Heyyyy, though I’d drop an opinion on here - how unpopular it is, I don’t know.
Now correct me if I’m wrong about any of these things, I haven’t replayed the games in a while.
The mainstream UC fandom seems to have a big problem with LL beacouse oh it doesn’t have Nathan in it (boo hoo).
And in my humble opinion, LL is the springboard for ND to make more uncharted games. It is the future of the franchise, if there is any. Plot wise, it is proof that an uncharted game doesn’t need pirate treasure to make it interesting. While yes, we could argue UC3 was not purely focused on pirate treasure, the journey was centred on Francis Drake and his journey, without which the plot wouldn’t exist. The only other game which doesn’t have a pirate aspect to it is UC2 which too focused on mythology.
As a result, I personally found the plots of UC2 and LL to be the most compelling. They are proof that labelling UC games as just ‘pirate games’ doesn’t work, amd shouldn’t be done. In addition, if ND (and the video game industry in general) is aiming to appeal to even a fraction of non-male audiences, leaning into mythology and religion would be amazing BECAUSE it allows for plot depth that just… wasn’t there in the original UC games.
Lost Legacy weaves Chloe’s personal ties and story about her dad with the treasure and story itself in a way the UC games just weren’t able to. I’m not taking away credibility from the original games, I’m just stating that LL is richer in quality, and strikes the balance of swashbuckling fun and actually important storylines which have impact on the characters better.
So yeah. The hate LL gets is completely undeserved, and ingenuine? People are allowed to have their opinions of course, but saying LL is OBJECTIVELLY worse than the original games… a bit of a stretch.
Heyy, thank you so much!! Yay, I get to ramble ^^
I totally agree.
Little disclaimer up front: I haven't played U 1-3. I started with U4 and then played LL right after that. So, while I know roughly what 1-3 are about, and have seen some videos about them, I've never played them myself.
So. I started with U4 and was a huge fan almost immediately, especially of Nathan. I love him. When I finished U4, I was so hyped that I had LL thanks to the collection, and directly started it up.
Then I realised that LL is in fact a spinoff, not an actual game in itself. And that there is no Nathan, and to be perfectly honest: I was really disappointed at first. I even considered not playing LL because of that.
But. I did play, and I enjoyed the hell out of it! Chloe and Nadine carry the game so well that they wouldn't even need Sam (though he was fun there, I really enjoyed him and his story with Nadine). And they would've carried a full-length game as well, I'm sure.
Now for me, I didn't know that Uncharted was labelled as "Pirate games", because everybody who told me to get them always said they were "Tomb Raider with a man" (which is something I can't really agree with, but that's not what you asked about). Having not played 1-3, the setting in U4 felt like, y'know, its about pirates and that's it. It could've been about anything, as long as the theme of obsession and religious guilt occurred, because that was important for the journey and the ending. So I totally agree that Uncharted doesn't need pirates to be Uncharted.
About LL: it's a masterpiece IMHO. Obviously, I love U4, but LL didn't feel worse. It felt obviously different because it's a lot shorter and not a main game, and because it's having a different main character, but it's still a very well-done game. The only thing I could personally criticise is that Asav as antagonist didn't click with me. Yeah, he's a bad guy. That's it. I didn't really care about his motives or character as much as I cared about Rafe.
I loved that LL felt very personal though. Now of course U4 was super personal as well, with the plot about Sam (which, in my opinion, had to step back to give Elena her part in the story, which I thought to be a little disappointing? Not because I dislike her per se, but because the storyline around Sam suffers. But again, that's not what you came here for, sorry).
But LL felt different because it doesn't end with finding the treasure. There are more important things than the Tusk, because Chloe can't stand by and watch while people are getting killed. Apart from that, we have the great character development with Nadine and Chloe who learn to trust each other, and Nadine and Sam, who learn not to hate the other. There are a lot of deeper themes in LL that suit the game incredibly well, and as you say: LL has plot-depth that goes beyond hunting a pirate treasure, while still having the hilarious fun moments and the mostly lighthearted tone.
Also: the ending of LL feels a lot more satisfying than U4's, but that's just my opinion.
LL could totally be the start of a new Uncharted. While I wouldn't mind another Nate-centred game as U5 (simply because I haven't had four of them like other fans had), I'd be more than fine with a Chloe and Nadine game. They've proven that they can carry a high-quality game (because that's what LL is, and I've not seen a single real argument against that), and I'd love to see more of them!
So, as you say, it's not that the previous games were bad (speaking from my U4 perspective), but LL is simply an awesome game, too. And only that it does a few things differently doesn't change that.
