Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (2016)

This is supposedly an action adventure and exploration game but it has no map, no binoculars, no inventory, no sprinting, no compass. Then how on earth do we get around? The answer is climbing.

Climbing is everything in this game. Buildings, bridges, ledges and ladders may collapse and you may fall into an underground pit or a cave not knowing where you are relative to your original position but all you need to do to reach your goal is to find climbing spots and keep finding climbing spots for half an hour until you make it. There is nothing wrong in climbing per se, there are many games (FC3, FC4, Tomb raider) where climbing is exciting, challenging and tension filled. But in this game, it is completely predictable and therefore boring. This makes the whole game feel like meaningless wandering. More than half the game is just about climbing and find climbing spots.

There is nothing to write home about other aspects of the game. The combat is too basic and simplistic. Story is lame. The game also provides hints in case we get stuck anywhere but these hints only come at their own sweet time. Treasures/collectibles found on the way are unremarkable and of no use.

Some moments in the game seemed completely flawed - for example, how can Nadine fight with 2 grown men and still dominate them. Nate and Sam were killing innumerable people, why can't they just eliminate her? Same was the case with Rafe at the end. Rafe was hell bent on killing them but still Nate misses several opportunities to kill him when the ship was about to explode endangering Sam's life. Bridges and ledges which lasted for centuries collapse just when Nate uses them.

I had several loading screens mid game. In my 25 years of PC gaming, I can't think of many games where we get loading screen in the middle of a game. The game gets more and more annoying as you progress through the game. Among the games that I have beaten, this is probably the worst.

It wouldn't be an Uncharted game without me hating portions of the game and simply tolerating others, but there is a reason I eventually came back to see it through to the end. It may not go as hard with absurd spectacle, and may be a bit dragged out, but this more grounded final entry is probably the most satisfying and polished in Nathan Drake's saga.

This is a longer game than the prior entries by at least a few hours. Even the shorter earlier games were stretching to fill that full-length game time with un-fun combat and repetitive story beats and mission designs that made them a slog at times. This game does a bit better overall, but still succumbs to these problems for several hours in the middle.

It starts feeling like a wild goose chase, and even the shining moments of greatness are drowned out by overly long, formulaic segments surrounding them. Certain tricks that these games pull get old after a while, and the game lost its ability to surprise and thrill me. Combat is still there without fail after nearly every puzzle, rarely very interesting, occasionally frustrating, and occasionally augmented with half-baked stealth. Eh. That all bummed me out after what I thought was a great story-focused opening, with a fun, unexpected heist mission and a really compelling setup for characters old and new.

Luckily, there would be a return to greatness. Aside from a long flashback and a quick flash-forward, the entire final third-ish of the game takes place on one big island. It does a messy job getting everyone there, but this is where I felt like the story could shine again after they stopped chasing dead ends for a while. Character development and interesting revelations and parallels from history really jump back into the forefront. Gameplay ideas were repeated, but with enough added to them and a better pace to hold my interest again.

This is also where the game does its absolute best environment design, with vibrant areas aided greatly by some outstanding lighting and weather effects. The technical components of the game are near perfect, at least on the PS5 remaster, which runs so smooth and has some really impressive detail. Character animations were a huge high point in particular, but more active animations are super smooth as well. Even the combat, my least favorite part of these games, "felt" a little bit better thanks to better presentation and visual/haptic feedback. Load times are also nonexistent on PS5, so props for that.

Crucially, they really stuck the final landing here as well, probably because it's so relatively understated in the last couple hours. The prior game ended with endless shootouts, ridiculously powerful supernatural enemies, fake-outs, all this other stuff... This one is so much more interesting and playable. The overall story and way that it wraps up really is so much better this time around.

I can't recommend Uncharted without some caveats. The first game is barely scraping by on its good qualities, and all the ones after run into some less-than-great segments of their own. But it is absolutely worth seeing, and Uncharted 4 in particular goes beyond being a nice addendum to really make the entire series experience feel complete and worthwhile.

I haven't played the earlier games in the series.

Overall, probably 3.5 stars. Beautiful and pretty straightforward linear gameplay with a lot of fun set pieces and a great feeling of taking part in an over -the-top action movie. Nonetheless, ultimately less rewarding than LoU/LoU2 which offer tighter and more challenging gameplay and a greater involvement with the characters and story.

I don't think the game is flawed - it achieves its objectives and is hard to fault. A relaxing and relatively stress-free way to have a really great time gaming.

Never have I seen a game with such an abysmal discrepancy between parts that are totally amazing and exciting and parts that are UNBELIEVABLY BORING. Sadly most of the game is made out of the later.

I hope for God's sake that "Uncharted Climbing" is a mechanic that will be abandoned in the upcoming gen.

Uncharted 2 also has it's calm moments and a fair share of climbing, but it's so well paced that you don't mind it. I'll probably never forget that breather when you get to the village in the Himalayas. I found Uncharted 4 on the other hand to be horribly paced though.

Bueno, esta reseña la voy a escribir en mi idioma porque tengo mucho que decir. Ojo, que contiene spoilers y no sé si se cubren. Primero de todo, ¿cómo no dar 5 estrellas a este juegazo? He estado pensando durante un tiempo: ¿qué puedo decir que tenga de negativo este juego? He pensado que a lo mejor sería guay poder manejar otros personajes de vez en cuando, pero luego me he dicho a mí misma: "Eso no es tan importante." He pensado que a veces dan demasiadas pistas o que los puzzles son bastante fáciles;quizás es el único "defecto" que le podría sacar. Respecto a lo positivo del juego:

• Gráficos 10/10: impresionante experiecia visual desde el comienzo del juego. Gran nivel de detalle. ¡Hasta se les ven las orejas al trasluz! ¡O se ciegan con la linterna! Todo chapeau, pensado al milímetro.
• Sonido /música: El sonido y los efectos están muy bien logrados. La música... boh, me gustó más la banda sonora de los anteriores Uncharted y no es que esta esté mal, pero me ha parecido bastante sosa para el juego que es.
• Historia: Super bien desarrollada. Mantiene la intriga de principio a fin. Idas y venidas de los personajes, que nos permiten conocerlos un poco más (y nos cuentan cómo comenzó todo entre los hermanos). El matrimonio tan estupendo que forman y cómo vivimos su relación (y hasta una crisis) durante el juego... He de decir que no me esperaba este final. La verdad es que yo me había esperado otro desenlace, más macabro jeje. Pero bueno, eso no quiere decir que no me guste el que tiene. :) -Jugabilidad : 10/10. Me lo he pasado bomba saltando, tirándome al vacío para agarrarme en el último segundo... Controles super sencillos y manejo perfecto en la aventura y en los combates.

Momento destacado del juego: ha sido genial jugar a la Ps1 dentro de la Ps4 y ¡dos veces! Con la niña lo hice muuuucho mejor jajaja.

UN JUEGAZO

Uncharted 4 really wants to end the series on this note, right down to the gritty cover art and a focus on wrapping up character development. In the end, it's not nearly as impressive as the trilogy before it but shines with some moments that remain entertaining.

Taking a hint from the tired "two brothers" storyline, this entry covers Nathan Drake's long lost brother Sam and the search for the treasure that started their careers. There's some focus on dialogue choices and character development, which helps with the current-day facial animations but doesn't hit as much as previous adventures. Any attempt at grittiness falls flat but the story also doesn't quite hit the swashbuckling of its previous installments.

Gameplay wise is a much more solid affair. Combining the usual gunning and parkour segments, Nathan has a few more tools up his sleeve that make exploring seem different enough to remain interesting. Nathan has a pick that he can use to climb on porous rocks, but the main show goes to his rope, which (magically) latches onto areas that allow him to swing and rappel. It does no favors during combat, which is the same affair that we've known in the past three games, but makes parkour more exciting as a result.

Jeeps are also highly used in this game, providing for some amazing moments and useful maneuvering. It doesn't replace the game but makes for some set pieces. As for set pieces, Uncharted 4 isn't as compelling as all the other journeys to ancient cities before but has some great moments, including a certain shootout and chase and several large structures crumbling apart with Nate still in it. The other characters tag along often to help move Nate about or in combat, but it's often still Nate's guns and legs against the world.

The world itself is gorgeous. The music is routine exciting orchestra, but the graphics are enough for a programmer's dreams to go wild - at the least, Uncharted 4 does what the previous trilogy only did in bits and pieces to its eventual extreme, and it's a beautiful one.

And that's about it. Perhaps it's been too long since I played Uncharted, but this entry tests the limits of what made the series fun and is really telling us to end it. Sam and Nate's relationship doesn't quite hold up and the villain (well, the worse half of the villain duo) is quite dull and a little too macho for his own good. That said, it's solidly built and hopefully means the end of Nathan Drake's journey, side-quels aside.

For anyone who was along for the ride with me on this gameplay, you'll know that is wasn't the most enjoyable of playthroughs. Struggling with the newer, looser controls of the PS4, different aspects previously unintroduced in the game, and a little bit of a wobbly storyline, I will admit to falling slightly out of love with this game for a few months. But it's okay, we saw a counsellor, and steamrolled ahead to a winning conclusion.

The game begins with a glimpse into Drake's married life - and for the burst of nostalgia, it was worth it. This quickly faded though after re-meeting Elena, getting used to her new facial structure (thank you, PS4 graphics), and taking a tour of their house. While I loved it to begin with, I did find myself getting a little bored - it was like looking behind the scenes of a movie and finding your favourite action hero doing his super-annuation; there is no escape from mediocrity, even for treasure hunters. A slightly depressing message.

The flashbacks into Drake's past threw me again. We've done this in 3, and it was great. Having a look at young Nate, being with him when he met Sully and getting a teasing look into his origins was fine with me. It left a bit of a mystery to be solved. It didn't spoonfeed it to me, something I think is very important to be aware of when storytelling. These flashbacks with Sam felt very... forced. Like, aw yeah nah, he's always had a brother, we've just never brought him up before. Lookit all their complicated backstory. Yeah... legit.

I was distrustful of Sam from the get go (and is Troy Baker in everything now? Not a complaint, just an observation), but had this huge grin when Sully turned up again. I was kind of worried that he'd be left out, as he's hinted in the past that he's 'getting too old'. New villain on the block, Rafe, was a delightful character. I enjoyed him waaaay too much. Nadine was just... there, I liked the return of a female villain who is obviously very powerful and driven, but Rafe stole the show for me. He was very well written, his voice actor was incredibly comfortable and natural in the role, and all of his scenes were dripping with intimidation and borderline psychosis. I definitely looked forward to his cut-scenes.

Nate is still damaged and broken, but he's coming around. The confrontation between him and Elena hit me hard in the feels - it was hinted at in 3 that he'd done similar before, and he was definitely aware of how much he dun fucked up this time around. I was quite worried for a bit, but Elena's a top sheila and she came around, and it was nice to see them team up again. She seemed just as bored of married life as Drake was, and is a natural treasure hunter/rule breaker. I also like that she's her own person, and not just Nathan's wife.

All in all, the story did get a little off-track and that did certainly throw me a bit. I went a few months without picking it up or feeling like I needed to. The levels were very long and very climby, runny, jumpy, which I did get a bit sick of. Scotland was kind of the climax of that frustration, and I put it down not longer after finishing that section. However, the levels on the pirate island brought back the feels of U1, and whilst I've complained at length about that game, that was where I first fell in love with their scenery and game design. U4 was a brilliant note to end the series on, and I couldn't have asked for much more. While I do feel like I would've loved the shit out of this game on PS3, I did have nostalgia-feels tears in my eyes while playing the epilogue, and finished the game with a happy heart. I would recommend this as a way of capping off the series.

The good

* It looks amazing. Seriously. Sometimes I just stopped the game to look at the beautiful landscapes. Plus there's all the little random animations etc. that we know from the series and that make the characters so much more lifelike. I actually feel like replaying it just to get a better look at some of the surroundings.

* New moves (rope, sliding, new climbing move), though I find they do get a bit overused.

* It's everything we expected from a new Uncharted game, plus a bit more. It's even slightly less linear.

* Surprisingly decent character development/interactions. My girlfriend enjoyed watching me play and enjoyed it like a movie.

* It's the end of the franchise.

The not quite so good

* The story is a bit too drawn out.

* The final boss fight is pretty anticlimactic.

* It's Uncharted taken to the max. Sorry Mario, the princess is in another castle. I mean sorry Nate, the treasure is on another island. There's always one more crazy turn of events, breaking cliff, falling platform, crazy gunfight. But let's be honest, we've seen all of that in the past 3 games already. Maybe I'm just getting tired of the series...

* It's the end of the franchise.

The bad

* Buddy AI. Maybe it's just me, but buddies had a tendency of being in the way, which is especially annoying during a hard gun fight.

* I could have done without the epilogue.

* It's the end of the franchise.

As you can see I'm a bit torn on the "end of the franchise" part ;-) But I think this is a good time to say goodbye to Nathan, friends and family.