4/5 ★ – Hill417's review of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.

Knowing that you’ll be playing the final entry of one of your favorite video game franchises can be very daunting. That was certainly my case with Uncharted 4, but my fears went unfounded as it delivered a satisfying conclusion while maintaining the solid and movie like experience Uncharted is known for. The story reveals that Nathan Drake has retired from the treasure hunting game in favor of living a normal life with his wife Elena, but he clearly misses the adventure. It isn’t until that his brother Sam, who he thought died in a botched prison escape, entices him to resume their search for the lost treasure of Pirate captain Henry Avery (worth at least $400 million). I think being blackmailed by Sam’s cellmate, a powerful drug lord named Alcazar, was a good incentive to get back on the trail. But they aren’t the only ones looking for the treasure. Their old partner Rafe, along with a private army, are looking for the treasure themselves and they will prevent you from finding it first. The entire narrative has a whole “one last ride” feeling which is reflective in the performances. All of the series veterans like Nolan North and Emily Rose can play these roles in their sleep, but because this is the fourth game, they tackle these roles with a lot more nuance and maturity that shows these characters in a new light, like living a married life and talking about what they want from their future. Troy Baker also kills it as Sam, who reveals to have more than one side to him, which Baker expertly portrays. It helps that he has excellent chemistry with North and they play off each other very well. The banter between everyone is amusing and light hearted. Everyone has a quip or remark to make about what they just went through as a way to cool down. The gameplay is still the running and gunning to cover to fight off soldiers that we’ve come to expect. Only now it is more gorgeous than ever with the PS5 upgrade. There are a lot of thrilling set pieces to do battle in that practically beg you to use photo mode to capture your epic moments. The new dual sense features help add a new spice to the formula that makes the combat a lot more exciting. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel or do anything innovative. I mean it has been built up as the final installment so why try to break new ground now? There are some new features like a grappling hook for travesty and vehicles to navigate the larger areas. They also serves as tools to look for the hidden treasures. The treasures are our main collectibles to look for, the more you find, the more currency you receive to unlock game modifiers for your New Game+ play through. These can range from unlimited ammo, to new screen filters, costume changes, and even a helium mode, where everyone’s voice sounds like they blew up a thousand balloons. There is also a slow motion mode, a zero gravity mode, and other game breaking modifiers that add extra excuses to see how this grounded adventure can transform into the ultimate power fantasy. As much as I like these new additions, a lot isn’t really done with the vehicles as you there isn’t much of a world to explore with them (Lost Legacy fixed that, but that’s a conversation for another time). Again why get extremely experimental when these assets aren’t going to be used for a full fledge Uncharted 5. Then again the vehicles aren’t overly used and I can only think of like three major levels they were used in so I think Naughty Dog focused on the core mechanics and its writing over the new features. Those efforts were all for naught as the ending cutscene will have long time players shed tears of joy. I’m glad Naughty Dog decided to opt for a happy ending rather than a bleak one. Even better is that the ending is just that: an ending. All the loose ends are tied up, are characters have new careers that satisfy their desire for adventure, and there aren’t any cliffhangers or a wink and a nod that leaves open the possibility of a new game. In this day and age where every IP has to have a revival or a unnecessary continuation, it is great to see a studio end their own franchise on their own terms and that it was universally beloved.