Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

As the de facto main PlayStation exclusive franchise for the past decade more or less, I'd always felt the Uncharted games to be fairly overrated, even going so far as to say I didn't like them at all. The idea of them was always appealing, a pulpy, globe-trotting action romp, a modern day Indiana Jones, but I never had them land for me in the execution. Whether it be the shooting or the exploration and platforming, something had always put me off, no matter how much I dug the characters and narrative. So with that, I went into Uncharted 4: A Thief's End not with a sense of anticipation for one of the "biggest" games of the year, but with a sense of obligation to at least experience it and have something to say about in conversation. Instead, I ended up finding the adventure I'd been looking for the whole time.

Series hero Nathan Drake is older now - not substantially so, but enough that his longing to get back in the game is met half and half with a certain weariness for the life he once led - and that immediately interests me. Seeing the swash-buckling, pirate and smuggler murdering Drake in his home life is one of the first things you do in the game and it's very effective in the endearing way it makes this character that has seemed superhuman feel very ordinary. If there's one thing I had always appreciated about all of the games up until this point, it was that the writing had always felt good, or more accurately, appropriate, but A Thief's End might be the first time that the writing of the game feels strong. Being the fifth total game in the series, a lot of the groundwork and personalities of these characters had been done already, to be fair, but the exchanges between our core cast of Nate, Sully, Elena, and newcomer Sam are handled with a level of credibility and class that can't go unremarked upon.

With the return of said long-lost/believed-dead brother Sam, Nate is drawn back into "the game" looking for mythical pirate treasure in a classic "one last job" type story after the dissatisfaction with some aspects of his new mundane life starts to pile up. From here the typical series of elaborate set pieces in exotic locales plays out, but again it all feels better, and more earned. The complicated crumbling clock tower puzzle feels like it's in service of the story, and not the other way around, etc.

In addition to the organic nature of the gameplay, there's more variance to the moment to moment action including the new sliding, grappling hook, and especially, stealth mechanics. The increased tool set allows for most enemy encounters to be tackled in different ways, as opposed to the previous games and their systems of "stealth kill one guy, every enemy suddenly knows where you are anyway, shoot your way out" loop. For real, the stealth actually works! I didn't believe it would and was tremendously surprised when it was totally viable to wait in tall grass for some fool to walk by, deal with him quietly, and begin making my way towards the next victim. There were also multiple areas where it was possible to make your way through them without clearing out wave after wave of enemies if you weren't detected, which were always satisfying to accomplish. Even the shooting feels improved, although there is an aim-assist that can be turned on if you still want some help with it.

The other noteworthy addition to the gameplay were the vehicle chapters where you have a jeep or boat you could navigate around in, as well as solve some puzzles with. The driving is sharp and they never went on long enough to make you tired of them, even if the open environments they take place in are more linear than you might guess at first glance. All of the added elements make A Thief's End feel so far and away above the previous games, I started wondering how they didn't have this stuff in the first place as I couldn't imagine playing an Uncharted game without a grappling hook now. It also helps that the grappling hook was fun to use as well as being an effective tool for exploration.

I've been discussing the single player of the game because it's obviously the showpiece of the package, but there is also a multiplayer component which I would describe as being fine. It's a third person shooter with a couple of the ideas from the campaign thrown in to help it stand out, but it's nothing you're going to be writing home about - or maybe even playing that often. It gets the job done and is totally enjoyable, which is all I really needed to see from it. The idea that adding multiplayer to a largely single player experience takes away from the latter has mostly gone away in recent years, and I assure you, Uncharted 4 shows no signs of corners being cut in this regard.

As well, as one might expect from the first of these games to be made natively for the PS4, the game is gorgeous, not just in raw, life-like visuals, but in every aspect of it's technical prowess. The lighting is top-notch, and even in the most explosive and busy of action set-pieces, the frame rate never dips in a noticeable way. The overall production value from Naughty Dog is insane as every part comes together to form a product that lives up to the potential the series always had.

At the end of the day, Uncharted 4 feels like a real triumph. There's a story that's in line with the standards and expectations set by the earlier games, but it's more mature and grown up. The characters you've come to know and love are here, all with amazing performances, especially from Nolan North as Nathan and Troy Baker as Sam. The game is as beautiful as they can get on the platform, and will likely be the high water mark for some time. Expansion or DLC aside, it's hard to imagine where the franchise goes from here other than taking some time off - if it ever needs to come back at all. A Thief's End really feels like just that: an end. A closing of the book on a group of characters that have grown and changed. For something that took around fifteen hours to complete - give or take - it's stayed with me for some time afterwards, and I really am quite pleasantly surprised at how this game made a fan out of someone like me who almost didn't care at all going in.