In the first five minutes of the game, I had stolen a coffin from the sea, killed a dozen pirates that I may or may not have been able to reason with, and left a young woman all alone and in a strange place. What if I wanted to take a more peaceful approach in my game playing?

Well, as we all know, that is not possible.

The game forces us to commit horrible tasks, murder countless fathers, brothers, and sons, all the while seeking a grandiose treasure for the sole purpose of stealing it. I felt like I should have had to say yes to an End User License Agreement, just like you have to before that new game or program will install.

"Kill countless human beings, lie to save your own skin, and steal until your heart is content."
I accept.



Nathan Drake: charming, funny, smart, and good with a gun. But is he as innocent as we would like to think? After all, what is your quest throughout the entire game? It may be arguable to spill some blood if your ultimate goal from the start was to save the princess, but when you are out for riches alone it takes a darker tone. Nathan must have known that there would be pirates after him, why else would he have taken guns with him? He embarked on his hunt for gold with the intention to end lives. Nothing, and no one could stop him from completing his journey, and it didn't matter what that might entail.

So what makes Nathan the "good guy" and everyone else bad? He is the invader, trying to steal property. What gives him the right to slaughter so many men so that he can be happy? Is it the fact that he is rescuing his ancestor's treasure from the hands of bad people, and therefore he is granted immunity from any sort of moral behavior?



Is he any better than the pirates and thieves he kills constantly through the game? The goal of Nathan and these men is to steal, and kill anyone who doesn't allow them to. So why then is he made out to be a good guy, a supposed protagonist. Are we not simply put into the shoes of a modern day pirate from the suburbs?

Naughty Dog made a fine game, but it is a game in which we must go against what our mothers told us, forget what we learned in preschool, and disregard all senses of good and bad. Because no matter how you choose to play the game, you must do the wrong thing.