A fitting end
After Uncharted 3 seemingly concluded the series while giving its audience the impression Naughty Dog had about run out of ideas, I found myself among the many fans okay if Uncharted was laid to rest with the console it had helped define. Fortunately, Naughty Dog took the time and care to design a sequel that not only properly concludes the adventures of Nathan Drake, but manages to refresh the series to reflect the lessons of the past decade of gaming. It is very much an Uncharted game, but it’s an Uncharted game that reflects where games are in 2016 while still sticking to its core tenants.
Uncharted 4 tells the story of Nate’s brother Sam and what happens when he shows up after fifteen years looking for Nate’s help searching for a lost treasure they’ve been seeking since they were kids. Given that Nate has settled down with his wife Elena Fisher and engaged in the mundanity of a day job, he’s needless to say reluctant to engage in another globetrotting adventure. Knowing the immediate question this raises as to why Sam has never been referenced before, the game thankfully spends its early chapters filling in the character’s backstory while building the relationship between the Drake brothers. In fact, the game devotes almost the entire first quarter of its length to this.
What this game makes quickly apparent is that Naughty Dog has a lot more confidence in its storytelling, perhaps thanks to The Last of Us. While the Uncharted series has typically featured great dialogue, its plots and characters are largely akin to summer popcorn flicks. Plot in the previous games have just been vehicles moving the player from one action set piece to the next. The game’s pacing is a bit slower and more methodical than prior entries. Both conversations and plot exposition are given time to properly breathe. Looking back on the first Uncharted game especially, the series often seemed afraid to let you go any real length of time without putting a gun in your hand. This game on the other hand has an entire chapter devoted just to Nate’s home life. In fact, perhaps the best scene in the whole game is of Nate and Elena having dinner.
This is still an Uncharted game through and through. It’s just more Raiders of the Lost Ark compared to the original Trilogy’s National Treasure feel. The soul of what made this series popular remains. Rather, it’s a game influenced by an era including walking simulators. It understands that it can take out three or four gun fights and insert a little more walking and talking. And it trusts its players not to lose interest.
My personal favorite elements of the story ended up being the relationship between Nate and Elena. Not just video games, but most forms of media like telling stories about romance, but hate telling stories about relationships. Everything from action movies to teen fiction stop the moment a new couple have their first kiss, have sex or get married. Here, the two have been married for a while. The issues they have are those of a married couple. The game delves into the oft-unanswered question of what happens when two people used to nonstop action and adventure try to settle down in the mundanity of the real world.
Traversing the world of Uncharted 4 is similar to previous games with several twists. Levels tend to be bigger than in the past. Several levels almost feel open-world in scope and allow for some amount of exploration. In addition to Nate’s inhuman rock climbing abilities, he also has the use of a grappling hook this time around. This isn’t an Assassin’s Creed Syndicate style grappling hook though. There are specific grapple points, and outside of combat, most of these are part of Uncharted’s standard climbing sequences. During combat sequences though, there are often grapple points you can use to quickly move around.
Naughty Dog has expanded on Uncharted’s combat more than changed its core with this game. Moving between cover and firing guns feels quite similar to how it did, for better or for worse, in previous games. What is new though is that there are now drastically expanded upon stealth mechanics. It is far more what you’d expect of an action game featuring stealth than a stealth game. Much like Far Cry, stealth is more meant to whittle down enemy numbers before all hell breaks loose. However, it is perfectly feasible to end encounters without firing a single shot, or in some cases, even bypass encounters all together if you can manage to sneak by everyone unseen. Battlefields tend to be bigger as well, giving the player options how to tackle each encounter
Uncharted 4 still has plenty of cinematic set pieces for the player to engage in. Much like the combat, this carries similar pros and cons to previous entries. Sequences and game flow can break and lose effect if the player can’t figure out what action comes next or can’t take out enemies quickly enough. This is an element of the series that still can create variant experiences for each player depending how many times they need to repeat a sequence. Unchared is not like Dark Souls. It is not a series that has ever fared well if the player is repeating sections more than three to four times.
Beyond the continued quality dialogue the series has been known for, the voice acting here remains top-notch. Nolan North and Emily Rose have always had tremendous chemistry, and the pair slip back into their respective roles as if time hasn’t passed. All jokes aside, North and Troy Baker do a fantastic job together playing the Drake brothers. Baker’s variant on his Troy Baker A voice does make it easy to see the two as siblings.
One area of disappointment was the game’s advertised dialogue choices. I’m pretty sure most every dialogue choice was in the first quarter of the game, leading one to believe at some point this was a more robust element of the game that was cut back on at some point in production. Even with the options there were, I’m not sure if any actually affected the game in a meaningful way. More meaningful to the game are several dozen opportunities to engage in optional dialogue with other characters. These are more for added plot details than anything requisite.
Uncharted 4’s timing feels rather appropriate. The conversation regarding whether the current generation of consoles is underpowered has hit a fever pitch in recent months thanks to the leaked news of the Playstation Neo and the rumors of an updated Xbox One. Uncharted 4 scores a blow for the side feeling updated hardware is unnecessary, as this is easily one of the most gorgeous games on any platform today. Much like the original Uncharted trilogy set the standard for graphics in its time, Uncharted 4 has raised the bar for modern console gaming. Just as importantly, frame rate and general performance was not sacrificed to maintain this level of graphical quality.
Uncharted 4 is very much the sequel I never knew I wanted. Whereas I was happy to be done with the series after Uncharted 3 because it had run out of steam, this is the conclusion the series always deserved. It is very much an Uncharted game for 2016 that is still about both continuing and concluding the series, not rewriting it.
