Headscratchers / Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

• What is Harry's gripe against Nathan? When he first shows up he's friendly and cheerful, and the two talk like old best friends. Harry even mentions during the museum run that it's just like old times, clearly showing they've done heists like this before. But once you get to the end of the mission and Harry betrays you he just seems to straight up hate your guts. He sells you out, shoots you, and even when Lazarivitch betrays him he chooses to try and kill you and Elena rather than hopefully seeing the nutcase he works for taken down. Nathan clearly trusted Harry enough to do the museum heist with him, so he doesn't seem to have any misgivings about Harry prior to his betrayal which would indicate there had been some bad blood between them in the past. So what's the deal? I could understand if it was an 'did what I had to do' moment, in that he hadn't made any progress and Lazaravich's trigger finger was starting to itch. I could get him being fearful of his boss' wrath, but he seems to take pleasure in bringing Nathan down every time he can. It just makes me wonder if Harry was using Nathan in the past and only Nathan thought they were friends.

• 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?
  • Arbitrary Skepticism 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 Noodle Incident 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 Idiot Ball, 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 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. And it's "definitely", not "defiantly".
    • 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, 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 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 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 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 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 Tank Goodness, 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 "Not So Different" Remark 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. Drake hesitates, though that's arguably due to the Guardians about to beat the living shit out of Lazarevic.
  • This becomes Fridge Brilliance when you realize that by refusing to kill him himself, Drake completely invalidates Lazarevic's worldview regarding compassion and completely denies the Big Bad any type of moral victory he thought he still had.
    • 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 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. 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 Ax-Crazy 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.
    • This is made obvious when Nate and company begin exploring Shambhala in earnest and Nate comments that it "must have been something back in the day" - in the present, however, the place is in ruins. This isn't a case of peaceful, intelligent natives resorting to violence to protect their idyllic paradise home. The fact that the city is nigh-deserted and crumbling indicates that Shambhala's civilization was already effectively dead long before the events of the game. Nate simply gave it a proper burial, and in the process prevented Lazarevic from doing far worse.

• Why didn't Nate shoot the sap before Lazarevic drank it, and save himself (and the player) 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.
    • 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 a fair chance of battle, no?
    • Not even that completely fits - Drake's an Anti-Hero, not a straight-laced hero, and several levels earlier, he had 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 Sexy Soaked Shirt 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, Nepal 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 Red China and India's 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... 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).
    • The Nepalese city that Nate visits in the game is not the capital, it's just some unnamed city, presumably on the outskirts of Nepal given that they're able to cross the border to Tibet with a relatively short train ride.
• On a subject related to all the above questions about Lazarevic's involvement in the Nepalese civil war; his mercenary army also invaded Tibet, which is a province of China. And there's no mention at all that China (one of the world's major military powers) had even realized that hundreds of armed men coming in with tanks and helicopters had just crossed their national borders, and wreaked havoc and destruction upon one of their towns (it was a remote mountain village, but still).
  • It's safe to conclude that Uncharted really likes to ignore what should be the realistic geopolitical consequences of all these crazy adventures.

• 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.
  • The train was moving through the level (which is actually made up of a couple looping sections that the game transitions to between cutscenes), but Drake and co. are "parented" to the train, meaning that the game calculates the physics objects and the AI of characters and such as through the train was stationary. Once an object falls off the train it reverts to normal game physics.

• 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.
• Why does Lazarovic go through the trouble of trying to solve all of the puzzles and mysteries in order to find Shambhala when he could have found it much more easily through ordinary searching? It's not like it's some small artifact buried underground—it's a giant city in the open air. Sure, some investigating would have been necessary to uncover the general location, but once he'd narrowed it down to, say, the area around a certain monastery in Tibet, he could have just sent up some his many helicopters out to find the city easily, instead of going though the difficult and dangerous death traps and puzzles. Honestly, once he was at the monastery, a helicopter would have spotted Shambhala immediately once it got high enough.
  • He'd at least need a vague idea of where it was first if he wanted to search for it regularly. And by the time he got to the region, how many helicopters did he have left? Scary as he is, Lazarovic was still the leader of a merc group, not an army. Maybe Nate blew up his only chopper during the train level.