Do we like them?

Do we like Nathan Drake?

A character from Uncharted (2007–2016)

Our score: 8 out of 10. Yes, we'd back him. He's funny, loyal and quick to help, and he's an ordinary guy who keeps going. We'd just stay out of the way of his body count and his lifelong thieving.

Nathan "Nate" Drake is the hero of Naughty Dog's Uncharted games. He's a self-educated history buff and lifelong thief who follows clues across the world to lost treasures and ancient mysteries. He opens the series by hauling Sir Francis Drake's coffin out of the sea off Peru. From there he's pulled into globe-trotting adventures, with plenty of falling masonry and gunfire along the way.

The creators deliberately built him as an "ordinary guy" with no special powers, drawing on pulp adventure heroes. He's witty, resourceful and has strong principles. His dry humor never leaves him, even when things are collapsing around him. That everyman quality is much of why players like him so much.

Why 8/10: he's warm, funny and loyal, and he reliably helps people and takes on the worse villains. He loses points because his hobby is theft, and he cheerfully leaves a staggering body count behind him. He also has an obsessive streak that his friends worry about. We'd follow him, but we'd keep an eye on our wallets.

The later games dig into what drives him. Uncharted 4 pulls him out of retirement when his presumed-dead brother Samuel turns up. That makes the story more personal and shows Nate's need for family and the cost of his obsession.