Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Interview, Part One

AH: It's kind of funny, because on the one hand, when there's a niche appeal--and I don't even mean it that way, because it sounds like it's limited in its appeal and I don't mean it that way--I think that you do get a fan base that's much more kind of in your corner. They feel like they're in the fight with you as the creators of the product.

To be honest, there's a certain amount of a marketing challenge with a game like this, because what we're trying to do is something that ironically sets it apart in the sea of video games. Heroes and characters tend to be drawn large. Everybody's a little bit of a caricature in most video games, a little bit stereotypical--exaggerated, or a little cartoony.

When we set out to do Uncharted, we decided we wanted to tackle one of these beloved action-adventure games in the spirit of this whole tradition. We knew that in order to pull it off, we had to have a hero who was completely relatable, just a regular guy. So when people saw him and said "Why do I want to play a guy in t-shirt and jeans" that was a deliberate move on our part, to say look, he's just a guy. He's just like you and me. Maybe a little bit extraordinary in the sense that he's got stronger fingertips. [Laughs]

I think what we saw then, was that a lot of people, when they initially saw the game, because they were used to these exaggerated characters, is that they were like, "What is this" and "I don't know what to expect going into this." It wasn't until they played it that they fell in love with it. So now we have the foundation of the first game in place. Now people aren't looking at it and making comparisons to other games, or saying "Who's this Nathan Drake guy"

GO: What didn't work in the original Uncharted What did you start Uncharted 2 saying, "Let's not do that again"