Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Review

Uncharted 4 came out just last week, May 10th, but with it having not only a Singleplayer campaign but also a Multiplayer, I wanted to play this game a little while longer before I wrote anything about it.  I had been waiting for this game since they first talked about it, and I pre-ordered the collector’s edition of the game back in September of 2015.  Learning that it was going to be the final chapter in the Uncharted series, I was a bit nervous on how they would end his journey.  Would he get a happy ending?  Would this adventure be to much for him and have him perish at the end?  As the day of release came closer and closer, I sat down and played through the three games that came before it, getting ready for my final adventure in this great series.  Half way through the third game my doorbell rang and a large package was left outside my house; my collector’s edition had finally come, and it was time to set aside all responsibilities and play through both the single and multiplayer game.

So we get to meet Sam Drake on this adventure, Nathan’s big brother that he never brought up in any of the previous games.  Searching for the treasure of Captain Henry Avery, your adventure for clues to its whereabouts starts you off in a Panamanian jail.  This is a great start because in the very first Uncharted game, he tells you about being in a Panamanian jail, which we get to see a little of during our time there.  After that it jumps to the present time with Nathan working at a salvage company.  The game does  that a lot too; it jumps around from his time as a kid, to the Panamanian jail, to current times, back to his time as a kid, and back to current times.  It did slow down the pacing of the game for me when you go back in time to his childhood again, but you get to learn a lot about his past.  Like why Sam and Nathan both changed their name’s to Drake and what their original names were.  They kind of reminded me of the brothers from ‘The Goonies’.

As you go through the game, you finally meet with the two antagonists of the game.  Rafe Adler, who was with you during your time in the Panamanian jail, bankrolling the treasure hunt; and Nadine Ross, leader of ‘Shoreline’, a private military company and a total ass kicker.  They were probably my two favorite baddies throughout the whole series.  They are just two regular people, looking for a pirate treasure; unlike a warlord looking for Shambhala, or a leader of a secret society and a magic man looking for Iram of the Pillars.  Although you could argue that Nadine and Lazarević, since both seem to lead a private army.  However, this game just seemed to lack the supernatural element that the other three games had before it.  Don’t expect pirate ghosts to start coming after you, the developers seemed to want Nathan’s adventures to end on a more… natural adventure, than supernatural.

The maps also seemed larger in this game than in any previous ones.  What I mean by that is during the three games that came before this one, looking for the hidden 100 treasures was a bit easier.  Not only are the maps more open, like in Chapter 12 where you can drive your boat from small island to small island looking for treasure, but not only are there 100 treasures to find but there are also journal notes you need to find throughout the game, jot down journal entries and optional conversations with other NPCs, which made me think I was playing an RPG.  The difficulty also seemed to shoot up drastically.  Even on the Normal/Moderate difficulty, it was pretty hard.  Enemies had such great accuracy it was unreal.  I can only imagine what Crushing difficulty has in store for me.

Then there was the multiplayer.  I’ll admit I’m not a very good player when it comes to multiplayer games, especially fast paced ones such as this one.  You have to watch out not only from the opponents shooting at you, but they can summon snipers, medics, heavy machine-gunners; swing on ropes and do take downs from above or lay in wait at the edge of the map and take you down from below.  As I said, I’m not good at this multiplayer game, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been having fun with it.  It’s a fun game and I can’t wait to play it with a couple of my friends.  Maybe I’ll actually win some games if I can communicate with my teammates…

So far, five months in to this year, this has to be my “Game of the Year” so far.  Of course there are a bunch of games coming up that may be able to rival it, but right now this game is it.  It’s beautiful, has some good music and of course a great story.  A 9/10 is what this game gets.  What could’ve made it better?  I’m not so sure… maybe those pirate ghosts.  It just felt odd not having the supernatural element in this game when the three before it did.  I can’t wait to see what else Naughty Dog has in store for us.  I’m looking at you “The Last of Us”.