Uncharted 4 Review (PS4)
by Tom Devaney | June 1st, 2016
Treasure hunter + stud + joker + badass = Nathan Drake. But what else is there to the treasure hunter that we’ve grown to love in the past three Uncharted games? And how the hell is Sully still doing parkour? This is the question Neil and Bruce, the creative directors of the game, have been asking with Uncharted 4.
We started to see a glimpse into Nathan in Uncharted 3. We saw how he’s been stealing from others ever since he was a kid and how he’s always had a knack for knowing obscure details about history. But we also saw a darker side to Nathan, one that could get people around him killed: his need for treasure and exploration.
I mean of course he has an obsession with treasure and exploration; otherwise, we wouldn’t have had three games of him doing the craziest shit imaginable. But you could see how bad his obsession was when he wasn’t ready to pull out of a treasure hunt even if it meant that he could’ve been killed. And not only that but he would’ve dragged his loved ones into that pit with him (a dark pit full of the shiniest, treasures imaginable).
All of this information that was piled onto me in the last Uncharted made it very surprising for me to learn that in Uncharted 4, we see a Nathan Drake that isn’t in the game of looking for long lost treasures.
We get to see a smarter Nathan, one who understands that there’s more to life than forgotten pieces of shiny gold. But if this is the case, then what the hell is Uncharted 4 about if he’s not jumping off of cliffs, climbing up obscure objects that probably shouldn’t be climbed on, and finding treasure in ancient places? Well… that’s the question isn’t it?
Not only does Uncharted 4 answer that question, but it shows us how Nathan has become the way he is. How does someone get such an unhealthy obsession with exploring and treasure, and how does someone become so good at reading Latin for being white as hell? (Alright, he does have a nice tan though.)
This is the type of character development I should’ve expected from the people who made The Last of Us. Keyword: should’ve. In all honesty, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the game. I just hoped that Bruce and Neil made a conclusion fitting to the Uncharted franchise (and that they didn’t kill Sully).
Not only did they make a conclusion fitting for the franchise, but they somehow managed to cut this gem of a game in such a way that it is now the most alluring gem of the whole collection! Yep, that’s right: this is the best Uncharted game.
How is that even possible, you might ask. Uncharted 2 was insanely good! Yes… Yes, it was. And I didn’t think that a coup d’etat was going to happen. But there were just a certain amount of things done that made this Uncharted even more satisfying than the others.
First off, the writing is just fantastic. There’s, of course, a bunch of great one liners thrown out throughout the game, but the writing is more than funny jokes. It’s crucial for that impressive character development I was referring to earlier. For all the new faces, and old ones, that pop up in Uncharted 4, none of them would’ve been as memorable if it weren’t for the great writing behind them. I mean the villains are better than ever thanks to the natural, real dialogue.
And speaking of villains, I’ve always felt like the previous Uncharted villains have been ok. But that’s all they were. There was never anything about them that was super interesting. Now, the two villains in this game didn’t disappoint at all.
Nadine (black chick) and Rafe (white guy) look like normal people just like Drake, Elena, and Sully. They actually don’t necessarily look menacing at all. But they are extremely menacing (one is deranged as hell too). I was actually scared for Nathan in the game because he was heading up against these two.
Not only do these two spice up the non-gameplay aspect of the game, but the story is just incredible. I’d rather not delve into it too much—let’s just say Nate is going after that booty—but I feel that this Uncharted has had the most addicting story yet.
It manages to do this in an interesting way: journal notes. Throughout the game, you find journals from people trying to find this treasure and how their adventures’ have fared, along with you seeing some other interesting journals. All of these journals just add a whole dimension to the adventure (along with that separate collection of journals almost having me in tears).
But enough with this story crap and character junk, what about the shooting and the climbing? Well, that is also as good as it’s ever been. The shooting is as tight as ever, and the climbing/traversing has had some little additions added to it that spunk it up compared to the previous games. But that’s not the most interesting thing about the game gameplay wise.
What’s so interesting is how Uncharted 4 handles itself in regards to its linearity. The previous Uncharted games have been linear as hell: go from point A to point B. Uncharted 4 mixes this formula up a bit. It’s still go from point A to point B, but there’s an emphasis on how you get to point B.
Long gone are single pathways. Now, there are multiple pathways ahead of you that give you options: do I want to climb up the cliff to get to the top of the cliff or do I want grapple hook over to the edge to climb to the top of the cliff. So you end up getting to point B the same, but having multiple options feels good.
But this is only the tip of Uncharted 4’s venture into a more non-linear game. What it also added are sections where you have to go from point A to point B, but there are other places to explore on the way to point B. Take, for example, my adventure on a 4×4.
In this part of the game, I had to drive all the way to a tower, and while I was doing this, I was able to stop at other towers and search them for collectable treasures or journal notes. None of this was important for the story of the game, but the options of not having to go directly to point B made it feel like I was truly exploring the Safari. And it felt great.
And there were so many moments in the game like this that just blew me away. It would’ve been so much easier for Naughty Dog to have gone with the old way of doing things, but it wouldn’t have been nowhere near as satisfying as this.
Now, I haven’t really mentioned this yet, but you could tell it was coming given those beautiful screenshots I’ve been showing off: this game is sexy as hell. Naughty Dog have unleashed the power of the PS4 to make the best looking game ever. From the cinematic cutscenes that made me want to get out a bucket of popcorn to the lush landscapes, there was never a moment where my eyes weren’t being spoiled.
All in all, I cannot recall anything that was negative about this game. Sure, the multiplayer may not be as awesome as the previous Uncharted games (they stripped all of the coop modes!), but really, that’s just icing on the sweet, moist cake. And just because the icing wasn’t as sweet as I would’ve liked it to have been doesn’t make the cake bad. Hell no. What really mattered for this game was that it would provide a captivating conclusion to the life of Nathan Drake.
My Conclusion:
And it did.
It gives me goosebumps thinking about the send off Bruce and Neil gave Nathan, and I’m glad these were the guys to do it. So thank you Bruce and Neil for that.
But they also had the foundations of the previous Uncharted games to build off of. So thank you Amy for the previous Uncharted games. You’re responsible for helping bring to life the best Playstation series ever.
And last, but not least, thank you Naughty Dog for not milking every single drop of creamy goodness out of Uncharted’s meaty, succulent udder.
Check out my Review Scale to see how I review and score games.