Three months ago, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception was confirmed at the 2010 VGAs. Naughty Dog has been relatively forthcoming with information, providing us with trailers, insights into the game’s desert setting-design, as well as where the story might take fan-favorite leading man Nathan Drake.

Now, thanks to a set of low-quality images, we have our first look at Drake’s antagonist in Uncharted 3.

Uncharted villains tend to be one of the less-successful aspects of the series. For all of Drake’s charm and witty banter, his opponents have mostly fallen into traditional greedy villain (for money and/or power) tropes - not to mention two very “gamey” final boss fights.

Gabriel Roman and Atoq Navarro were a predictable greedy billionaire/back-stabbing henchman pairing in Uncharted and, despite a number of twists and turns along the way, Uncharted 2’s Zoran Lazarevic was the kind of lug-head mercenary we’ve seen time and time again in video games.

While there’s still no specific information regarding Uncharted 3’s villain-related story details, we may have our first look at the character in question - and she looks to bring a fresh take to the franchise’s male-dominated cast of antagonists.

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The name of the new antagonist has yet to be revealed but we do know that, according to TRS, she’s an older Helen Mirren lookalike who’s paired with a Jason Statham-type bruiser. In the images, we see Drake and partner-in-crime Sully looking beat-down in an alley, with the character seemingly on the verge of a super-villain-esque monologue - which hints at a familiarity with our treasure-hunting protagonists.

With such a pair of strong female leads/love interests in Elena and Chloe, it’s not a total surprise to see the team at Naughty Dog bring in a ruthless lady for Drake (and company) to face-off against.

We already know that Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception centers around the fabled ‘Atlantis of the Sands’ as Nathan Drake travels to the heart of the Arabian Desert but, after our sneak peak at the game’s antagonist - we now have a much better idea of the “shadowy clandestine organization and its ruthless leader” that Sully (and subsequently Drake) are forced to face-off against.

Update:

Here’s new info and a trailer featuring the new Uncharted 3 villain whose name is Katherine Marlowe, courtesy of Sony:

Follow us on Twitter @benkendrick and @gamerant and let us know what you think of the mysterious lady villain - as well as how she’ll fit into the Uncharted 3 story.

Uncharted 3 will be releasing exclusively on the PlayStation 3 on November 1, 2011.

Source: Revision3