Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Approaching Uncharted 4: A Thief's End with trepidation is reasonable, to say the least. The franchise seemed to wrap itself up nicely on the last generation of consoles, and one of the last things anyone seemed to find themselves saying after Uncharted 3 was, "I cannot wait to see more of this." There's plenty to find divisive about Naughty Dog's latest entry into the series -- from mechanics that almost immediately feel overly familiar for series veterans to apparent pacing issues with the story -- but the studio puts on display true best-in-class third-person action gameplay and set pieces, coupled with top-notch writing delivered expertly to create some of the most somber and human moments in a digital medium, ultimately making A Thief's End the best entry in the series by a wide margin, and a must-play title for PlayStation 4 owners.

The biggest fault of Uncharted 4 comes careening towards you straight out of the gate: it opens slowly. Nathan Drake and his brother Sam are being chased through a terrible storm at sea, treating you to truly astounding visuals and giving you a quick look at how the gunplay feels, along with the scope of some of the magnificent set pieces throughout the game before giving you glimpses into the lives of the brothers Drake over the years. Sam's own takes a few unfortunate turns that land him in hot water, while Nate's has become peaceful and pedestrian since the conclusion of Uncharted 3. Easily the most impressive part of the entire game is in the intimate details of Drake's life at home with his wife, Elena. Never before did I think that I would be moved or gripped by the mundanity of a simple dinner, but it goes to show what Naughty Dog has learned about characterization, animation, writing and acting direction since the previous entries by working on The Last of Us -- and Uncharted 4 is all the better for it. They manage to turn Nathan Drake into a complex, flawed character beyond his previously understood loot lust, and introduce a whole cast that have issues and nuances of their own. The casualness of the dialogue between characters as you move from scene to scene and the way the scripted cinematics play out is second to none, and one of the must-see aspects of A Thief's End.

After Uncharted gets past it's slow introduction (which seems to be meant to ease newcomers into the series), it gets down to brass tacks and shows you how fun it can be. The gunplay really comes into it's own and gives the player some interesting feedback about how their weapon is climbing and where shots are landing with a helpful onscreen indicator. Blindfiring feels both essential and useful, helping to take the pressure off of you during the more stressful, dire moments of the game while you're in cover, while also giving you the option of running up on an enemy and unloading your ammo on them before clotheslining them into oblivion. The melee system itself is incredibly satisfying, letting your AI partner assist you in immediate, somewhat comical takedowns, and allowing you to leap on your enemy from above -- resulting in lethal and hilarious moves while generally ending in some over the top, Mission Impossible 2-style, grab-a-weapon-out-of-mid-air-and-blast-a-baddie imagery. It all feels fluid and natural after you're given the opportunity to play with the systems, resulting in some of the most fun I can recall with any third person shooter.

Nearly every area where gunfire can erupt starts with you in a stealth sequence, whereby you and your partner (who cannot be seen by your opponents, a la The Last of Us) have the drop on your enemies. Engaging with the stealth sequences are almost entirely optional. At no point does the game have a fail state for getting caught, but you damn well better be prepared for a heavy handed response from the enemy. Whether you're fighting outright or snapping necks from the shadows, pulling men over ledges and choking them out in tall grass, you're able to mark your enemies, allowing the player to approach these sections with a little more tact and awareness than was available in previous Uncharted games. While it was nice the first few times around to feel like a silent predator and sneak past your enemies, I found myself more often than not shooting my way through these sections just to keep up the pace of the game, getting back to the over the top action that feels and looks so damned good.

These stealth sequences go hand in hand with the vertical traversal mechanic in the game, which Uncharted veterans know well. Hold a direction and press X. There's no real weight given to it and you almost always know when a jump is safe. It's hard to say how they could raise the stakes in these sections without frustrating the player with failure, but it makes the whole mechanic feel as rote as it has since Uncharted 2. Hold a direction and press X, hit a handhold that breaks apart and causes the Classic Nate Lines™ of "nononoNONO", "Oooooh SHIT", or "whOAWHOAWHOA" from Drake before he catches himself -- then continue to hold a direction and press X. There are enough sequences where this drags on, especially in the first and last third of the game, but given that it rarely sets the player back, it's an easily dismissed mechanic at it's best, and a minor annoyance at worst.

What doesn't slow the player down is the action set pieces put in place in this game. Naughty Dog seems to have looked at all of the past entries and learned how to best give and take control from the player, allowing them to deliver some of the best looking, tightest controlling and exhilarating moments in a video game ever. Several times over, my heart pounded while I barely eked out some QTEs or, in the event of a particular scene that takes place in Madagascar, had me physically shouting with joy at what I was witnessing and playing. If there's one thing that can be taken from the Uncharted series, it has always been and will always be the outrageous cinematic action that Naughty Dog has come to so lovingly know and craft.

Given that characterization and cinematic action are the highest point of the Uncharted series, it makes it a little difficult to see the multiplayer as much more than a well-playing but increasingly superfluous addition. I spent a few hours with it, and it's immediately apparent that the designers consciously said "If we have to sacrifice some graphical fidelity for performance, so be it." It looks nice, but is missing that indistinct pop of the campaign you just spent 10-15 hours with, though that's mostly forgivable given that it runs at a solid and steady 60 frames per second. It carries over almost all the mechanics of the single player experience, and there is a certain satisfaction to gunning down three opponents with heavy weaponry before fully charging your melee attack to down a fourth. However, in a landscape where competitive multiplayer focused games are getting more fierce and plentiful by the week, it lacks the staying power needed to keep most players coming back and begs the question if it was truly necessary.

I was torn for the first couple of hours of playing A Thief's End. I became increasingly worried that they'd keep drawing from the well they'd already run dry, that the whole experience would feel overly familiar and worn out before reaching its conclusion. It overstays its welcome by about an hour, but presents itself so confidently the game is nearly swaggering. The characters are some of the best to grace the medium and easily the most memorable of any Uncharted, the game plays smoother and more naturally than ever, and the set pieces somehow go above and beyond, topping their predecessors. While this territory doesn't feel entirely uncharted (I know, it's 2016 and I still had to, I'm sorry), there is too much in here that demands to be seen. Naughty Dog delivers both an experience like no other and like only they can, drawing an effective conclusion to the Nathan Drake storyline and bringing so much to the table that it's impossible to not recommend seeing it for yourself.