Greatness
From Small Beginnings
Review
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Naughty Dog (PS4)
Abstract: Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is a fantastic send off to one of PlayStation’s
marquee franchises. Naughty Dog is peerless at crafting cinematic narrative
adventures and their skill shines through in Uncharted 4. The game tells a more nuanced narrative than previous
entries, filled with great character moments, dialogue, and themes that
resonate throughout your experience. Uncharted
4 features smart improvements to nearly all gameplay systems, from more rewarding
combat to more thrilling platforming. Uncharted
4 will no doubt be a highlight of 2016 and is easily one of my favorite
games this year.
Sic
parvis magna. “Greatness from small beginnings.” These are the
words that accompanied the intrepid Nathan Drake throughout his five game
journey. The words ring true for the franchise as a whole. Naughty Dog had
accrued trust with their earlier titles, Crash
Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter, but
hadn’t really made it into the hall of the ‘greats’. Their first outing on the
PS3, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune,
looked to propel the studio to new heights. The jaw-dropping Uncharted 2 all but solidified their claim.
Nearly a decade after the series began, Uncharted
4: A Thief’s End marks the conclusion to the widely-acclaimed series. And
what an ending it was.
I apologize in advance for a bit of hyperbole here, but Uncharted 4 is the best action movie
I’ve ever played. Uncharted 4 builds
upon the series’s past successes meaningfully, draws inspiration from its
contemporaries, and delivers a nuanced adventure that is not only satisfying in
its own right but confidently concludes Nathan Drake’s adventures.
Uncharted
4 takes place several years after the conclusion of the previous game. We
find Nathan Drake living a quiet life, working salvage and stamping papers
behind a desk. The game’s story revolves around Sam Drake, Nathan’s older
brother (whom we had never heard of before). You quickly discover that Sam is
not as dead as Nathan thought, and that he is in desperate need of Nathan’s
help. Sam needs to finish an adventure the two started over 15 years ago – finding
the legendary pirate Henry Avery’s long lost treasure. We follow their quest
around the world, following hidden clues, solving deadly puzzles, fighting
against an entire militia who wants the treasure for themselves, and for the
first time, introspection. Uncharted 4’s
narrative is more than just setpieces and globetrotting; it’s about Nathan Drake
and the life he has led up to this point. Uncharted
4 is not a standalone adventure. Moreso than any Uncharted game before it, Uncharted
4 is a direct sequel to the narrative threads laid out by its predecessors.
It’s for this fact that I want to clarify right now that you should not play Uncharted 4 before playing the previous Uncharted games. You will miss out on
too much, from call backs to character moments.
 |
| Welcome to the end of a great adventure. |
In reading other reviews, I’ve seen the word “mature” being tossed
around to describe Uncharted 4’s
story. Maturity is a complex and abstract concept, so I want to avoid using it
here. Uncharted 4’s plot, however, is
more nuanced than previous entries. It has a depth, mostly via a real
exploration of its character’s motivations and personalities, that made what
happens feel more substantive. As much as I loved Nathan from previous
adventures, he was a pretty one note character – a quippy ubermensch. He was
the fun-having, joke-cracking, bad guy-killing treasure hunter we all know from
pulp fiction. In Uncharted 4, though,
we’re given a more nuanced view of Drake. Why is he the way he has been in
previous games? What motivates his treasure hunting? What makes him
uncomfortable with normal life? Is Nathan Drake a good person? This exploration
of character extends to many of the game’s supporting cast, from Sam to Elena
to Sullivan. Character development is bolstered by Uncharted 4’s decision to pair Nathan up with a partner throughout
the game. Similar to what we saw in The
Last of Us, this partnering allowed for fantastic back and forths between
characters (made even better by the game’s great writing). Perhaps the biggest
compliment I can give the story is this: it never felt secondary to the action
or setpieces. Uncharted 3 in
particular felt like it wanted cool moments above all, and made a story to
support their inclusion. In Uncharted 4,
everything is about the end of Nathan’s adventure and his relationships to the
people who know him best. Uncharted 4
wraps up Nathan Drake’s adventures in a deeply satisfying way.
 |
| There are action setpieces to be found, of course, but Uncharted 4 always puts the characters and narrative first. |
I appreciated the layers present in Uncharted
4’s narrative, too. The game is more than just one last adventure for a
famous treasure hunter and his long lost brother. Uncharted 4 comments on the very nature of chasing impossible
dreams. Nathan Drake’s last adventure is scaffolded with characters, and
collectibles, that serve as an allegory for his arc. Essentially every
character in the game, alive or dead, is a reflection of one of Nathan’s
qualities. The overarching theme to the game is the cost of ambition. Naughty
Dog does a phenomenal job at reinforcing this theme throughout, while avoiding
clichés. For example, Uncharted 4 has
phenomenal environmental storytelling. The world, and the collectibles within,
offer side narratives and characters that meaningfully add to the story taking
place at the game’s surface. Repeat playthroughs would no doubt further
elucidate Uncharted 4’s dense
narrative world, which makes me respect it all the more.
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| Where is the line between greed and ambition? What is worth losing in pursuit of treasure? |
Uncharted
4 is not just narrative, however. There is a whole lot to like about the
gameplay. Uncharted 4 is a wonderful
optimization of the franchise’s gameplay. Combat saw across the board
improvements. For the first time, shooting felt asterisk-free “good.” Guns
sound and look and aim like you would expect them to. Each weapon has an
identity, which was great, as low ammo meant you constantly have to use
whatever you can find. Enemy encounters feel handcrafted in the best possible
way, giving players a dynamic environment that favors mobility and shifting
tactics over hiding behind one piece of cover for the entire fight. Stealth has
been improved, making it viable to silently take out the majority of your foes.
Uncharted 4 added several quality of
life features to combat as well. For players who want to engage with the story,
but aren’t great at aiming, the game offers an auto-lock on feature that can be
toggled on or off at any time. All enemies can be marked, giving players the
tools to better plan their attack. On top of all that, Uncharted 4’s enemies are the least bullet sponge-y than they have
ever been. Even on the hardest difficulty enemies go down with a few well-placed
shots. This not only reinforces player skill but keeps the game’s momentum
moving forward at all times.
Platforming, another essential part of Uncharted, has seen similar across the board improvements. The
animations in this game are incredible, reinforcing the physicality of both the
world and characters as you jump and climb your way around. Navigating through
the environments has been made decidedly less constrained. Uncharted 4 offers several paths for players to take to get from A
to B, from its more open environments down to even the handholds or ledges
themselves. It removes the feeling of being shuttled down a corridor, enhancing
immersion. Uncharted 4 introduces a
series first handful of truly open environments. You have a set objective, but
are free to wander and explore beautifully detailed and wide-open spaces. These
are hit and miss, unfortunately. I enjoyed the sense of discovery and the great
dialogue that happened while exploring, but overall the environments felt a bit
too large (& too empty) to be worth scouring. A minor gripe to be sure, as
you don’t spend long in any of these settings, but one that could have been
tweaked to improve the player experience.
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| Encounters encourage mobility and experimentation. No more being trapped behind chest high cover! |
Puzzles make their return, of course, and are better than ever. For a
game that so heavily relies on narrative momentum, puzzles can be a risky
proposition. You don’t want the player to torture themselves trying to figure
out something overly complex. Nor do you want them to be so easy they might as
well have not been there. Uncharted 4
straddles this boundary perfectly. Some puzzles are more successful than
others, but for the most part, all are just hard enough and just quick enough
that I felt both satisfied to have solved it and happy to move forward. One
puzzle in particular, found at the end of the game (symbols on floor squares),
is now a franchise favorite of mine. Serious Indiana Jones vibes in all the right ways.
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| You won't be scratching your head too long trying to solve Uncharted 4's puzzles. Which is great! |
The biggest change to the Uncharted
gameplay formula, rather than just refinements, is the addition of the
rope. Nathan and his brother come equipped with a grappling hook-tipped rope
that they use liberally throughout their adventure. The rope’s inclusion is odd
at first, since Nathan was never previously the Tarzan type, but it eventually clicked and added a nice new layer
to playing. Hilariously, its inclusion is even explained through the narrative.
Swinging from cliff edge to cliff edge adds tension to platforming. Swinging
around in the open air creates some beautiful vistas. Last minute hooking onto
distant structures is built into some of the game’s best setpieces. The rope
also adds to the dynamism of combat. Several of the game’s combat encounters
have rope points, allowing you to swing action movie style from building to
building, firing upon foes from midair. All it took was one dramatic midair
headshot from my AK-47 to melt away all my rope skepticism. It’s a great
addition.
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| It's hard not to grow attached to the rope. Moment-to-moment or action setpiece, the rope is consistently fun. |
As I mentioned on our podcast, Naughty
Dog is peerless in the industry. No one can deliver gripping cinematic
narrative adventures like they can. One of the ways in which they solidify
their number one spot is just how fantastically detail oriented the team is
there. Tender love and care bleed through every corner of Uncharted 4. For starters, Uncharted
4 is probably the most graphically stunning game I’ve ever seen. Character
models, facial expressions, physics, environments: Uncharted 4 is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. I honestly do not even know
how they do it. Uncharted 4 looks
better than other games running at max specs on several thousand dollar PCs.
It’s crazy. The TLC goes much further
than looks, though. Everything in the game is scripted well, reacts naturally,
and feels real. The game has a ton of extra features and accommodations to
players of all skill levels, interest levels, and engagement. Upon beating the
game you unlock a wealth of content, including game modifiers (like spawning
guns or bullet time mode) to aesthetic features (like a full 8-bit mode) to
unlocking specific encounters for players to replay. The game’s epilogue in
particular showcases how much Naughty Dog cares about its characters, its
world, and its fans. Uncharted 4 is a
rich game.
My eyes welled up with tears when I set the controller down at the end
of my adventure. Uncharted is always
a series I liked, but after A Thief’s End,
it’s now a series I love. Nathan Drake is definitively done adventuring, so I
guess I have to be too. It was great seeing him through his fantastic
adventure, and I’m thrilled that Uncharted
got a perfect send off with Uncharted 4:
A Thief’s End. I’ll miss you, buddy.
Uncharted
4: A Thief’s End
5/5
