Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End review – a worthy send-off
From technically impressive but fairly unremarkable cover shooter, to one of the industry’s premiere franchises – it’s been some journey for the Uncharted series.
The jump from 2007’s Drake’s Fortune to the 2009 sequel Among Thieves in particular was quite incredible. Among Thieves set new standards for action games, rewriting the rulebook and inspiring other developers to try and replicate its success. Not even Naughty Dog themselves could match it with the 2011 release of Drake’s Deception.
Having seen Nathan all but ride off into the sunset ala Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade at the end of the third installment, and after the resounding success of The Last of Us in 2013, plenty were clamouring for Naughty Dog to take on a similarly fresh challenge. Almost five years on from Drake’s Deception, in a medium in which popular franchises are rarely out of the limelight for more than twelve months, it seemed a strange move for the team to once again return to the well for a fourth entry. Now that it’s here, we can all be very glad that they did.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End picks up some time after the last game, with wisecracking treasure hunter Nathan having settled down with journalist and wife Elena Fisher and left adventure behind him. His life has slowed down, and so does the game. A Thief’s End doesn’t exactly fly off the starting blocks, instead giving players a taste of domestic bliss and a flashback to Nathan’s childhood growing up in a Christian orphanage with older brother Sam. In lesser hands this would likely fall flat, but under the stewardship of directors Bruce Straley and Neil Druckman it works wonderfully well by adding real emotional weight to the action that follows.
Those who have enjoyed the series so far will of course be even more invested in where the story takes the characters. It’s testament to the writing throughout each of the games that Nathan, Elena and Victor Sullivan are worth caring for as much as they are. What’s impressive is that you end up really caring for Sam, too. Long presumed dead and therefore never mentioned until now, he unexpectedly gatecrashes Nathan’s life in the early goings and tempts him to once again untuck half of his shirt and head out on another globetrotting escapade. From that point on he becomes a compelling part of the cast and also acts as something as a vessel for new players.
Having delivered some of gaming’s most exceptional storytelling with The Last of Us, Druckman’s script oozes confidence. The writing across the board is exceptional, resulting in what is by far the deepest, most meaningful and compelling narrative of the series. It still boasts plenty of blockbuster moments, including a brilliantly staged heist in Italy and a stunning jeep chase in Madagascar, but it’s actually the quieter character driven moments that will stay with you. These moments are also shared pretty equally between gameplay and cutscenes, which is most welcome.
Even the environmental storytelling is incredibly nuanced, adding real history and context to our heroes’ search for the legendary pirate utopia of Libertalia. Those moments come to wonderful fruition by the time the credits roll, with Druckman showing a rare and admirable quality in simply allowing the story to end.
To speak more of the story would be to spoil those yet to experience it, but there’s plenty else to be impressed by. A Thief’s End is also the best playing Uncharted yet, with lots of open combat encounters allowing for a mix of heated gunfights and tactical stealth. Shooting feels good and is amplified by the traversal mechanics, which are further bolstered by the addition of a rope to swing across gaps and land on unsuspecting enemies. The combat feels incredibly fluid, allowing you to fire your weapons when you’re in cover, running, swinging, sliding and hanging off the sides of structures. The fluidity of the combat lends itself well to the multiplayer, which continue Naughty Dog’s record of crafting online components that are better than they have any right to be.
Stealth is rather more exclusive to the campaign and is clearly inspired by Far Cry and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain – you can do things like mark targets and pick them off one by one without alerting a soul. What makes the stealth all the more compelling is that it is representative of a more measured Nathan; an older and wiser man with way more at stake than ever before. It definitely adds some much needed variation to Uncharted’s enemy encounters.
Not that the game skimps on ridiculously over the top set pieces, with the aforementioned jeep chase undoubtedly the pick of the bunch. You’ll also experience first hand plenty of collapsing buildings, which look more incredible than ever. If anything it would have been nice to have a few more of them, and there are a few levels in which the long stretches without any action can drag. You spend an awful lot of time climbing, which usually feels too automated to be engaging for long periods. The puzzles are great, though, and make excellent use of Nathan’s notebook to help you solve them.
A Thief’s End also gives you plenty of opportunities to wander around, absorb the environments, enjoy optional conversations with your buddies and find collectibles. For the most part it works really well, but Uncharted purists may be disappointed that the number of set piece moments falls some way short of what we saw in Drake’s Deception. What it does share with that game are a final few chapters boasting some frustrating difficulty spikes. A few late game face-offs with rival treasure hunters Rafe Adler and Nadine Ross – who are both excellent additions to the cast – aren’t great fun.
Overall, though, A Thief’s End is a real triumph. It’s truly beautiful to behold with undoubtedly the best production values yet seen in the medium. Henry Jackson’s score is gorgeous and Nolan North delivers a career best performance as Nathan Drake. Troy Baker is also excellent as Sam, as is Emily Rose as Elena. The whole cast show fantastic range in bringing to life what is a more mature story than any of the prior games, while still injecting it with plenty of the levity and good spirit the series is known for.
Its a tremendous send-off and a sterling example of how to close a series, no matter what form of media. It’s not the landmark achievement that Among Thieves was, but it’s a terrific culmination of everything Naughty Dog has learned from 10 years of Uncharted and a jaunt into a zombie apocalypse. Nobody else makes cinematic action games quite like this and to take it for granted simply because we’ve seen Naughty Dog deliver it before would be churlish.
