Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End was an excellent way to wrap up the adventures of Nathan Drake. I don’t want the rapscallion to star in another adventure again. I am, however, perfectly fine with more Uncharted games — especially if they are in the same vein as Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Giving secondary characters like Chloe Fraser and Nadine Ross their own adventure was something I wanted for quite some time. Although the bombastic action has become very familiar these days, playing as Chloe through the jungles of India felt surprisingly fresh.
It’s been a long time since I’ve experienced Uncharted like this. A Thief’s End was a long adventure that explored Nathan Drake inside and out. The Lost Legacy fleshed out the likes of Chloe and Nadine more but they didn’t perform the playable deep dives like in the last game. As a result, The Lost Legacy was briskly paced like the earlier Uncharted titles.
Many of the mechanics and ideas of A Thief’s End were remixed and brought over once again. Chloe and Nadine found themselves in an open area where they could tackle objectives in whatever order suited them. They fought through a train and bombed across the jungles in a jeep as well. Again, they were not fresh ideas but they were executed very well which made their repeat appearances acceptable.
Having just played more open ended games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Galaxy, The Lost Legacy (and the Uncharted franchise) felt restrictive. I was used to being able to go just about anywhere. It took some time to relearn the unspoken rules of Uncharted where only certain handholds, ledges, and selectively lit areas were accessible. Chloe fell to her untimely death numerous times under my control and I’ve played the game before. I cannot imagine how many times newcomers would die. Thankfully the checkpoints were generous and the load times were quick.
Franchises like Uncharted, God of War, and Assassin’s Creed do a great job of bringing mythologies, that I wouldn’t normally interact with, to my attention. The incidental learning is fantastic. I don’t know why I never looked up the origins of Shiva but I’m glad to know that she’s more than just a Final Fantasy summon now. It’s a shameful admission but I’m happy that Uncharted helped rectify that.
I’m also glad to have played my first HDR game from beginning to end. I checked out Uncharted 4, Gears of War 4, and other titles briefly but the Lost Legacy was the first complete game. It shouldn’t be a surprise but the HDR implementation was great and the visual presentation as a whole was top notch. However, the number of weird glitches that I experienced was unusually high for me. Normally, I wouldn’t face bugs like this in a Naughty Dog title.
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune debuted 10 years ago and wooed me with a charming cast of characters. Little did I know, that 10 years later, I would be playing the fifth installment of the franchise starring none of the characters that debuted a decade ago. Chloe Fraser and Nadine Ross were strong and likable characters; I would love to see more adventures of this magnitude starring the two of them. They’ve proven that Uncharted doesn’t need Nathan Drake to succeed.
Verdict:
I love it
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