4/5 ★ – jake84's review of Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves.

REVIEW OF UNCHARTED 4: A THIEF'S END This is mostly my review from '16 with a few updates, because my opinion hasn't changed that this is a really good game, but not the masterpiece most people make it out to be. All aboard the hype train! Easy there, fellas. Once the massive hype hysteria has died down, it's time to realize that A Thief's End is not "the greatest game ever made". It's a good game, might even be a great game, one of 2016's best, but it (still) falls a bit short when it comes to being a satisfying (supposed) conclusion to the Nathan Drake storyline. I honestly prefer Uncharted: Drake's Deception as the proper ending. Upon revisiting it after six years - shit, has it really been six years? - I'm struck by two things. Firstly, the gamed looked amazing back then and it still looks amazing even though I can't see what's been done to upgrade it. It was just ahead of its time, graphics-wise, so nothing much needed to be done. The only thing that seems outdated is how weightlessly Drake hops arounds. I think they would have done that differently now; heavier. Not downright RDR2, but more like The Last of Us Part 2. And secondly, I still think it oversells Nathan's emotional story to point where it tries to deconstruct previous adventures and subvert expectations so much so that it comes off like gaming's answer to The Last Jedi. For my personal taste, upon replaying it, it quickly becomes a grating experience. And though it's a bold move to want to ground the story a bit more and humanize Drake more, make him more three-dimensional, the cost for me was steep - like The Last Jedi, it comes at the expense of the adventure. It's like Indiana Jones had it been directed by Rian Johnson. Please don't misunderstand. Rian Johnson is perfectly alright, but there are certain things I don't think he is suited for. Here, the tone and the prolonged cutscenes always just seem to drag on for a little too long. Dramaturgically, A Thief's End is exciting enough, except for a second flash back to the orphanage storyline, which almost pulls the pace to a complete halt, and the last two chapters feel like the beginning of a fourth act, until the ending... My God, the ending. What a complete cop out of an otherwise exciting premise. A let down. A waste. I felt like being slapped in the face with a dank washcloth, that's how maudlin and sentimental it is. Almost inexcusable. The ending in The Last of Us stuck with me for weeks, Part 2 perhaps even more so; this did nothing. I wish I could unsee it. Furthermore, this storyline completely negates Nathan's origin story in Drake's Deception where we're told he ends up with Sully in Colombia and is trained by him - in this, he grows up with Sam... I'm sorry, what? You had ONE JOB, Naughty Dog, and you can't even follow your own mythology. It's almost as if there are two different timelines and two conflicting voices at play. In that sense, this game comes off a tad arrogant towards Amy Hennig to neglect her work. In my opinion, this game clearly lacked her, and it's a damn shame she had to leave the project, because with her supervision, it could have ended up being the best Uncharted installment yet and fitted nicely into the timeline. Here, I mis the Uncharted-spark, the feeling of an adventure, of discovery, the feeling of sweeping action sequences. To be fair, there's one exceptionally good one where you're being dragged after a convoy through the mud, but we've all seen that in the trailer, and I had hoped the game would have been packed with these moments. There are no "airplane fight meets Lawrence of Arabia"-sequence here, no "capsizing cruise ship", no "fight aboard a train to Nepal" here, no ice cave with Tenzin. I also deeply miss the puzzles that made especially the second and third games so great. There's nothing in U4 even remotely resembling the "The Path of Light"-quest from Among Thieves. Here, they all seem sloppy, lazy and unimaginative. And Sully is completely sidelined. On the plusside, it's the first time the characters drive the plot forward, and not the other way around. I also liked how fleshed out both of the villains were, Nadine and Rafe, and they seemed to have a more believable presence than the previous villains. That is, until the disappointing ending... What happened to Nadine? But, the opening of the game is masterful, and I found myself writing this down on a piece of paper, "Dear Lucas & Spielberg. THIS is how you deconstruct an old adventurer in the fourth chapter." And seeing Drake running around and playing with a toy gun in his attic is one of the most beautiful and saddest things I've ever seen in this franchise. And when we first meet Drake in the present day, his day job is played as a clever twist and nice misdirection. Don't worry, I won't spoil what it is, but it's really, really well-executed. But there's a problem with grounding a guy like Drake and make him this down to earth, before you send him out on his adventures. It felt really jarring how he's suddenly transformed to a cold-blooded special ops killer, mowing down countless enemies once the bullets start flying at a castle in Italy. Is this the same guy we just saw lovingly play Crash Bandicoot next to his wife, Elena? There's no option to just escape unscathed. No, you have to kill EVERY LAST GUARD with a shotgun blast. For the first time in this series, it felt off; there's a cost to humanizing your protagonist like that. The cast is exceptional. You can't really be surprised by how good both Nolan North (Nathan) and Troy Baker (Sam) are at this point in gaming history, but the secret weapon among the cast is actually Emily Rose, who gives her greatest performance yet as Elena Fisher, Nathan's spouse. She finally embodies the character, gets a chance to make her a little more three-dimensional, and she steals every scene she's in. You see, there's is no denying how entertaining this is at times - actually, about 80 percent of the time, which is a really good ratio for an action-adventure game. Hell, despite all its shortcomings it's probably my second favorite in the franchise. I liked the almost Pixies-esque "loud-quiet-loud" build up around the exploration and action sequences; the shootouts are the most functional yet, the grabbling hook adds another dimension to the cinematic fight scenes, and there's no titles on the console marked that can match this game's presentation. It's astounding how well it looks, sounds and runs on the PS4, even taking into account how relatively short the loading times are. Hell, on this new version on the PS5, they're barely there. It's a technological masterpiece and still among the best-looking games on any console. It's a shame the story falls flat and feels lazy around the third act. In the end, the game is afraid to do anything of consequence, and that's something I can't get behind. I still think it's a total cop out. People, if an ending doesn't move you, it's doesn't move you. It's as simple as that. Again, make no mistake, "A Thief's End" is a great game and it would've been even greater if it hadn't been so quick to emphasize how it's the conclusion to a franchise. Now, more than ever, I really hope it doesn't end here. I'm still holding out for that one. REVIEW OF UNCHARTED: LOST LEGACY This is mostly my review of the game when it came out in 2017, because my opinion hasn't changed. To quote the legendary Eagle-Eye Cherry song: "We've "Been Here Once Before". The Naughty Dog name alone ensures quality and production value. And Lost Legacy has that - in spades. It's a pretty - no, a gorgeous - sight to behold, and the acting is always decent, the landscapes lush and believable, the score sweeping and some of the set-pieces are spectacular. However, if "Uncharted 4: A Thief's End" felt like a showreel of the franchise's greatest hits, then at times, Lost Legacy feels like Uncharted-karaoke. I always had the feeling like I'd been playing every chapter before, only with better company. Chloe Frazer is not a bad protagonist; she just lacks charm and motivation. Her sidekick, Nadine, is more interesting. Unfortunately, she's not a playable character and it never makes sense really as to why she's there. Why Chloe hired her of all people. Sure, she packs a punch, but only really when she was the enemy in Uncharted 4. Here, she's suspiciously less badass, and I couldn't help but wonder why we should suddenly root for her, after she tried to kill Nate and Sam numerous times before. And I still don't know why she suddenly left in A Thief's End - the ending still being the absolute worst thing about that game. I also find it troubling how a character shows up from the previous game and is now turned into a comic relief. But that seems to be the way of late with this franchise; nothing is consistent. The Chloe character also keeps contradicting herself. "Do you always talk this much on a job?" Nadine quips. "Yes," is Chloe's blunt answer. Half an hour later, Chloe says she likes to enjoy the peace and quiet while on the job and then when Nadine opens her mouth, she sighs heavily. It's frankly a weird and confusing bit of character building or rather character contradictions. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed spending most of my time in Uncharted's world yet again, even if it felt like one big "deja vu"-experience. But paying 45 bucks for roughly 6 to 8 hours of playtime in what feels like rehashed environments is a little steep for my taste, and I would advice waiting a bit until the price drops. Now, with this version, it doesn't matter that much. But this point still stands: With the sensation of having been everywhere before, scaled every cliff and skated down every steep slope, driven a 4x4 through every puddle of mud, picked up every piece of treasure, and shot every bad guy, it just isn't a huge experience for me anymore. It's a shame, yes, but it's just limited how much I can muster up a forced sense of wonder whenever I see more overgrown ruins, even if the characters insists on exclaiming a "Wow" or "Now, there's a sight to behold" at EVERY FUCKING CHANCE THEY GET. It's frankly exhausting to listen to. Let me draw my own conclusions, dammit. It's like if people laughed in comedies whenever something funny happened. The pace picks up at the end of the game, but even if the third act (or final showdown, if you will) is a breathless set piece of adrenalin, I still couldn't shake the feeling of having been there once before in Uncharted 2. And no, the inclusion of a grabbling hook doesn't make it a totally new experience, even if the developer's would like to think so.