Uncharted 4: Complete

It’s been a while since Uncharted 4 released, but I finally finished it off. I made a screenshot dump post a couple of months ago, when I thought I was over halfway through the game. Going by number of chapters, I was actually over halfway through the campaign, but the last few chapters felt much more stretched out, as the game begins to open up with exploratory levels and vehicle travel. This isn’t something that’s new to the series by any means, but Uncharted 4 was much more expansive than its predecessors. Or at least, it sure felt that way.

Keeping with my vow to start blowing through my backlog, after realizing that I hadn’t beaten many games at all this year, I’ve already completed two more and made progress elsewhere. At the beginning of this month, I managed to complete the new DOOM, and now Uncharted 4 can be struck from the backlog list as well. I did already add another game to my collection since the steam sale though, so this is only a minor step in the right direction, but it is progress nonetheless. Unfortunately No Man’s Sky comes out in just about 3 weeks, so my backlog is going to collect dust again rather soon as I dive into that, but this is a story for another day. Back to Uncharted.

Honestly, there are so many improvements in this title it’s hard to know where to begin. The controls are intuitive; the climbing, jumping and rolling mechanics are all very sharp. The cover system and gunplay are spot on. I never felt overly challenged, despite going straight to hard difficulty for my first playthrough. The graphics are incredible, and smooth throughout. The action sequences are absolutely ridiculous, but that’s definitely nothing new for this series. It’s just so much prettier and smoother that it feels like a huge step up for the IP. It is unfortunate that the subtitle is “A Thief’s End” and this is the last we’ll be seeing of good ol’ Nathan Drake. He keeps his sense of humor to the very end though, and that’s where this game really shines.

The writers at Naughty Dog should feel proud. Not only did they make Nathan a more mature and responsible guy, but they made him more loveable, and there were so many points in the game oozing with real emotion, and that’s not easy to do in a game with a “meathead” protagonist. No, I don’t think Nathan Drake is a meathead, but I’ve heard the argument plenty of times anyway. Overall the growth of the characters and overall charm of the narrative pulled me in deeper than I thought I could go. And of course, there’s plenty of death and destruction to go around.

My only complaint with the game? The goddamn sword fight finale. Holy shit I had to do that so many times before finally getting through. In a game that is primarily about gunplay, WHY would you make the final encounter end with a sword fight? And an annoyingly implemented QTE one at that? It really is a minor complaint, but holy fuck was I screaming at my TV before I completed the game.

Having now played through all four games, I would still rate this one the highest despite the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed all of them. 9.5/10 Here’s some screens of the latter half of the game. They might be a little spoilery, but hey, the game’s been out for two months. Enjoy.