It doesn’t feel like the Uncharted series is a decade old, does it? Could’ve only been a couple summers ago I was marveling over the visuals in Drake’s Deception, and working toward what became my first platinum trophy. But that was ten years ago.
So now that the series is complete and the story has been
told, we’ve controlled Nathan Drake in, what, four different stages of his
life? From youngest to oldest we have child Drake at the orphanage, teenage
Drake in Uncharted 3 where we also meet a dapper-as-shit Victor Sullivan, young
adult Drake in the Panamanian prison and then, obviously, present Drake.
Needless to say A Thief’s End had a tall order in living up
to the expectations of a passionate, nostalgic fan base. I’m actually surprised
to find I’m as satisfied with the game as I could’ve hoped to be. Uncharted 2
is still my favorite, but this one comes in at a close second.
Ever since Uncharted 2: Among Thieves came out, the series
has been mostly known for its cinematic action sequences and set pieces, but
structurally, developer Naughty Dog makes it work with excellent pacing. Those
explosive action sequences are always interspersed between slower segments of
exploration, intel gathering and platforming. It’s a bold move to include
entire chapters that consist of little but walking and taking in the
candy-sweet visuals, which the more cynical among us often refer to as “walking
simulators.” But they work because if you pay attention, these chapters do add
to Drake’s story more often than not.
Plus, it’s good to have a break between shooting at
bullet-sponge heavies, falling from airplanes and crossing bridges that split
when we’re halfway across. Before the end credits roll there’s little doubt
that your itch for action will get scratched.
As I already mentioned, I still prefer Uncharted 2 to this
fourth and final entry, but there will always be some debate as to which game
is better. There is no debate, however, regarding whether A Thief’s End is
better than Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. There are two major reasons for
this.
First of all, the progression from beginning to end is far
better organized and paced so that the formula never becomes dull. It’s easy to
look back on Uncharted 3 and remember a jumble of locations with little
narrative or aesthetic cohesion to them. It’s as if Naughty Dog first came up
with all of the settings they wanted to build and then jammed a plot in. The
game took us from London to Colombia to Borneo to France to Yemen to Syria to
Saudi Arabia, etc. (Is that all of them?) There was a sinking cruise ship, an
exploding airplane, a swift horseback chase and probably a few more Michael
Bay-esque encounters that I’m forgetting. It’s tough to grasp a sense of all
the ground that was covered. We’ve seen those summer action movie sequels that
were clearly born from the office of some greedy production executive rather
than the mind of the director or screenwriter. Uncharted 3 was the video game
version of that.
A Thief’ End does take us to some unexpected places like
Italy and Scotland, but once we reach Madagascar the game finds a groove and
there’s a sensible progression toward Avery’s treasure and New Devon. The final
two-thirds of the adventure takes place in and just off the coast of the
African island, and still Naughty Dog managed to pack an awesome variety of
settings and backdrops into that small pocket of the world.
In that way it’s very similar to Uncharted 2, actually.
Remember that once Nate and Chloe arrive in Nepal, the rest of the game takes
place entirely in the Himalayas, and this makes sense to us. We can see clearly
how we got from point A to B and we had fun doing so.
Reason number two? A Thief’s End provides a far, far more
interesting and sympathetic cast of characters than Drake’s Deception did.
Quick Aside: Before Amy Hennig left Naughty Dog early in the
fourth game’s development, the crux of the plot had Sam as the main villain,
out to seek revenge on Nate for supposedly leaving him to die in Panama all
those years ago. In an early trailer for the game you can even hear Sam’s voice
(played by the awesome Troy Baker) talking about vengeance and whatnot. Can I
just say that I’m so glad they ditched that idea? The whole inter-family
betrayal and vengeance plotline is so tired at this point, and every single one
of us would most likely have seen it coming from a mile away. Sam is a much
more believable character for the change in direction.
Sam is a great character and I truthfully can’t think of a
dud in the cast this time around. The writers handled the returning characters
and the newbies really well and tied each of their arcs into a satisfying
little knot by the end.
Sure, we’ve followed Nate and Elena’s developing
relationship over the course of four games now, but that living room dinner
scene early on is such a great lesson on cramming impactful character
development into a short scene. Most of us will remember this part for the
return of Crash Bandicoot, which was pretty sweet, but the scene also gives us
lots of good insight into their marriage and the sort of relationship they
have. Clearly they’re not just husband and wife, but best friends as well. When
things get sticky later in the game we find ourselves watching two people
gently mend a close bond that goes even deeper than just marriage. And we the
audience have grown to love these characters by now, so it was important that
the game show them struggling like this. We the players are heading into the
conclusion of a ten-year-old franchise while Nate and Elena are potentially
reaching the conclusion of their marriage.
I also want to mention the various collectibles scattered throughout the game, because they're done much differently for the first time in the series. Collectibles are, more often than not, a drag on any game and only exist to pad the gameplay and the tedious quest to 100% completion. The hidden treasures that are a hallmark of the Uncharted series add nothing to the game except a trophy upon finding them all, and finding them is a pain in the ass. Discovering hidden nooks and alcoves is cool but I find myself wasting too much time running into every corner and staring at the screen in search of the well-hidden ones.
The difference this time is that there are Journal Notes and Journal Entries to find, and there's actually good incentive to search them out. The Journal Notes, in particular, add layers to the story by providing information about the pirate captains and the explorers who hunted for Avery's treasury centuries ago. Mostly journal entries and unsent letters-well-written by Naughty Dog's creative team- they give life to these tertiary characters that never make an appearance on screen. The various visual cues are a great touch as well. Pay attention to your surroundings because a particular corpse or message scrawled on the walls might provide insight into how these parallel stories come to an end. I loved it.
In fact, if I were giving advice to someone about to play Uncharted 4, I'd tell them to go slow and pay attention to the visual details. Evelyn's house in particular, late in the game, contains lots of easily missed symbolism regarding Nate and Sam's mother. The main island as well- the one with the giant turtle rock thing- contains lots of hidden goodies.
All in all I'm not feeling much of a need to go back and replay the game yet, but after some time passes I'll probably go back to make a run at the platinum trophy. Supposedly Sony sends every platinum holder a poster... Damn right I want that.
Gameplay-wise I just don't have much to say this time. The shooting is solid, with a larger variety of guns than before. If you liked the feel of the gun play in past Uncharteds then you had no reason to be disappointed here. The brand new grappling hook is pretty sweet but doesn't rewrite the formula in any significant way. The climbing is solid, running and jumping are solid. There's a lot more stealth in A Thieves End, especially on Crushing difficulty, which added to the challenge for sure but always had me wishing for it to end so that I could go back to shooting and blowing shit up. I don't know. It's all fun enough, which is more than satisfactory when you're enjoying the hell out of the story and all the exotic locations you get to explore.
And I definitely did enjoy the hell out of it. Uncharted 4 lived up to my expectations and left me feeling really good about the series and how it concluded. That epilogue especially was simply fantastic and, surprisingly, I don't feel any sadness about Nathan Drake's story coming to an end. I'm just really impressed by it and I can't wait to see what Naughty Dog has next on it's plate. Hopefully not Crash Bandicoot...
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