Uncharted 4: A Thiefs End (PS4)

Ever since the current generation of consoles launched a few years ago, there’s been one exclusive title in particular that everyone’s been talking about. But fans would have to wait a little while longer before the arrival of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, the long-awaited conclusion to the popular action-adventure series. And so we could barely wait to set off with Nathan Drake once again on an exotic adventure across the globe.

The Adventure of Everyday Life

A few years after the events of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, the opening scene of Uncharted 4 might come as a bit of a surprise to longtime fans. After yet another prologue recounting main character Nathan Drake’s backstory, we see our hero in the present day, leading appears to be your average American married life, complete with a rather unexciting job as a salvage diver. Every once in a while he finds himself staring at the ceiling and reminiscing about how he came to possess the various artifacts that grace his home, and when nobody’s watching he’ll occasionally get his fix playing with his toy gun in the attic. That is, at least until Elena – Nathan’s attractive companion since the first game, now his wife – calls him down to eat, and they pass the time together with Crash Bandicoot on an old PlayStation.

But it doesn’t take long for this idyllic scene to be broken up by the sudden appearance of Nathan’s brother Sam – believed to be dead – going on about the fabled treasure belonging to the “Arch Pirate” Henry Avery (or Every), a real-life 17th century villain. According to certain accounts, Avery – along with several of his associates – stashed his fortune somewhere in the now-lost colony of Libertalia. The two brothers team up with their old comrade-in-arms Sully to follow a lead that could very well take them to Avery’s stash. And so it begins: an epic journey around the world, from Nathan’s home in New Orleans to Villa Rossi in Italy, from Madagascar to Scotland, and finally to the supposed site of Avery’s treasure. You’ll encounter your fair share of adversaries along the way, including rival treasure hunter Rafe Adler and Nadine Ross with her band of mercenaries. Unsurprisingly, they too have gotten wind of the treasure, and are hot on the trail.

The coveted descriptor “filmlike” is a term that many different series have tried to claim for themselves. But Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, in its 22 chapters lasting at least 16 hours, manages not only to outdo its excellent predecessors in every respect, but – along with The Last of Us (also a Naughty Dog game) – creates a new gold standard for the genre that future games are going to have to live up to. In terms of its overall direction, Drake’s new adventure is mature and very well thought out, rounding out its breathtaking action sequences with a nice amount of time devoted to quieter moments developing its characters and the relationships between them, as well as a wide array of minor details that give life and atmosphere to the various locations you explore in the course of the game. Even if the antagonists do come off a bit shallow by comparison, the sweeping storyline still earns points for its surprising twists and turns, excellent dialogue, and its sense of humor and drama, with gameplay sequences and cut scenes flowing into one another without any noticeable loss of quality either way. And if that’s not enough, it’s all topped off by an epilogue that could well be the perfect send-off for fans of the series.

An Almost-Perfect Blend

More mature, more diverse, more adventurous, more open, more dynamic – that easily sums up the the gameplay in Uncharted 4 compared to its predecessors. The third-person point of view and controls are still as precise as you’ve come to expect. Nathan makes relatively little use of his wide arsenal of weapons, and when he does, he takes aim at his tough and unrelenting enemies from under cover. While the various trigger-happy mercenaries don’t differ all that much in terms of appearance, for the most part they’re rather clever and not just stupid mooks attacking in waves. Even on Moderate difficulty (the middle option of five), the game features some pretty challenging gunfights, with several opportunities to find cover under sustained fire. Your companions are no less intelligent than your enemies, who are astonishingly independent and effective in acting out their combat roles. The stealth sequences (modeled after those in The Last of Us) are well integrated into the game. You can mark enemies from a safe distance, allowing Nate to stalk either alone or with an AI companion while safely hidden by the dense foliage or behind other kinds of cover. If you do it right, your enemies will never see you coming when you take the out. If you don’t, they’ll be alerted to your presence, starting off a confrontation course filled with hot lead. There’s also an option to switch on color-coded alarm level markers, with yellow and red indicating that they’re on to you. When you’re playing these stealth sequences, you can really see how well the various companions are able to think with you, silently dispatching enemies without any explicit instructions from the player. Unfortunately, unlike in stealth titles like the Thief, Hitman, or Metal Gear Solid games, you can’t hide the bodies of the ones you do take out, meaning that there’s a good chance that they’ll be found by their own cohorts.

Using Your Wits

A generous helping of simple puzzle-solving fare adds a bit of variety to the game, and they tend to make sense too, at least in the context of a video game, no doubt also profiting from Uncharted 4’s excellent overall production values. In addition to some rather unimaginative puzzles involving crates, there are all kinds of spectacular gadgets to mess around with in the downtime between action sequences, often with the help of Nathan’s journal. This game makes a lot more use of the various sketches you can collect and interact with than its predecessors did. For example, there’s one puzzle where you have to arrange some symbols on a device in a certain order using portraits of various pirates on the walls, each of which contains a hidden symbol. Before you start entering in all manner of combinations in hopes of maybe stumbling upon the solution by trial and error, check out your journal, which contains wide range of useful information that can help you solve it.

Players will find that Uncharted 4 is just bigger in every respect, something you’ll also notice in the course of various chase scenes, flying scenes, climbing scenes, and jumping scenes. While the sheer vastness of an area might seem overwhelming at first, there are usually several alternative routes at your disposal, and you can also use a grappling hook in some places to cover huge distances. Nathan Drake himself is depicted in greater detail too, with hand motions that let you know whether you can safely grab on to certain spots or not. You don’t want to get too comfortable, though – there are always pieces of the environment, both large and small, that turn out to be unstable, collapsing under Nathan’s weight, which of course leads to lots of spectacular scenes that will give you the kind of adrenaline rush the series is known for.

The developers are no strangers to racing games either (Crash Team Racing, Jak X: Combat Racing), so it’s no surprise that a vehicle has found its way into the game. The jeep’s four-wheel drive capabilities make it especially useful for covering vast areas in Madagascar and King’s Bay. On mud-covered slopes the vehicle’s winch can come in real handy – if you can find a suitable tree, that is – allowing you to continue up the path. There’s also a part where you get to take control of a boat for a little while.

I Dream of Co-op

Though it would have been great for a game like this, one thing Uncharted 4 does not offer is the chance to play through the story with a friend. Instead, the online modes – Team Deathmatch (self-explanatory), Command (capture and hold “command zones”), and Plunder (capture and secure an object) – are designed for team play, with ranking lists as motivation. There are eight deliberately convoluted maps, with powerful artifacts that add to the confusion, at least at first. These “Mysticals” might be anything from useful teleport devices to angry spirits that attack you. New players can take advantage of some very helpful introductory rounds and challenges. The lifespan of Uncharted 4’s multiplayer mode is guaranteed for the time being (or at least until the end of next year) by the fact that all additional maps and DLC to be released in the future are supposed to be free for all players.

A Technological Treasure

Whatever you might have seen of Uncharted 4’s graphics before it was actually released, it all pointed towards a visual adventure unlike anything before. And man, does it live up to the hype – to date, Uncharted 4 is the best looking console game I have ever seen, and doesn’t skimp on the superlatives, either. Each and every location in the game is absolutely teeming with detail, full of variety, and features an impressive portrayal of both natural and architectural elements. There are just so many things to see – sharp textures, gorgeous views of the scenery, fantastic weather effects, an excellent interplay of light and shadow, awesome particles effects, and countless details like tracks in the mud and clothing that gets wet and dirty. So expect to make some serious use of the integrated photo mode.

Even the grass and other plants react to contact with the player character, and the elaborate and expensive motion-capture techniques used by the developers were definitely worth it – the animations are smoother than ever before. All the figures, both in their facial features and body language, appear extraordinarily natural and realistic. And the gorgeous visuals are complemented by an awesome soundtrack and some powerful sound effects, not to mention top-notch localization in non-English versions of the game. And by the way, after playing through the game just once, you can unlock all kinds of extras, including a whole range of graphics filters that are just begging for players to try them out.