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We're on the cusp of the Uncharted 4: A Thief's End release date after a long wait and we're going to finally find out what happens to one of gaming's greatest heroes.
Although we've played through all the Uncharted games again thanks to the remastered Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, there may be some gamers who haven't had the chance to equate themselves with Drake's prior adventures before delving into Uncharted 4.
Thankfully for you lucky chaps and chapesses, Digital Spy is here to serve as your Uncharted 4 wiki, filling you in on the who's who and what's what so you're ready and prepared come May 10.
UNCHARTED 4 CHARACTERS: WHO'S WHO?
Before you start playing Uncharted 4 you might find a little backstory on each of the characters will help you understand all the little comments and jibes that pepper the game's dialogue.
THE GOOD GUYS
Nathan Drake
What to Read Next
You may not have played an Uncharted game before, but you might just have heard of Nathan Drake. He's the protagonist of every Uncharted game to date and is the core around which all the various action pivots.
Nate's outspoken, adventurous and has little fear of the various perils he gets himself - and his pals - into.
In Uncharted 4 he's technically retired from treasure-hunting and adventuring, instead opting to settle down to married life with Elena, who'll we'll come onto in a minute. But Nate's brother Sam is in trouble and it's only Nate that can help him out - forcing him out of retirement back into adventure and danger.
Victor "Sully" Sullivan
Victor Sullivan, better known simply as Sully (no, not the big, blue, hairy one from Monsters Inc.), has been with Nate since Uncharted 1. He acted as Nate's mentor in those early days, coaching him to become a Lara Croft-rivalling treasure hunter, tomb explorer and general peril purveyor.
Sully's back in Uncharted 4 too, gearing up to help the Drake brothers despite him pushing on a bit age-wise.
Elena Fisher
Introduced to you in the first game as the documentary maker and journalist, her relationship with Nate eventually blossoms into a romance. In Uncharted 4, the pair are happily married and enjoying Nate's retirement.
Their relationship has had some rocky moments over the years, so Sam's arrival is going to put a big strain on their relationship.
Sam Drake
Sam Drake is Nate's mysterious brother. We've never seen or heard of him before, but that's because Nate has believed he's been dead for the last 15 years. Instead, it turns out Sam has been in prison for that time and gives his brother quite a shock when he turns up to interrupt his retirement.
We don't know a lot about Sam until we start playing Uncharted 4, but it seems he's very similar to Nate, but with a whole lot more emotional baggage.
THE BAD GUYS
Rafe Adler
The main antagonist of Uncharted 4, we don't know that much about Rafe as yet. All we know is that he "comes from money" and has hired a mercenary team headed by Nadine Ross to help him compete with the Drake brothers to find the lost treasure of Henry Avery.
He apparently has history with Sam and Nate too.
Nadine Ross
The head of private military company (PMC) Shoreline, Nadine Ross is quite a force against Nate and co. She's a bit of an enigma at this stage, but we're sure she's going to give us grief.
UNCHARTED 4 STORY: WHAT'S HAPPENED SO FAR?
Obviously here are a tonne of spoilers, but in case you want to skip straight to Uncharted 4, here's everything that's happened in the previous three games.
UNCHARTED: DRAKE'S FORTUNE
Nate is searching for the coffin of Sir Francis Drake with Sully. He meets Elena Fisher for the first time, working as a documentary maker on Drake's latest adventure.
They discover Francis Drake's coffin is empty, but they find his journal that states he was actually searching for El Dorado, the lost city. However it's not in fact a city, but a huge gold statue.
Nate discovers an abandoned U-boat in the South American jungle along with a missing page of Drake's diary, both of which he passes to Sully. The pair are accosted by fellow treasure hunter and general meanie Gabriel Roman. He's hired a team of mercenaries headed by Atoq Navarro to help him find El Dorado.
During a scuffle Sully gets shot and is feared dead. Nate escapes, bumps into Elena again and the pair flee to another island where they believe El Dorado is hidden. On the island, Nate is captured by pirates, but is eventually rescued by Elena.
She later sees Sully working with Roman and Navarro and fears he has double-crossed them. Nate is unconvinced.
Turns out Sully was saved by the diary stopping the bullet and is working with the bad guys only to feed them false information and slow them down.
Elena and Nate discover Francis Drake's body in a treasure vault under the monastery. But they also find Raja being chased by super-strong and incredibly fast mutated humans. He is killed by Nate and Elena escape into a German bunker.
They discover El Dorado is cursed, causing anyone to come into direct contact with it to mutate. Francis Drake died trying to stop the statue leaving the island, but now Roman and Navarro have acquired the statue.
Roman opens it and finds the mummy of El Dorado, but he inhales some of the dust and begins to mutate. Navarro kills him and Nate is forced to climb onto the statue as it's being airlifted to a tanker ship.
It's here that he fights his way to Navarro, who he knocks unconscious. Nate spots the injured Elena inside the helicopter. But as he goes to pull her clear, Navarro regains consciousness and raises his gun at the pair. Nate quickly kicks the helicopter off the ship, with the rope connecting it to the statue tangled around Navarro's leg, taking it and him into the depths .
The game ends with Nate and Elena leaning in for a kiss that's interrupted by Sully arriving on a speedboat with a load of treasure he's stolen from the island. The trio speed off together into the horizon.
UNCHARTED 2: AMONG THIEVES
The game begins with Nate hanging from the end of a train dangling precariously over the edge of a cliff. He's also got a bad stomach wound that's bleeding heavily.
Through a series of flashbacks you discover that Nate was approached by former associate Harry Flynn and his ex-girlfriend Chloe Frazer about a job. He signs up to steal a Mongolian oil lamp from a museum in Istanbul.
Turns out the lamp is actually a map to the lost treasure of Marco Polo, which includes the Cintamani Stone from the lost city of Shambhala. When they nab the lamp, Flynn double crosses Nate, steals it and leaves Nate to get arrested. He is subsequently imprisoned for three months. Chloe, who claims not to know anything of Flynn's plan to stab Nate in the back, enlists Sully's help to free Nate.
They soon find out Serbian war criminal Zoran Lazarevic is also looking for the Cintamani stone and head to Kathmandu, Nepal off the back of a clue. Sully pulls out of the mission, but Nate and Chloe continue on. They bump into Elena and her cameraman Jeff who are trying to prove Lazarevic is still alive.
After investigating a temple, they discover the Stone is actually in the Himalayas, but as they try to escape Jeff is shot in the leg. They all try to carry him to safety but Lazarevic catches them, executes Jeff and tells Flynn to kill Elena and Nate. Elena punches him, allowing them to escape.
Elena and Nate work to "rescue" Chloe, but have to chase after a train. After Nate takes out a bunch of mercenaries and makes it to the front of the train, only to see it blown to bits by a helicopter.
At this point you catch up with the start of the game. Nate climbs the train, moves through a snowstorm and collapses due to blood loss. He wakes in a Tibetan village where he's reunited with Elena. Nate is also introduced to a German man called Karl Schafer. Nate goes to find the remains of Schafer's expedition, but it turns out Schafer's men were actually killed by Schafer to protect the world from the power of the Cintamani Stone. They also discover yeti-like creatures dwelling within the caves.
Lazarevic's men are attacking the village. They eventually secure it, but Schafer is mortally wounded. After his death, Nate and Elena find the secret entrance to Shambhala, only to be cornered by Lazarevic. He asks Nate to choose between Chloe and Elena, but the group is attacked by the yeti-like beings who are actually the human Guardians of the Shambhala, powered by the Cintamani Stone, in disguise.
Chloe, Nate and Elena escape but are discovered by Flynn who detonates a grenade, killing himself and seriously wounding Elena.
Nate leaves Elena with Chloe to confront Lazarevic, who has drunk some sap infused with Cintamani Stone resin. He becomes nearly indestructible, but Nate defeats him by detonating the pockets of explosive resin in Lazarevic's pockets and then leaving him to be killed by the Guardians.
Reunited with Chloe and Elena, the trio leave as the explosions destroy Shambhala, but Elena isn't doing so well. Chloe asks Nate if he loves Elena, which he doesn't deny.
Elena eventually recovers and the game ends with her and Nate sharing a kiss as they watch the sunset.
UNCHARTED 3: DRAKE'S DECEPTION
Set two years after the end of Uncharted 2, the game starts with Nate and Sully meeting a man called Talbot in a London pub. He's interested in buying Nate's ring, which belonged to Francis Drake. Talbot tries to offer them counterfeit banknotes and the trio get into a fight.
Sully and Nate are subdued by the arrival of Charlie Cutter, Talbot's cohort. One of Talbot's clients, Katherine Marlowe, then appears and steals Nate's ring. Cutter shoots Sully and Nate.
There's then a flashback that shows you Nate finding the ring in Colombia and explains how Nate and Sully first meet.
Back in the present day, the whole thing is revealed to be a huge set-up by Nate and Sully, with Cutter actually being a friend of theirs. Chloe appears to help track Marlowe.
The four friends discover a T.E. Lawrence notebook outlining Francis Drake's Arabian voyage to find the lost city of Ubar. Nate and Sully head to France to find an amulet and narrowly escape an ambush from Talbot who then sets the chateau on fire. Luckily Nate and Sully flee and then head to Syria.
Here they meet up with Chloe and Cutter and discover the next clue is in Yemen. They escape Marlowe's men (again), but Cutter breaks his leg, meaning he and Chloe don't come with them to Yemen.
Nate then reluctantly seeks the aid of his estranged wife Elena, who helps them find the location of Ubar, which is in the vast Rub' al Khali desert. Nate is shot with a hallucinogenic dart and becomes disconnected from Sully and Elena. He wakes up outside a cafe with Marlow and Talbot, the former now having documents related to Nate's childhood.
Nate overhears Talbot get news of Sully's location and breaks free of them, giving chase to Talbot through the city. He is knocked out and kidnapped by Rameses, a pirate working for Marlowe, who then interrogates Nate. He also claims to have captured Sully. Of course, Nate escapes and starts searching for Sully, but Rameses lied. Nate starts to sink the pirates' captured cruise ship with a grenade, but before he can escape, Rameses shoots the glass ceiling, causing the ship to flood and killing himself. Nate thankfully flees and is washed ashore in Yemen.
He's reunited once again with Elena, who has found out Sully did in fact get captured by Marlow's men and is currently in a convey into the desert. Elena and Nate attempt to rescue him but their attempt ends in a shootout that tears a massive hole in the side of a plane. Nate falls through the sky but manages to find a parachute on a cargo pallet that carries him to safety.
Nate encounters Marlowe's men in the desert, but is rescued by a troop of men on horseback led by a Bedouin called Salim. He tells Nate that the city of Ubar was doomed thousands of years ago by an evil Djinn. The pair rescue Sully and all of them ride into a sandstorm. This causes Nate and Sully to lose Salim, but they make it to Ubar.
Marlowe then appears with Talbot and shoots Sully, killing him. Nate gives chase but encounters soldiers apparently possessed by the Djinn. Nate suddenly has vivid hallucinations of his past from drinking some dodgy water, but eventually comes around and finds out Sully is alive. It was all just a hallucination.
Nate abandons the mission because the thing he was sent to find is what the Djinn is housed in. Instead, Nate and Sully search for Marlowe who is taking the vessel for herself. Sully is nearly killed for real by Talbot, but Nate accidentally blows up the central cistern, causing the city to start to collapse in around them. Marlow and Talbot corner our heroes but the floor gives way and Marlowe falls into a sinkhole. Nate attempts to save her, but she sinks to her death, taking Francis Drake's ring with her. Salim rides in to rescue Nate and Sully just in time.
The pair return to the Yemen airport when Sully gives Nate back his wedding ring that he's been secretly holding onto. Elena arrives and Nate offers her the ring. The two embrace, excited for a fresh start.
