Wait…this is the last one? // Uncharted 4 Campaign Review
This review focuses on the campaign experience. The multi-player is entertaining, but I haven’t invested much time in the Uncharted multiplayer since its debut. Feel free to comment your thoughts on it. Also, I have not played Golden Abyss, thus no references or comparisons made to it.
Naughty Dog is a force to be reckoned with: a true staple in the Sony exclusive experience. Crash Bandicoot, The Last of Us, and the Uncharted franchise will go down in the history books. At face value, Uncharted 4 is a decent amount of fun. Under a microscope though? The expected step forward in game-play is paired with quite the backward tumble in storytelling.
Uncharted 4 opens in usual fashion, dropping right into an intense and unexplained action sequence we’re sure to visit later in the game. After, you go through a couple of sequences in the past, mainly force feeding the introduction of Nathan’s brother Sam, before reaching Nathan in his domesticated and entirely legal state of living. Here we go through a torn Nathan fighting against his nature, eventually succumbing to it because there’s a gah damn game to play. Oh and his brother he thought was dead for 15 years is alive but in danger of being killed if he doesn’t get a certain treasure. That too.
From here on I’ll be discussing game-play and won’t spoil story elements, but I’ll certainly share my feelings on them later. I’ll warn you before that happens.
The Uncharted games have survived on somewhat sub-par shooting lathered on top of very well acted characters, at least one crazy fun action sequence, and solid historical fiction with mostly interesting puzzles attached. Uncharted 4 makes improvements in gun-play and hand to hand combat, even adding a grappling hook that Nathan’s brother taught him how to use when he was a kid but he somehow forgot to use up until now.
Furthermore, Uncharted 4 adds a bit of diversity to the gun-play, allowing a player to sneak around entire conflicts instead of running and gunning. The stealth elements don’t feel cheap and you can have a lot of fun tagging enemies and planning out a course of action. The grappling hook also adds a degree of excitement to these moments.
Though Uncharted 4 is still a very linear experience, there are some really beautiful open world portions that break up the pace in a good way. The jeep drives well and has a cool way to alter the environment so you can move forward and, once you get to control the boat, you’ll be hard pressed not to take as many pics as possible with the well done photo mode.
Spoiler Alert!!!
Alright. Clearly I have a positive opinion on the game-play. It’s sound and is really the main thing that got me through the game, but it was packaged with a sub par story for the most part. Check out if you don’t want it spoiled…
Still here? Ok!
If it’s not apparent already, I have no love for the introduction of Nathan’s brother. There’s an overarching story of family that comes full circle, even having mirroring scenes near the open and close, and if you take his brother out of it nothing changes that. Granted, Nathan wouldn’t be on the treasure hunt if not for his brother, but there are better devices to get that moving. Like Sully or Chloe being in danger.
Further in, you find out your mission is complete bullshit which is supposed to elicit an emotional response toward Sam, but that’s tough to do when his entire existence is tacked on. Even worse, it makes his betrayal entirely comical in a “Oh shit we didn’t even have to be here” kind of way. Even WORSE than that, the entirety of the game and it’s feeling of finality is on the back of Sam and Nathan’s history too…so…yea. No thanks.
Now, there are good things to take from Uncharted 4’s story. On one end I found myself bored by the dialogue between Sam and Nathan, but on the other I was elated whenever Nathan, Sully, and Elena bantered. The portion of the game with just Nathan and Elena is easily my favorite in the game, even though the circumstance of her finding him after falling off a cliff and knocking himself unconscious is absolutely stupid.
Also, the underlying historical fiction involving pirate captains and a conflict that evolves as you move from place to place is enthralling. The 1st and 2nd game were my favorites when it came to historical fiction, the 1st edging things out because it had the most sound twist of the entire franchise (no mystical twist in 4). 4 ties the 1st for me and left me wanting to see the pirate’s conflict play out in their own time period.
Overall the campaign is decent, bordering on disappointing. Though the epilogue does offer some closure, having that mirrored scene I’d mentioned earlier come full circle, it doesn’t feel like the closer of such a highly regarded franchise. It’s just another entry. Truly a shame that Naughty Dog, the same company that gave a jarring one off with new characters in The Last of Us, wasn’t able to pull a deep and emotional close together for characters we already know and love.
