Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
PlayStation 4
I don’t know what came over me, but I recently had this sudden, very strong urge to go back and play Uncharted 4 again. As most of you reading this should know, I don’t replay games very often. I am trying to work my way through my entire video game collection, which is quite sizable. I’ve been playing through all my games and reviewing them for nearly four years now, and I still have barely scratched the surface of my collection. Every once in a while, the urge to play something over again overcomes me, however, and I will revisit a game that I have already played and reviewed. Such is the case with Uncharted 4.
The first time I played through this game earlier in the year, I had a good time with it. I enjoyed myself, but I wasn’t crazy about the game or anything. I had read so much hype about the game and how great it was that I think I came in with expectations that were a little too high. It was just more of the same old Uncharted, in my opinion. This time I knew what to expect coming in, and I must say that because of this I had a much better time with the game this time around.
One of the things that helped me enjoy the game more was that I knew what was going on with the storyline ahead of time. The game throws a lot at you right from the get-go. You get four or five different scenes within the first hour of the game, all from different timelines. It was a little confusing to me the first time around, especially considering that Nate’s brother is in several of the scenes. This is the fourth Uncharted game and they had never mentioned anything about Nate having a brother before. This time, knowing in advance what happened to Nate’s brother, everything made so much more sense and I was able to just sit back and enjoy things rather than be confused by them.
Gameplay hasn’t changed much from the previous Uncharted games. There are a few small tweaks, but nothing game-changing. You can throw a rope and use it to swing across ledges or lower yourself down chasms. You can also use it to pull boxes and other items down from unreachable areas. I don’t know why they haven’t used this element in previous Uncharted games. Maybe they didn’t want it to come across as too much of a copycat of Indiana Jones and his whip? Anyway, it is a natural fit. There is a car driving stage that has open-world elements to it. The game also has some stealth elements to it too, where you can sneak around and avoid battles entirely rather than having every encounter turn into a giant guns blazing free-for-all.
Graphically, the game is freaking gorgeous. There were many moments in the game I just had to stop and take in the scenery. Visually speaking, you don’t get much better than this. All the little special effects like water, fire, and explosions are all rendered amazingly well. The characters look fantastic. I almost had to remind myself that these weren’t real people the deeper I got into the game.
Not only is the game breathtaking and a lot of fun to play, I enjoyed the story as well. Perhaps it is the added element of Nate’s brother being added to the fold, but things felt more personal this time around. The stress that the events of the game put on Nate and Elena’s marriage was interesting to me as well. This is the fourth Uncharted game that I have played, and I have spent a lot of time with those two. I found myself caring about this fictional video game marriage way more than I should have. I actually teared up a little bit during the scene when Elena shows up and calls out Nate on his lies. The only other games that have made me cry are Telltale’s The Walking Dead and The Last of Us. Uncharted 4 is in pretty good company there.
The first time I played this game, I looked at it as just another Uncharted game. This time, it felt like so much more. I haven’t been this emotionally invested in a video game’s characters for a long time. Even though the game is a blast to play, the characters are what make it go. They all complement each other so well. As I said before, I found myself having to remember that these weren’t even real people. You spend so much time with them over the years, you begin to forget that.
This is the perfect closing chapter to an excellent video game series. I’ve always considered Uncharted 2 to be the cream of the crop when it comes to the series, but it now has some stiff competition. I am eventually going to play that one again, so I’ll let you know if my opinion has changed. That said, I have a newfound appreciation for Uncharted 4. It touched me in a way that few video games have been able to do. For that, I have to give it big time props.
Overall:
A
It may seem a little anticlimactic to give the game the same score as I did the first time, even though I liked it more this time around. But the only place you can go from an A is to an A+, and I do not consider this to be a perfect game, by any stretch of the imagination.
Other games I have revisited:
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