How to tell a final chapter.
PS4 exclusive.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is an action adventure game published by Sony and developed by Naughty Dog for the Playstation 4.
This review has some spoilers!
GAMEPLAY
This one feels like the real next step for the franchise, expanding gameplay considerably from the previous couple. The grappling hook changes the whole game, from platforming to even fighting, while other new additions such as the piton and being able to approach many combat encounters with a stealthy approach or go in all guns blazing.
At some points the game feels a bit like Naughty Dog tried throwing everything they could in, which is great, but some of the new features feel a little empty and more like they were just ticked off a checklist, rather than bringing anything meaningful to the game, for example the multiple choice dialogue options, which only show up at about three points throughout the whole game and don't impact the way it continues at all.
Considering how many new ideas got thrown in it's perhaps a little surprising, to me at least, that there wasn't any co-op, especially when throughout almost the whole game there is at least one other person with you. I know there's co-op survival and things but I mean there really was space for it in story mode.
Friendly AI is useful, usually good in combat and I liked how they helped you out in other segments sometimes. Rarely they did get in the way though during a couple of sections, which can set you back but I only encountering issues like this once or twice.
Enemy AI can be a little off, at one point the game allowed me to run straight up to an enemy without using any stealth and use a stealth move. I've also seen in some parts with the AI just running into the player and going down too easily.
The path building element from The Last of Us in unsurprisingly featured a fair few times in this game. While it generally worked in that game I wasn't always convinced by it here, a couple of times where it seemed Drake could have used is grappling hook or a nearby table to get up to somewhere rather than dragging a box off a cliff frustrated me a bit.
Treasure are a bit boring, I don't why they didn't add a description or anything to them to at least make them worth looking at more, however the things you can unlock from collecting them is pretty awesome. Collecting enough treasures can unlock things like your standard bonus things like concept art and skins, but there are also more unique and awesome things like cell shaded graphics and bullet time.
STORY
I really liked the way Nate and Elena's relationship was presented, it didn't feel forced, or cheesy, it just felt organic and real because of the way they interacted with each other. It was so refreshing to see something like that in a game, rather than the often ham-fisted efforts developers usually end up with between characters.
Obviously one of the big conflicts in the story is Nate and Elena trying to give up their adventures, something Elena, at least at the start, is more open to doing than Nate. Nate goes off adventuring again because Sam lures him back and Elena eventually finds out and isn't too pleased. Eventually however she begins to change her mind in what I think is one of the best moments in the game.
When Nate and Elena find most of the pirate lords and begin to figure out what happened to them, the scene shows Nate piecing everything together and he's clearly enjoying it. However the game shifts the focus off him in the cutscene and pans to Elena watching him and you slowly begin to see her realisation that not only does Nate still love doing what he does, she still enjoys these adventures too and recognises that they can't give up something that they both still actually enjoy doing. It's an incredible moment of character development.
The whole story was structured around learning to let things go and was brilliantly presented and portrayed. Like the Last of Us, the game has incredible character depth that goes pretty much unrivalled in video games and could be compared to acclaimed movies. In terms of storytelling I have no doubt that Naughty Dog have set the bar once again.
GRAPHICS
SOUND
I thought the soundtrack was the most memorable in the series. There was a moment in the game where you're just driving along, no set pieces, no hand holding like a lot of the game does, you're completely in control of what's happening, driving towards the next objective, and a very melancholic piece starts playing, it's not too long after Elena finds Nate and they're heading to New Devon. It fills in a moment where words are hard to find for either character, yet aren't necessary at all, it's one of those moments where you just sit back and let things happen. It's amazingly done.
VALUE FOR MONEY
OVERALL
Before this game I liked the Uncharted games, I thought they were great games that plenty of people could enjoy. However I didn't really get the hype around them claiming they were some of the best games ever made. This game was the one that really made me a fan of the franchise though, the story has some groundbreaking moments just like the Last of Us and absolutely sets the bar for story telling in video games.
This game ends the story of Nathan Drake on a high note with what is the best game in the series and one of the best games you can buy. If you've got a PS4 then you have to play this game.
