I only played Uncharted 4 and Uncharted Lost Legacy, so maybe I missed a detail somewhere in the prior games. The only character who has any military training is Victor Sullivan who is ex-Navy, even if Victor trained Nathan, he wouldn’t be able to put as much resources into Nathan’s training as a first world military like the US or UK.
Yet we are led to believe that Nathan Drake could cut through a small army of ex Special Forces soldiers like a lightsaber through butter.
https://uncharted.fandom.com/wiki/Katherine_Marlowe%27s_agents
The agents work for Katherine Marlowe and are fiercely loyal adherents of the clandestine organization she heads, employing special forces and covert ops training to confound their opponents. All of them are usually dressed in designer suits and are one of the most well-equipped opponents Nathan Drake has faced so far. They are also shown to be capable of the acrobatics Drake displays when trying to murder him in Colombia.1]) Although the skins for the agents don’t vary considerably, their AI is determined by their weapons. For example, shotgunners will rush the player.
Nathan and his friends cut through Shoreline like a bunch of redshirts, even though they are highly reputed mercenaries.
Chloe killed a large number of insurgents, but gets admonished by former Shoreline owner Nadine for her lack of combat skills.
Nadine: You handled yourself fine, all things considered.
Chloe: What things are those?
Nadine: No real combat training. Slightly impulsive.
Chloe: Ah.
Nadine: Run around the field like a maniac. Need to learn what ” short, controlled burst” means.
Chloe: Riiiight.
Nadine: And last, wearing red in the jungle combat scenario. I mean, seriously. Hey. If you want to look anywhere else out there, now’s the time to do it.
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Do we actually know if the enemies have military training or are they simply have the best equipment? In the first uncharted games for example, the enemies are untrained pirates and a slightly better funded private security company. They could simply have access to better looking resources than actually having any real experience or training.
Luck. You don’t actually get hit with bullets in uncharted, everytime you get hurt, it’s a near miss. Only death is a bullet.
For Nate, you have to remember he’s been at it a long time. Nate was about 30 in Uncharted 1. He met Sully when he was 15. Nate left the church he lived in at 13. So two years of being a vagrant and fifteen years of field experience and training. By Uncharted 1, he had been in these kinds of situations before, so he’s had a life of violence since meeting Sully. He is also very, very lucky.
Also, well trained may not be entirely true either. Uncharted 1 was a crime lord, and part of the “skill” of his army would have been the lack of morals. 2 was a Serbian war criminal with similar recruiting criteria. It wasn’t until 3 that Nate was fighting group of professionals who were more than thugs with good equipment.
The chaotic environment of a battlefield is very different from a one on one fight. Nathan Drake is good in a skirmish or when jumping someone who doesn’t expect it, but whenever he goes toe to toe in a fair fight he’s either just keeping up with them or outmatched.
There just physically build better do you realize how much strength you require to do the type of climbing and jumping nathan does likely more hours?although elena being strong is plot she doesn’t do what nathan doesn’t nearly as much so she shouldn’t be able to do what nathan does and sam is debatable because he spend 20 years in prison
Some people sit down at a piano and can just play.
Nathan Drake is a murder-savant.
For Nate I imagine it is a combination of luck, experience, and ruthlessness. He very rarely fights fair.
As others pointed out, Nate and co. may not have formal training (with the exception of Sully) but they have years of experience fighting off other criminals, with both Nate and Sam starting as teenagers while Chloe implied she started around a similar age. Elena is the exception but she mainly focused on keeping her distance and shooting her opponents as she is rarely shown getting into melee combat.
Also, their lack of training means they can’t take on everyone in melee combat. When faced against highly trained characters like Talbots, Nadine, and Asav, all the characters struggle significantly. We even saw this in the PSP game, Golden Abyss, where Nate is completely dominating the antagonist, Jason, in a fist fight but when Jason pulls out a knife, he’s put almost completely on the defensive as he can barely do anything except dodge.