Hello Enthusiasts,
Today's review will be Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. This title was released in early 2016 and was an immediate hit, to the point that the title is currently up for the Game of the Year award. By the way, Very Mild Spoilers Below.
This entry to the series continues to follow Nathan Drake, who has given up the life of adventures and treasure hunting for a more domesticated existence. He is now recovering goods from ship wreckages, which allows him to live comfortably with his wife and prominent character from previous games, Elena. However, a character from Nathan's past has come back and, of course, has convonced him to do just one more job.
This game is insanely fun, and improves on previous installments in almost every way. The climbing is more fun than ever (especially with the addition of the rope and hook). the story is gripping and has a couple of decent twists, and there are some really fun new mechanics in this one. I really enjoyed mudding through the plains of Africa, as that whole level is really fantastic in how it is put together. That level, as well as everything else in the game, looks beautiful as well. These are some of the best graphics I've seen in a game to-date, and all of the visuals are accompanied by a flawless soundtrack and insanely good voice acting.
These games have always had some great dialogue, and this game continues that tradition. It always feels organic, but still offers the appropriate exposition and moves the story along. I think the only part of the dialogue that seemed a little dry was during the flashbacks of Nathan as a child, though children can sometimes be a little exposition-y in real life. However, adult Nathan is sarcastic, clever, and believably human; he may be one of my favorite video game characters after this game. I was on the edge of my seat for a lot of the intense scenes that these games always incorporate where everything goes wrong, in large part because Nathan so easily makes you care about him, despite his less-than-perfect decision making abilities.
Now, in traditional fashion for these titles, this game isn't too difficult. It does have portions that took me a few tries, but I was mostly able to get through the game in one-shot (outside of some stupid mistake on my part). Now this could seem like a negative thing, but considering all of the crazy situations that Nathan has to get out of throughout the game, it worked more to make me feel like a certified bad ass. Nathan would be falling to his death, sliding down some slope that ends in a drop that goes for a few hundred feet, and I would see what he needed to jump and grab at the last second and make the leap, preventing Nathan's death. The game doesn't really highlight what to do in the environment, by they have a few different way of subtly pointing them out to the player, in ways that are just obvious enough to someone who jas played through some of the game already. Near the start of the game I would have completely missed a lot of those ledges and grappling points, but having seen them so often in regular game play, my eyes were able to distinguish them from their surroundings.
I really could ramble about how great everything in this game forever, with the possible exception of the gun play. It is not bad at all, but considering how polished the rest of the game feels, it's a little disappointing to have average shooting portions. It was honestly a lot more fun and engaging to take the enemies out in a stealth style than to start a firefight with them. However, I have decided that this is more of a realistic approach, as one man outgunning 10 or 12 enemies with just a pistol and a shotgun is a bit outlandish. Besides, as one could guess by the love I show towards Splinter Cell, I do prefer the stealth path anyway.
This game is a shining example of how good a game like this can be. Outside of some game play that felt a little sloppy compared to the rest of the game, there isn't anything to complain about (and I am stretching it for the firefights). Even if this doesn't end up being your favorite game in the series, I can't imagine anyone calling this a bad game.
I give Uncharted 4: A Thief's End a 10 out of 10, as I could not have realistically asked for anything more out of this game.
Sincerely,
The Bored Enthusiast
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