Review | Uncharted 4
I’ve never been in love with Uncharted. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each entry in the series, but none of them seemed to strike the same chord in me as they did with so many others. I enjoyed the epic set pieces and the great cast of what are now iconic PlayStation characters, but I always found the story and gameplay to be lacking—specifically in its combat and platforming. With the series’ final chapter, this has finally changed. Not only does it address long-running issues I’ve had with the series, it somehow manages to improve on literally, every one of its strong suits, as well as bring a few new things to the table for Nathan Drake’s final adventure.
At a glance, the setup sounds like a bad cliche’. You are a retired Nathan Drake who is yanked from his now normal life by his long lost brother to go on one last hunt for treasure. While the idea of a long lost brother may sound fanfic bad on paper, the angle used here is surprisingly believable with Naughty Dog using small details to build on that believability.
Fifteen years ago a job went south resulting in a dangerous escape from a Panama prison. During the escape, Sam is shot and is believed to be killed just before Drake and their partner Rafe escape. It turns out, Sam survived and now owes a lot of money to a very dangerous drug lord as payment for helping him escape. This setup was a brilliant way to get a reluctant (but clearly still longing for the good old days) Nathan Drake back into the game. There is a particular moment in Drake’s attic before Sam is introduced where he opens a box containing some files and photos from the original job where Sam met his presumed death. As you try to interact with it Drake pulls a picture of Sam halfway from a journal before saying “Nah..” and putting it away. Even after fifteen years, it’s something he still doesn’t want to face, which helped sell me on the fact that we had never heard about his brother before.
The performances on display here are simply best of the best, with some of the most convincing acting and motion capture I’ve ever seen in gaming. Developer Naughty Dog’s perfect understanding of these characters, their history, and how they should act and react to each situation makes for an incredibly strong narrative of friendship, loss, and betrayal. It’s a much more grounded narrative compared to what we’ve seen out of Uncharted in the past, starting off as a hunt for a single pirate’s lost treasure before slowly expanding into a much bigger picture.
New storytelling elements help to fully develop this picture. For example, the story of Henry Avery—the pirate who’s treasure Sam and Drake go hunting for—is given more depth thanks to journal entries found throughout the game. Tales of those close to the pirates as well as adventurers who failed to locate the treasure themselves are scattered everywhere, giving context to who Avery was, what his motivations were, and how others felt about him. These are not unlike the ones found in The Last of Us, and are not the only things Uncharted 4 borrows from the 2012 modern classic. Optional dialogue prompts between characters occasionally pop up as you explore different parts of the notably more open (but still not open-world) environments.
Naughty Dog has been the benchmark for nearly a decade when it comes to showing what a home console can be capable of. They set the bar with Uncharted, Uncharted 2, The Last of Us, and now they have indeed set it once again with Uncharted 4. The amount of detail in each environment you encounter is staggering. Urban cities look and feel truly lived in, abandoned villages show accurate scars of time, and forest jungles are filled with visibly damp foliage that reacts as you move through it. Lighting naturally breaks through the trees and bounces off of walls and clothing. Animations for climbing, shooting—practically anything and everything—is of the highest caliber. Technically, Uncharted 4 is truly on another level.
Gameplay in Uncharted 4 is your usual mix of platforming, wall climbing, puzzle solving, and combat—but each one has been enhanced in one way or another. Platforming is enhanced by some new ways to interact with the environment such as sliding down hills and using the grapple hook. Chaining both of these together creates some of Uncharted 4’s most exhilarating moments in gameplay. Wall climbing now has the addition of the piton which allows you to drive a spike into the soft parts of walls to create another hand hold, adding variation to the otherwise monotonous task of holding a direction on the stick and mashing the X button. Shooting is the least changed out of all of these, being more or less the same but with noticeably better sounding and feeling weapons.
New to Uncharted 4 however, is the option to actually take on some enemy encounters entirely via stealth. You can now tag enemies by pressing L3, and they will stay highlighted even if they are not in plain sight, allowing you to keep track of who’s where while you plan out your next move. There is tall grass in many areas for you to crouch and hide in. Pressing square while in this state will allow you to stealth choke a nearby enemy, pulling them down into the grass. Enemies also now have a notice gauge indicating their awareness of you. It will begin to fill up gray as you remain in sight until becoming yellow once they suspect your presence. If you don’t take cover after this point, they will spot you and start firing. Impressively, even once combat is started, you can actually lose their attention by diving underwater or hiding in tall grass. Gameplay has never been the driving force that keeps people coming back to the series, but it’s nice to see some added options.
Once you’ve wrapped up the singleplayer and the credits roll, there’s a surprisingly competent multiplayer mode to check out. Gameplay is identical to how it plays in the singleplayer, with a heroes vs. villains style of team composition. You can play as a variety of familiar faces, both friendly and not, in a variety of modes. There’s your standard Team Deathmatch, ‘Plunder’ a sort of capture the flag style of mode, and ‘Command,' a mode where you must defend and capture three different points on a given map. These are all fun for the most part, and there’s an abundance of guns and perks to mix and match with a “Pick 10” inspired system. Uncharted may not be my go-to for my competitive multiplayer fix, but I had an absolute blast with it thanks to the various maps, modes, and guns to choose from.
Uncharted 4 is a masterpiece. It’s one of the best games of the year and easily holds its own as one of the greatest modern video games ever made. Nowhere else will you find this amount of polish on every aspect of a game. The gripping writing, absolute best-in-class presentation, and exuberant gameplay are all polished to a brilliant sheen.
While there is certainly a place for your military shooter or open-world sandbox adventure, what makes gaming such a unique form of media is the way it can blend so many other entertainment mediums into one unique, interactive experience. There is simply no other developer that executes this better than Naughty Dog, and no game I have ever played showcases this execution as flawlessly as Uncharted 4.
Pros:
+Incredible story.
+Insane presentation.
+New gameplay tweaks.
+Fun multiplayer.
Cons:
-It’s over.
Score: 10/10













