazarevic one.
** Lazarevic knows that Drake is the more adept treasure hunter than Flynn - I think he even says that he wishes he'd hired Drake. Flynn himself probably realises this on some level so his plan may have been to stay out of the way and let Drake find the path to Shambhala for him - which is exactly what ended up happening. If Flynn stuck around, Drake was not going to search and knowingly lead Lazarevic there.
** Sully points out early on that Flynn has been leading Lazarevic's expedition for months without result. It's possible Flynn is capable of sweet-talking his way out of trouble, as he'd have to if he could get away with being ''that'' incompetent for so long. He even seems to have enough clout to talk Lazarevic out of killing Chloe, despite Lazarevic's obvious hatred for traitors. Flynn may simply have reached the limit of his charm by the time the game nears its end, when Lazarevic effectively kills him.

* During the train level, Nate crosses a flatbed car with a tank and comments, "What do they need a tank for?" Later, the tank is [[{{Foreshadowing}} a major boss]]. However, the tank was on the section of train that got blown off when the helicopter first shows up during the train level... so they shouldn't've had the tank later in the game. While the bad guys could've had two tanks, what do they need ''two'' tanks for ''in the Himalayas''?
** For the same reason Mao's Chinese Army needed nearly 200 of them during the invasion of Tibet: because while it is POSSIBLE to make do without them, it sure is a [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch HELL]] of a lot easier with them. That, and they were in the middle of an effing civil war of their own making, one which might get a lot larger depending on the intervention of the West (ESPECIALLY India) and/or China, both of whom would certainly be bringing heavy firepower. So it makes sense that Lararevic would want as much firepower as possible to carve their way through the civil war and possibly ward off any attempt by anybody to disrupt the expedition.
*** Lazarevic wasn't taking those tanks into the city. He was taking them into the ''mountains''. You know, the exact terrain where tanks are at their least effective? How was he even able to get his other tank up to the Tibetan village when it was seated at the top of a high mountain with a sharp incline on all sides, anyway?
*** You are forgetting that "Least effective" does not mean "not effective," particularly since those in the mountains and other areas where tanks are unlikely to pop up tend to be prepared for them the least. And he might be taking them because it's better to do so than to abandon them and thus have them get picked up by one of the sides in the civil war and thus lost to his arsenal. As for how they get the tank up there, well I believe it would involve extremely complicated and low-tech pullies, amongst other things.
*** Complicated = a long time to assemble. No good. And mountains are craggy and steep enough that "least effective" ''could'' mean "not effective" for tanks.
*** Drake himself mentions this several times, including during the tank battle. But honestly? It's TankGoodness, or perhaps Everything's Better With Tanks?
*** He's taking on ''Nathan Friggin' Drake''. Why didn't he bring a dozen more tanks?
** Lazarevic has a sizeable air force. It's possible he had the tank air-lifted into the village, where it does plenty of damage. He's just the sort to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

* Lazarevic attempts to pull a NotSoDifferent on Drake, despite killing goons who tore apart civilians, rebels, and some more civilians for, as far as they're concerned, a stone that's just really fucking expensive. [[spoiler:Drake hesitates, though that's arguably due to the Guardians about to beat the living shit out of Lazarevic.]]
** [[spoiler:This becomes FridgeBrilliance when you realize that by refusing to kill him himself, Drake completely invalidates Lazarevic's worldview regarding compassion and completely denies the BigBad any type of moral victory he thought he still had.]]
*** [[spoiler:That, or because he was carrying an M4, which we know does piss-shit damage to guys like him, while Guardians mauling the shit out of others who have drank from the Tree of Life might be more effective.]]

* Gamesradar has already done an article that points out that Drake destroyed [[spoiler:a peaceful paradise full of enlightened folk who only were defending their own home. Besides, he DID destroy the Tree of Life, which, while yes, could have been abused, research on it could have had all sort of medical breakthroughs. Drake destroyed priceless historical ruins, exterminated a miraculous tree which was the only one of its kind, and single-handedly wiped out a whole sub-culture, effectively commiting genocide.]] [[SarcasmMode Way to go, Drake.]]
** Link, please?
** Enlightened? ''That's'' what you call people who shoot first, ask later, never try to be calm and rational, and drink the sap that works like a mix of Forced Evolutionary Virus and crack?
*** They were defending their home from invaders - the first invaders in hundreds of years. When colonists first arrived in the United States and tried to take resources and land from the Native Americans, the natives were seen as "primitive" and barbaric because they fought back - it's the same principle. Shambhala has only remained safe because of its isolation - when foreigners enter their city, clearly heavily armed, how would you expect them to react? Really, the best option would've been to leave well alone, possibly taking back some of the sap for medical studies.
*** Unfortunately, Lazarevic would ''not'' have left well enough alone, and if he escaped, we have a damn near invincible nutcase with a damn near invincible army on our hands. And it may be my imagination, but it didn't seem as if the Guardians were really living in Shambhala - the place was crumbling before the characters arrived. So they don't maintain it, they just drink the sap and attack whoever enters without trying to negotiate (which should be easy enough, since they're almost immune to bullets. But they don't even try). Hardly sounds peaceful or 'enlightened' (and I'd like a definition of that one, please). Don't get me wrong, I wish the city hadn't been destroyed, I wish the Tree could have been preserved, but ultimately there weren't many options.
** "A peaceful paradise full of enlightened folk who only were defending their own home" is not how one would describe a near-unintelligible and AxCrazy people whose "scarecrows" dress up as monsters, roar like predators, and try their hardest to beat you to death on sight, especially when they have enough advantages to make negotiation safe (immunity from bullets, for instance). Watching the finale, I think it's apparent that Shambala's destruction was a side-effect of offing Lazarevic, unintentional and regrettable, not a case of deliberate vandalism as implied here.
** Shambala's Guardians appear to have devolved or degenerated over the centuries, probably as a side effect of abusing the sap from the Tree of Life. Whatever Shambala once was, its not any longer, it probably wasnt even by Marco Polos day since he hid the path there, and Nathan destroying the place is probably for the best. The sap would just have brought even more destruction to the world.

* Why didn't Nate shoot the sap ''before'' Lazarevic drank it, and save himself (and the player) [[ThatOneBoss a truly frustrating experience]]?
** As mentioned above, the sap could mean miracles for the medical industry - maybe a part of Drake hoped to take down Lazarevic without endangering the Tree of Life so that he could claim some of the sap for himself (he is a treasure hunter, after all) and take it back for study.
*** So shoot Lazarevic.
*** [[IdiotHero Because Mr. Drake is the Hero, and according to the Rules of Heroes, you're not supposed to shoot the bad guy until he's done powering himself up. After all, you need to give this]] bastard [[IdiotHero a fair chance of battle, no?]]
*** Not even ''that'' completely fits - Drake's an AntiHero, not a straight-laced hero, and several levels earlier, he had [[PutDownYourGunAndStepAway taken a man hostage]], one of the Things a Hero (Generally) Does Not Do.
*** Perhaps he was just honestly curious whether it work. That's what I chalked it up to. His curiosity overcame his rational impulse for a moment. At the wrong moment.
*** That makes sense given his habit of examining whatever artifact he's just found there and then, no matter how dangerous a place he might be in, and ignoring other characters when they tell him to hurry up and keep moving. I think he's just prone to thinking irrationally whenever he's confronted with something he finds interesting.
*** There's one other thing to remember: Lazarevic ''wasn't alone''. He had several mooks there with him. Oh, sure, Nate's gunned down hundreds of bad guys, but he did that (mostly) out of necessity, such as when he was cornered, or when there were bad guys between him and where he needed to go, and when he had the chance to sneak up on people, he had a) the benefit of backup, and b) a minute or two to think things over. In this situation, he's got the drop on the bad guys, but Lazarevic is ''seconds'' away from drinking the sap, Nate's tired, beat up, and not feeling too good, and the tactical situation is not in his favor. He stops to catch his breath, maybe not necessarily believing in the healing power of the sap (or at least not believing that it would be nearly instantaneous), or more like because he just ''doesn't know'' about the healing power of the sap. It's never been shown to do such in the game before, and the resin is just violently explosive. So, all things considered, Nate takes a moment to catch his breath in preparation of taking on bad odds, Lazarevic drinks the sap, and then he realizes he should've acted first, too late to do anything about it.

* Between the events of Drake's Fortune and Among Theives. As we know at the end of Drakes Fortune Nate makes off with several crates worth of Spanish colonial gold and othersuch treasure; so, with all that money why did he not buy himself a bulletproof vest? Or at least a flak jacket? Instead opting to rush into a gunfight unarmored? (Side note: I will not accept the answer that it would hinder agility, the Mooks seem to do fine in that aspect.)
** Nate really doesn't expect to get into gunfights. He's a treasure hunter; technically the places he's exploring shouldn't have any guards that aren't hundreds of years dead. Most of the time he doesn't even seem to carry a ''gun''. He should probably know better by now, but could we have a scene with SexySoakedShirt with a flak jacketed Nate? No, we could not. And what a waste that would be.
*** Except he initiates the conflict between him and Lazarevic by strolling into the latter's camp, blowing stuff up, and killing guards. Then he goes to a city that he ''knows'' Lazarevic has filled with people who want to kill him. Both times, he had plenty of time to go and buy a bulletproof vest at a store or order one online. And it's not like vests are hyper-expensive; the vast majority of them cost less than $1000, and you can easily find some for less than $500. Even if he was strapped for cash, a vest would be a valuable investment.
*** The first thing: Chloe was directing them through that, and it was on her orders they started shooting up the camp. The second thing: I don't think Nate expected Lazarevic to start a civil war just to cover him finding the right temple. But you have a point - maybe Nate was seriously strapped for cash after getting out of that jail?
*** Sully and Chloe, however, ''aren't'' poor. Right before they go into Lazarevic's camp, Nate could say to Chloe, "Oh, hey, do you think I could borrow some money to buy some protection just in case everything goes to hell? I'll pay you back ten times once we find the Cintimani Stone."
*** Actually, ''they are poor''. Sully specifically states when he busts Nate out of the Turkish prison that he "had to blow through [Nate's] entire stash, and a good part of [his] own" to do so. And Chloe is, prior to the opening of the game, working with Lazarevic, implying that she needs money enough to work with a psychopath.
*** I would not trust Nathan Drake as far as I could throw him with a promise like that, even if I was certain he'd find the Stone (which they aren't). Would you?
** Even if he was strapped for cash, he surely could have looted one off a guard he had killed by headshot or stealth attack at some point. He's got about the most generic body frame one could imagine. That said, he probably didn't want it because it would interfere with his parkour.
** Sully states in the scene after the failed heist that he had to use the last of Drake's loot to bail him out of that Turkish prison, so no more treasure after that point.
** Plus, Nate doesn't think that far ahead. For all he knows, at the beginning of every adventure, he's just going somewhere remote and quiet and making off with some previously-hidden treasure.

* How did Lazarevic just stroll into Kathmandu (the city) and cause a civil war in it without any form of retaliation from the Nepalese Army? Kathmandu ''is'' politically unstable in real life, but what's basically happening is a mercenary group waltzing into Nepal's capital city and largest metropolitan center and not only destroying it but ransacking its temples, some of which are over five hundred years old, and thereby destroying a large part of its cultural heritage. And it's not like Nathan and Lazarevic got there at the same time, and Nepal simply hasn't responded yet; it's heavily implied that Lazarevic has been there for at least days by the time Nathan arrives. Additionally, the Nepalese Army is headquartered in Kathmandu, and so should have lots of troops there already. Did Naughty Dog simply forget that Nepal has an army?
** I think they did. I mean, I'm pretty sure Nepal would not just stand there while some mercenary punk ran around hurting its people and culture. I think they forgot either by accident or because they didn't want to bother including another sub-plot where the Nepalese Army comes in.
*** Perhaps Lazarevic hired his private army out to one side or another as a cover. Possibly to the Nepalese government to put down the rebels.
*** Imagine the government's reaction in that situation; it's not like he can brush off everything as collateral damage:
---->'''Nepal:''' "Hey, thanks for offering to fight the rebels with us, that's a big- '''''WHY ARE YOU DESTROYING OUR CAPITAL?!'''''"\\
'''Lazarevic:''' "Um... I want shiny?"
*** The Nepalese military *REEEAAAALLLY* is not the world's finest, to put it generously. They were stalemated and arguably *lost* a ten year war against Maoist guerrillas who were largely operating off of table scraps and what they could seize (and the occasional aid from RedChina and India's [[DirtyCommunists Naxalites]] that nobody wants to acknowledge) when they themselves were equipped with aid from the better chunk of the Western world for starters. In addition, as far as armed forces go, they're rather small even for the country's size, at less than 100,00, of which 40,000 aren't regulars, all of whom are of uneven quality from battle-hardened veterans of said 10-year civil war to "very green" to "worse than very green". Lazarevic's army doesn't have to be *large*, all it has to be is comparatively high quality in personnel and equipment and with the proper preparation. If Lazarevic restarts the old civil war and forces the government to commit most of its' troops out to the outlying countryside *like they did during the war with the Maoists*, he can probably waltz in fairly easily and occupy a large section of the capital and resist any attempts to dislodge him by either side unless they were willing to take punishing if not crippling losses to do it (and thus open themselves up to exploitation by their native enemy). If he guards his territory fairly well and acts relatively unambitiously (basically, what he is: a looter looking for goodies rather than some filibuster trying to take the country over), it's quite possible the government and their enemies (be they Maoist or otherwise) would judge that they have bigger fish to fry and assume they can deal with him once the situation's stabilized enough that they can free up enough men to evict an elite mercenary army from their capital. TL;DR: Lazarevic doesn't have to destroy the Nepalese military or government. All he has to do is beat them up enough until they are forced to fully commit themselves to the civil war and leave him alone, something he can *probably* do. Add *that* to potential covers like signing on officially with one sides (and remember: they only can't prove it's collateral damage if somebody witnesses it, which given Lazarevic is... [[LeaveNoSurvivors unlikely.]]
*** The thing is, Nepal's army isn't even ''mentioned''. The developers could've just handwaved it with, "Now that the guerrillas have been pushed out of this section of the city, the army isn't interested in it anymore, so Lazarevic can search unimpeded. It's just you and him now." Additionally (I could be wrong here, correct me if so), restarting a civil war takes time. I'm assuming Nathan headed for Kathmandu as soon as possible, which I'm guessing is about a week. However, Lazarevic gets there first ''and'' tears enough of the city apart to make it seem like he got the war started up in a few days, which doesn't sound like enough time to me. Furthermore, the party behind the guerrillas was the ruling party of Nepal when the game was made (and still is). Finally, leaving absolutely ''no'' survivors is incredibly difficult, especially in urban warfare. A few soldiers and armed policemen are likely to be left behind to hold down the fort, so to speak, and if even ''one'' of them sees Lazarevic's brutality and escapes to warn Nepal, the army is likely to focus on fighting a defensive war against the guerrillas and try to oust Lazarevic instead; what's the point of winning a war if the thing you won is ravaged? And Lazarevic can't have too many of his men in the city, or he'll draw attention to himself and the destruction he's causing.
*** The army is fighting against the rebels. The civil war isn't one in which Lazarevic is directly involved, he just formented it so he could sweep in and take advantage of the chaos to turn the city upside-down without raising too many eyebrows (since the city ''was already a warzone'').

* Why would Lazarevic have a helicopter following the train? It makes little to no sense to deploy a helicopter to scour a train just in case some guy jumps on, and the pilot, quite frankly, is a moron, firing missiles at his own train just to kill one guy. When he starts blowing cars off the train, you'd think someone would radio Lazarevic and go, "Uh, sir, Dominic is being a douche; he's destroying the train." And what's up with that turret in the middle of a passenger car? If it was on a flatcar, I could understand, but sticking it in a passenger car restricts its effective firing area to a relatively tiny margin and provides a very easy way to get around it.
** Lazarevic is supposed to be both aggressively insane and unsubtle in his approach to hunting for artefacts. Having a chopper follow the train (and scout the city) is an extra measure he's taken, but then he's already carting around his own private militia on a treasure hunt before he even knows there's going to be any resistance. By then, he already knows Drake is hard to kill, so having a chopper patrol the train just in case anybody hitches an easy ride is consistent with his character.
** The reason to have a helicopter is obvious: It's scouting the tracks ahead of the train. He's just triggered a civil war, so he obviously can't rely on the typical radio network to have people report stopped trains or obstructions, so he sends one of his attack helos to do it.

* In the train level, was the level moving around the train, or the train moving through the level? From a rendering standpoint, I mean.
** I believe Naughty Dog stated that the level is the train moving through the scenery, instead of the other way around. I don't believe it actually makes a difference in terms of rendering, though.

* You find two expeditions related to the Cintimani stone that end up with people getting too powerful and ending up killing each other. First, there's the massacred bodies in the temple in Borneo, where Drake first finds skeletons with black teeth, and second, there's Schafer's expedition, the members of which Schafer had to kill. Presumably, in both cases, the victims had drunk the tree sap and become intoxicated. So how could they be killed? The sap makes one effectively bulletproof and invulnerable.
** Not invulnerable ''or'' bulletproof. Just tough. They could be killed.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Drake's Deception]]

* So, is Talbot ever going to be explained at all? His [[spoiler:drug-induced hallucinations are vaguely plausible, even given how specific they are,]] but what about [[spoiler:his apparent immunity to bullets? And why can he teleport right after drugging Charlie but not when Drake's chasing him?]]
** The way I saw it, by the end of the game I guessed Talbot [[spoiler:was probably a Djinn. He's the only one ever to use the hallucinogenics, same as the water in Ubar. Charlie notes that he shot him directly yet he still survived.]] As for the [[spoiler:teleportation, he probably intended to lead Drake further away from Sully in Yemen, whereas with Charlie, he just needed to pilfer the notebook. This game's plot is more subtle with it's supernatural element than the others in the series, (handily fitting into it's theme of deception) but it's still noticeable]]
** Does any of his supposed [[spoiler:bullet immunity]] happen outside of [[spoiler:drug-induced hallucinations]]? If not, that would explain that. As for him [[spoiler: disappearing after drugging Charlie]] in Syria, I assumed he [[spoiler:escaped down a hidden passage. We already know of one; why not more?]] The above theory that [[spoiler:he's a Djinn]] ''would'' explain why he has access to the [[spoiler:hallucination water]] when seemingly nobody else does. But I'm sure some alternate theory could be cooked up if needs be. To the Wild Mass Guessing page!
** WordOfGod confirms [[spoiler:he was just using black ops tricks like a bullet proof vest and an escape rope to to appear more intimidating.]]

* What the heck was with the spider-swarms from hell present in locations as far-flung as France, Syria, and Yemen? Marlowe's group had clearly been studying them, but since the ending of ''Drake's Deception'' suggests there never was any sort of supernatural or even preternatural horrors involved (the various horrors being, so far as we know, all hallucinations), they're kind of baffling. And they can't be hallucinatory - multiple characters all see them at the same time.
** I had a theory that the spiders followed the hallucinogenic water. Because Marlowe and co clearly had a batch of it on them in order to control Cutter, and later Nate, I wonder if some was bought back? Therefore it could have been present in the above three places, and the spiders followed? Or the spiders are caused by the water? This is really something I wish they'd addressed.
** I figure that Sir Francis Drake probably gathered a bunch and put them in the places anybody trying to follow his trail would go as a deathtrap.

* I'm confused about [[spoiler: Marlowe's death. What was keeping her (last remaining) assistant from trying to save her? All he does is just sit there while yelling at Nate to not let her die. What's stopping him from running over to where Nate is, tying his own tie and belt to Nate's...belt thingy? Also, why didn't it also sink into the quicksand? I mean, if Drake's ring could sink in easily, why not the belt thingy? When Sully says, "Like hell he can't", did he mean "Of course he's not gonna let her die!" or "He won't save her!" Should he have said, "Like hell he can"? I'm just confused with the verb usages there.]]
** The point is to show the difference between Talbot and Nate. They're fairly similar in their own ways, around the same age, physical fitness, etc. The only difference is their morals, and clearly their loyalty. Nate would go to hell and back to save Sully [[spoiler: and even does when he gets taken by Talbot earlier in the game]]. While Talbot is loyal to Marlowe, he has his limits when it [[spoiler: comes to risking his own life.]]. Hence him yelling at the infinitely braver/more noble Nate to risk his skin. Also with Sully saying 'Like hell he can't'. He's basically saying 'Talbot can get off his ass and do it'.
** Correction: "Like hell he can't!" in this case means, "He not only ''can'' let the BigBad die, that's exactly what Sully ''wants him to do''". As noble as Drake is, for Sully (and us), risking Nate's life to save Marlowe's is not an option.

* How did Nate know for a fact that the piece of the Golden Hind they were looking for was in the exact same room they found out about it? What was their in the decoder, the ring, Drake's diary, Lawrence's diary, and literally everything else that has led up to that point that gave even the slightest inkling to the mere possibility that the exact thing they were looking for was in that one particular room?
** I ''think'' that the room was filled with items that were originally in the Francis Drake museum. My theory was that Nate spotted something he recognised from the museum, and concluded that Marlowe probably had the Golden Hind in there somewhere as well. I keep meaning to take a closer look each time I play through.
** When you enter the room the Golden Hind is one of the first things you can see. It stands out because it's shiny and looks like the deer head from Nate's journal.

* Is Talbot a Djinn, an ex-black ops or what? I'm seriously confused on just what the guy's deal is.
** I think he was once the UK equivalent of the black ops. (Don't know what it's called, though...)
*** [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/2652496/SAS-kill-hundreds-of-terrorists-in-secret-war-against-al-Qaeda-in-Iraq.html The SAS]], famously portrayed in ''Modern Warfare''.
** Thank you, friend. =D

* Okay, so according to the flashback of [[spoiler: Kid!Drake]], the feud between him and Marlowe was at a stalemate because he had the ring and she had the decoder. So...for twenty years they decided to ignore each other until a day arose where they'd both resume that old quest? Just what was the point of the Kid Drake session? I mean, it's cool that we got to see how the two first met and all, but are they seriously suggesting that the both of them decided to let the stalemate go 20 years?
** For starters, the session existed because the game is very much about Nate and Sully's relationship, it only makes sense to show where it started out. And as for the idea of a feud last for around twenty odd years, it could be that the two did clash now and again, we've just not see it in game. Or that Marlowe decided to try and find what she was looking for without the ring, and Nate was distracted by other adventures.
*** Don't forget, also, that the whole point of the first chapter is to draw Marlowe out of her hole. Wherever she's been for the last twenty-odd years, she's been unreachable by Nate and Sully for the entire time. It's not a matter of Marlowe avoiding Drake or vice-versa. It's that Marlowe is the head of a secret society, and until Nate actively goes looking for her, she simply doesn't have the time to invest in discovering Ubar, especially without the ring.
** Sully and Drake probably wanted to keep away from Marlowe for a while. Considering she obviously has a huge amount of henchmen and weapons, and you have the exact object she wants and one of you is an ex-employee, the odds aren't in Sully and Drake's favor.
** Plus, at the time, Drake's a child, and as we clearly saw, can't quite handle himself in a fight just yet. Sully just managed to get there seconds before Henchman #331 shot Nate. If they started up trouble right then and there...well...they may not be so lucky next time.

* Why is the hallucinogen in Ubar worth fighting over? I mean, Talbot uses more effective stuff on you throughout the game and it's never made clear what Marlowe is planning to do with it. Maybe 3000 years ago, a hallucinogen would be useful, but more advanced stuff exists now and it all seems kind of pointless.
** Talbot's injections mostly just made you stumble around and act paranoid. That's not quite on the same level as hallucinating armies of flaming demons.
** I always assumed it was the same stuff, just in smaller quantities. Maybe Marlowe and Talbot found a small supply of the hallucinogenic water, but wanted to find the source of it?
** The whole acting paranoid thing may be what brought down Ubar. Everyone thought the other person was out to get them, so they had to act first. As for the 'army of flaming demons', maybe that was just exaggeration by an outside witness to help explain why a city's population inexplicably started killing each other.
** Possibly because it could make the enemy self-destruct if slipped into their water supply.

* Sully and Nate concoct the quite reasonable theory that Ubar's destruction was caused by the hallucinogen in the water. That's all well and good, but ''why was the water contaminated in the first place''? We can assume that the brass vessel Marlowe was raising up was brim-full of the pure, undiluted hallucinogen. But who made it? King Solomon the Wise? He couldn't have been all that wise if he thought dumping a leaky pot full of weaponized LSD in his city's water supply was a good idea. It couldn't have been intentional sabotage, either - why would the container be sealed if it was? The thing being full of Djinn actually starts to seem like the most likely explanation.

* What was so special about the hallucinogenic in Ubar's water? Judging from Nate alone it is neither lethal nor permanent. It doesn't seem any better than any other poison you could drop in a water supply.
** It doesn't have to be lethal or permanent. Just frightening. It's how Marlowe's people work - with fear. What Nate drank was also diluted by water - nothing more than a few sips - and yet it sends him into a shrieking, terrified panicked fit of psychosis, and Marlowe found the ''source''. Pure and completely at her disposal.

* Why does Talbot run from Nate in the parkour chase level? Nate is unarmed, Talbot is easily Nate's equal in hand-to-hand, and Marlowe's men are all close at hand. If he hadn't run, they could have easily overpowered Nate.
** He was probably trying to draw Nate away from wherever Sully was at that point.
** WordOfGod stated that Talbot's character wasn't as well-established at that point, and that they were just told to stick a chase scene in there.

* So, twenty years ago, Victor took Nate in and essentially became the boy's surrogate father. Except...that's not Victor's legal decision to make. Legally, Victor should've given Nate to a local orphanage or foster home in Spain, as that's where they were. What Victor did was essentially kidnap an orphaned kid from the street. How the hell did he manage to raise Nate for 20 years without getting into some kind of trouble with the law?
** Victor and Nate are both professional criminals and con men. They live off the grid. How would they ever be found, let alone get in trouble with social services? Also, it was Colombia, not Spain.

* I know it is normal for this genre, but why was Ubar so special that it needed all those secret ruins with clues on how to find the place? It was a nice city, but it is not like it contained something special like the secret to immortality or a way to turn people into crazy zombies.
** It's a lost city - the "Atlantis of the Sands". And it's a beautiful paradise, but one filled with water that drove anyone who drank it into a paranoid frenzy. Hence, special.

* How did Marlowe and co. find Drake and co. in Syria? They didn't know to go there.
** Remember that they're searching for the same thing as Nate and pals, and they've been at it a lot longer.

* How did Elena know Charlie Cutter?
** They both were helping out Nate. Maybe the two communicated at one point? But they managed to piss each other off, so they didn't bother to make contact again.
** Cutter was originally supposed to be in the entire game, but his actor had commitments to the upcoming 'The Hobbit' film. It's likely that he and Elena would have spoken at some point, revealing how they knew one another.

* What's the deal with the tarot cards?
** This isn't explained very well in the game, but Marlowe's organisation is GenreSavvy and focused on psychological warfare. They play into people's preconceptions in order to seem more powerful and frightening than they really are - almost supernatural. They're also based very strongly in Hermeticism, which is linked with the Tarot (Cutter probably figured that out in his research and decided to amuse himself by picking Major Arcana to assign to Marlowe and Talbot in his journal, along with The Tower). So. When Cutter hands the journal to Talbot, Talbot finds The Tower card in the journal and has an idea bulb. He slipped the card into Cutter's jacket and left him to sow chaos and distrust in the little group while drugged. Then when Marlowe, Talbot and the goons face off with our heroes, Marlowe's people orchestrate a disaster, complete with Marlowe saying very deliberately "as if it were...''in the cards.''" Whatever happens to our heroes, if they survive, they'll find The Tower in Cutter's jacket - the card of violent upheaval, sudden change and hard falls - and suddenly Marlowe's comment seems eerily prescient. It's nothing but coincidence and clever improvisation on Talbot and Marlowe's part mixed up with theatricality, but it looks ''fateful''. That's how they work.

* So I played through the whole series recently and one thing in 3 bothers me. Elena, and Sully both try to convince Nate to just stop at various points before they discover the "truth" of what they are after. And even after they find out it is something bad... he keeps going. Aside from IdiotBall, is there ANY rational reason that Drake keeps going after all the shit he has been through in the previous games? From my own experience playing through the previous two games, I could see the writing on the wall from a mile away... that whatever the treasure was, it was dangerous, and should either be left alone or destroyed. Now considering that Drake had the ONLY source of evidence to the Atlantis of the Sands and it was pretty clear by the time he was trying to use said evidence (way back in the warehouse and secret lair), my main question regarding the whole thing is why SOMEone with their head on straight (Sully, Elena, ANYone else but Drake since he was clearly obsessed) did not just destroy the decoder and[=/=]or ring and be done with the whole mess. Let Ubar be lost forever. Would love to see some kind of answer outside of the obvious (it would have been a short game).
** Nate is a fairly obsessive person, especially where it concerns Francis Drake. He has this pathological need to know what the heck that guy was up to. The only time that ever faltered was when he found his remains in the first game, and assumed he never found what he was looking for. Which actually brings up another headscratcher, as he gave up the ring pretty easily there. Nate knew the ring had larger importance but I guess the idea of a sequel hadn't happened yet.

* The Citadel in Syria is a tourist attraction not far from the city. It's a few hours before the tours start when they arrive but before long there is a veritable hail of gunfire, and several points, RPG rockets. One would think that someone would have heard all that racket and the police/local militia/army would have shown up to respond to the destruction of their local tourist attraction, but all that's waiting in the morning is a tourist bus. How is it that apparently nobody heard a thing?

* This is explained by the simple notion that "they didn't think that far ahead" but in a way, it also means the writers failed a continuity check: If Nate knows Drake's ring has a much larger importance than just the coordinates to the empty coffin (as clearly shown in the kid!Nate level of Drake's Deception, not to mention the very conceit of him and Sully using the ring to lure Marlowe back out in the beginning), why does he so freely give it up when he feels let down at finding Drake's remains, thinking he failed to find El Dorado (when in fact he had stayed to insure the safety of the world from the thing)? He wouldn't have, as it held more secrets about Drake's doings before he died.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Golden Abyss]]

* Dante. Just, Dante. Honestly, his early character development made it seem like he was going to be on Nate's side. Then he apparently cut a deal with Guerro. Then it turned out he was just kind of trying to save his own skin. And then he randomly turns evil! Or rather, Nate randomly ''decides'' that he's turned evil. See, this is my major problem with the game. At the end of the sanctuary incident, Nate and Dante aren't exactly on great terms, but they're roughly on the same side. So why is it that as soon as he sees some of Dante's mercenaries, he immediately shoots them on sight? I mean, the rational thing to do would have been to go, "Oh, hey, we're trying to singlehandedly fight an army in order to save Chase. Here's an army, trying to fight the other army in order to save Chase. Let's join up with them, and figure out how to do this." And it wouldn't even have made the game any worse. It would actually have been way more awesome to have a full-scale battle going on in and around the Quiveran cave system. Then, have Dante go all greedy on everyone, but have Nate beat him up like before, then manage to convince him that an ancient legendary city full of radioactive gold is at least as valuable as a whole bunch of normal gold. Obviously, there's the whole ForegoneConclusion, so we can't have them as billionaires at the end, but they could have just mirrored the Spanish soldiers: Dante, Chase, and Nate part ways at the end, Chase safeguarding Marcos's dagger, and making a pact to return someday to study the city. Then, you have the plot for the next game.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:A Thief's End]]
* In "Among Thieves", Nate took tranquilizer guns to the Museum because he didn't want to kill innocent guards doing their jobs. But now apparently he seems to be totally okay with that, seeing as how he remorselessly guns down the auction house guards in the heist. He also doesn't seem to mind Sam killing prison guards during the prison escape. Why the change? Did Naughty Dog just run out of valid reasons for Nate to kill people? I know Nate kills hundreds of people each game, but they are all supposed to be bad people: Bandits, pirates, soldiers working for a war criminal and such. It's really hard to keep up his image as the dashing romantic Errol Flyn-style thief (and now loving husband) when they turn him into such a remorseless murderer.
** To be fair, the museum guards in Uncharted 2 weren't armed to the teeth and itching for a robbery, and he went as stealthy as possible in terms of grabbing the cross until Rafe got involved. You can technically stealth your way through the scenes where they hunt you down too, but it's tricky. As for the prison guards, if Vargas and what happened to Sam's friendly guard were any indication, there's a certain degree of corruption in the entire guard system anyway.
*** Some of the museum guards are armed, and they do start shooting at you near the end of the level. I found going through the auction house without killing anyone is almost impossible once they start shooting at you, because there are parts where you have to get past tons of them. It also doesn't help that Nate doesn't have any non-lethal stealth takedown animations. As for the prison, just because some guards are corrupt doesn't mean it's okay to mow them all down indiscriminately when they are doing nothing but legitimately trying to stop a violent prison break by armed goons working for a drug dealer. In the past, Nate's crimes have been forgivable because they don't involve harming innocent people. You can't say the same thing for this game.
** This is going to sound spergy, but people tend to bothered by the narrative dissonance in the Uncharted series because while Indiana Jones can plausibly get away with the illegal and violent shit he pulls in a pre-WW2 era, we can't say the same for "just a normal guy" Nate because we know this is completely not how a modern day world works.
*** The people Doctor Jones chucked into moving propellers and tossed off cliffs were also ''Nazis'', who tend to garner slightly less sympathy than innocent security guards just trying to prevent a theft of someone else's property.
** Aren't the guards at the auction supposed to be Shoreline goons, hired to provide security for an auction that's explicitly being patronized by a who's-who of wealthy and powerful criminals?
*** I don't think they work for Shoreline. If they did, they would all speak English. My understanding was they were just regular security guards working for the auction house.
** IIRC they've been to the Rossi estate a few times, so it's possible they knew those weren't your ordinary security guards putting in a hard night's work. I got the impression it was an organized crime family's mansion.
* So when Sully decided to adopt Nate as a kid, did he basically just took him and left Sam all alone with little to no notice? Is that ever mentioned?
** There's a brief mention of Sam not really understanding/approving of Nate's relationship with Sully. They knew each other, but Sam was older and not particularly in need of a father figure, and so wasn't as close to him as Nate was.
* It's understandable Nate would choose to save his brother at all costs in the finale but I find it really hard to believe Drake & Co ain't remotely interested in going back to Liberteria to recover that sunk treasure worth $400 million, especially now he owns a marine salvage outfit.
** Good point, there really isn't any valid reason other then Naughty Dog loving to use the AllForNothing trope in this franchise.
** It's likely buried underneath literally tons of mountain, untold amounts of water, and at least partially melted from the fire. Even if there is any salvageable it would defeat the entire purpose of the theme, about those who obsess over the treasure die, far as the adventure goes they had the best possible outcome. Besides all that, it seems the Drakes were doing fairly well for themselves and were more than willing to move forward, which was the point of the lessons they all learned.
** The ship was already grounded in about 10' of water. So that part's not hard to deal with. The stones falling looked to be just at the entrance to the cavern, but true, the entire cave could have collapsed. Still, heavy mining equipment could still make a profit on a dig through that much stone, just for the raw metal value, let alone any historical value that escaped the fire.
** And who's to say that they didn't go back for it? Just because they have a beach house and keep exploring doesn't mean they don't have millions in the bank.
* Nate says the temple in Scotland is a "recruiting tool" for Henry Avery, but wouldn't that be really inefficient? Failing the final test causes the floor in the chamber to collapse into a bottomless pit. So what happens when someone fails? Did Avery just replace the entire floor before the next person came to the temple? That would be really time consuming and expensive. It would also require someone stationed at the temple so they would know the floor had collapsed and needed to be fixed.
** Bear in mind that the temple is centuries old and as Nate says some of it has rusted and fallen apart, so we are not seeing the structure as a whole. Secondly, it being ineffecient wouldn't stop Henry Avery the remorseless psychopath.
*** I was under the impression the flood collapsing when you fail the test was deliberate design, not the result of the temple being old. I understand Henry Avery is a psycho who designed the temple to kill people who fail the tests, you would just think he would do it in a manner in which the traps could be more easily reset after someone fails them, such as the spike trap on the door of the second one. It's pretty hard to reset an entire floor collapsing into oblivion.
* Small question. In the climax, Rafe manages to convince the surviving Shoreline mercenaries to turn on Ross. Did he buy out the entire contingent beforehand or since the contingent was being decimated, bribe the survivors as a more hastily improvised/last ditch measure?
** Probably beforehand. Rafe isn't shy about throwing around his money -- he bought ''all'' the land around that cathedral in Scotland, just to find the cross. Buying out a mercenary company would seem comparatively trivial.
* During the vehicle chase, Nate grabs a rope attached to an enemy truck and eventually manages to climb onboard. Why at no point during the process did the mook driver not just stop the truck and let the surrounding enemies kill Nate? I know he was chasing Sam at the time, but there were plenty of other vehicles who could have kept the pursuit going. Also it's unlikely the truck would have been able to chase down Sam anyway, since Sam was on a motorcycle.
* How did Elena find out Nathan was in Madagascar? He didn't leave her any clues as to where he was, yet she not only found out which country he was in, but even found the city and the hotel he was staying at.
** If you check Nate's journal immediately upon starting the driving section in the Madagascar level, you can find a receipt he's kept for all the expenses they've incurred getting there, including the jeep rental. All of them are going straight onto Sully's credit card, under Sully's real name. Since Elena is a professional travel writer and former international journalist, I assumed that she knows someone who could track credit expenses, which would have led her straight to the hotel room.
** She probably started by calling his boss, Jameson, who would've confirmed that he and his crew were grounded for the time being. Then, since Elena has a smart phone and Nate was still using his cell, she must've traced his call to none other than King's Bay (which is where their second conversation took place). My own iPhone can tell me where just about any call is coming from, so I imagine hers can do the same. Then, it was only a matter of booking a flight, following the gunfire, and narrowing down the search area; she wouldn't have had to call that many hotels to see which one her husband was registered under. Personally, I think finding Nate would be an easy feat for an accomplished journalist like Elena; the guy's hardly subtle.
*** You really think Nate checked into the hotel using his real name? Not likely, especially knowing Rafe and his army was pursuing him.
*** He could have some backup pseudonyms that Elena is familiar with and asked for.
* How is Shoreline carrying out operations in Scotland? The UK isn't a third world country. They aren't going going to let some private army come in with a huge arsenal unless there is a damn good reason. Considering how anti-gun the UK is, I just can't imagine them giving permission to a bunch of guys to go poking around their temples while carrying rocket launchers and automatic rifles.
* Am I the only one who thought that Sam [[spoiler: got off a bit too easily for his lying about Alcazar being the reason for seeking out the treasure?]] Nate nearly ruined his relationship with Elena and nearly got himself killed dozens of times before she found out about what he was doing, and all this time he was doing it to save Sam [[spoiler: or so he thought.]] But even after all that, [[spoiler: Sam still doesn't come clean, only doing so after Rafe forced him to tell the truth.]] And what's the worst he gets after that? [[spoiler: Nate angrily telling him he gave up his life for him.]] Considering everything that happened, I think he deserved far worse.
[[/folder]]

*** First of all, Nate is not, and can never be, a Badass Normal because there are no superheroes in his universe. [[labelnote:Explanation here.]]Badass Normals can only exist in a world where superpowered, magical, etc. characters are commonly known. Franchise/{{Batman}} is a Badass Normal because, in his world, there are superpowered characters such as Superman and Poison Ivy. However, in ''ComicBook/KickAss'', Kick-Ass and Hit Girl are not Badass Normals because no one has superpowers in that world; everyone just went through a lot of training.[[/labelnote]] Second, I have no problem with him being a {{Badass}}; it's Naughty Dog ''claiming'' he's normal that I have a problem with. That and the ActionSurvivor trope on the page, which is what ND says he is.

** She probably started by calling his boss, Jameson, who would've confirmed that he and his crew were grounded for the time being. Then, since Elena has a smart phone and Nate was still using his cell, she must've traced his call to none other than King's Bay (which is where their second conversation took place). My own iPhone can tell me where just about any call is coming from, so I imagine hers can do the same. Then, it was only a matter of booking a flight, following the gunfire, and narrowing down the search area; she wouldn't have had to call that many hotels to see which one her husband was registered under. Personally, I think finding Nate would be an easy feat for an accomplished journalist like Elena; the guy's hardly subtle.[[/folder]]

* How did Elena find out Nathan was in Madagascar? He didn't leave her any clues as to where he was, yet she not only found out which country he was in, but even found the city and the hotel he was staying at.[[/folder]]

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