Uncharted 4's Story Will Dive Into Nathan Drake's Mysterious Childhood

Next month's Uncharted 4: A Thief's End will shed more light on main character Nathan Drake and his upbringing, according to lead designer Ricky Cambier. He says in a new video that part of what makes the character so relatable is that he is an "ordinary guy," but also someone who is capable of great things. He's also shrouded in a lot of mystery, Cambier says.

"We don't know a lot about his childhood and what happened," he explained. "So we bring a character like Sam in and now you get to meet his older brother. And you get to see a little about what that relationship is like and how formidable that was to who Nathan Drake is."

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception contained a flashback sequence where you got to play as young Nathan Drake, but we never learned much about his upbringing. Trailers for A Thief's End have also depicted young versions of Nathan and Sam.

A Thief's End sees Sam Drake (voiced by video game voiceover veteran Troy Baker) and his brother embark on one final adventure. In previous trailers, Sam says he's in some kind of trouble, and calls Nathan out of retirement. The game's ominous-sounding subtitle, A Thief's End, suggests something dramatic will happen before everything is said and done.

"At the end of Uncharted 4, we've put together a great closing chapter for Nathan Drake and his adventures," Naughty Dog's Arne Meyer says in the video. "It feels really great for us to wrap up some of his storylines and answer some of these questions; I hope our fans feel the same way. It feels like a good time for us to step away from the entire series."

A Thief's End is the final game in the series that Naughty Dog plans to develop and the last one to star Nathan Drake. The Uncharted series may live on outside of Naughty Dog, however.

Naughty Dog isn't packing up and moving on to its next project right away, as the developer will support the game's multiplayer mode after launch, while a franchise-first single-player expansion is also coming.

Also in the video, Meyer talks about how he believes A Thief's End will be the "best" Uncharted ever made.

"Uncharted 4 is the culmination of everything we've learned in the Uncharted series from all the games before," he said. "We set out to create what we think is the best version of Uncharted, the version of Uncharted we've always wanted to do. So it goes far beyond everything we've been able to do in previous installments."

Cambier added that A Thief's End is the "most ambitious" Uncharted yet, making use of the PS4's power to push the franchise to new heights from a technical perspective.

After years of development and multiple delays, A Thief's End is now due out on May 10 exclusively for PS4. Some retailers have reportedly broken the game's street date already, however.