Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Review (PS4) – An Emotional Final Adventure

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is the final chapter for our favorite treasure hunter Nathan Drake. How does Naughty Dog do to provide a proper final send off? They work tirelessly on completing the game to fruition to their vision and the delays were well worth the wait. Their huge passion and love for these characters and the world of Uncharted are clearly shown when playing this grand finale to the series. This is truly a masterpiece of a gem that must be played and a great addition to your game library.

Campaign

The story is set years after the last adventure. Naughty Dog clearly states this is the final chapter for Nathan Drake(Nolan North) and playing it clearly gives you that vibe of one last time. This time we get more in depth into Nathan’s childhood and present time. Nathan and Elena(Emily Rose) are a normal married couple and living during daily lives now, far from their early exciting past adventures. After a hard day of work stamping papers for Nathan, an unexpected guest returns into his life. Nathan’s older brother Sam(Troy Baker) shows up, shocking Nathan who he thought was dead. Sam pulls him back into another treasure hunt adventure where he must succeed because his life is on the line. This pulls Nathan back in a more personal adventure where he is staking the ones he loves and sacrificing the family he has made to help his brother.

This time the treasure hunt is truly satisfying to get invested in. Captain Henry Avery, a dead pirate that has left his treasure hidden in one pirate utopia place and player must embark on a grand quest in order to get there. Notes gather throughout the adventure are interesting to read and providing more insight into Captain Henry Avery’s pirate life and treasure details. Nathan will travel around the world and visit incredible environments in order to find the legendary hidden treasure.

In the past entries there would be one amazing set piece that sticks out but this time there is not one that sticks out. Instead there are several of smaller set pieces throughout the game that were awesome but not as impactful as the last ones since now we expect them to come at a point. The environments on their grand adventure are truly breathtaking and unbelievable. The amount of details no matter if it’s big or small brings the world alive thanks to the visuals and animations in harmony to bring more immersion into this masterpiece of a gem.

Gameplay

The movement and shooting are basically the same. The shooting feel a bit more loose this time but still satisfying with combining the new mechanics. Now you could use a grappling hook to provide a more vertical firefights by moving around the environments swinging to drop punch an enemy or drop in to hide in the grass fields in order to use stealth attacks. There are new melee animation moves, AI partner cooperate moves the help you out when in trouble, and the enemy AI is great at trying to flank you out. There are sections where the environments are design to allow you to either play stealthy or just go trigger-happy. In these big environments you can mark enemies to set up a plan bringing a nice new addition to the way you want to handle the fight.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer provides the same great gameplay and visuals from the single player. Multiplayer modes are great to play once the story is completed; it’s there to provide more fun hours to play with your favorite characters and friends online in competitive matches. Multiplayer maps are design along with the new grappling hook system to provide fun team base vertical mayhem in 5v5 or 4v4 matches. There are five modes for multiplayer from Rank Team Deathmatch to regular Team Deathmatch, Plunder Mode (capture the idol back to your base to win), Command mode (capture command points to score points), and lastly Trails mode where you play versus the AI in multiplayer element objectives.

This time there are new elements to the multiplayer besides the grappling hook. Including more variety of weapons this time around, there are four Sidekicks available to use and add to the load-out. Sidekicks provide an NPC ally that helps out during the match for example a Sniper Sidekick will provide you cover and earning cash for kills as well. Last but not least, there are “Mysticals” that let you harness supernatural elements from the Uncharted series to aid the team to victory. I recommend to try the multiplayer out and you might just be surprised at how much fun it will provide.

Final Impressions

The ending to story was greatly done and shows you the passion of the studio to provide closure for the fans of the series. It brought me joy once I ended the game and put the controller down. Remembering the great highlights of the past 4 adventures (including PS Vita game Golden Abyss from Sony Bend Studio) since the first game in 2007 with my favorite characters. This is a must play game in parts to truly savor this grand finale adventure. It is an exhilarating ride from start to finish and exploring the detailed environments that make you feel like you are there in person.

Now ending it in this final chapter of Nathan Drake life; it’s a proper send off for the characters we dearly love. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is a masterpiece with great story, characters, visuals, animations and great environments that are in true harmony to bring an emotional ride for our love of the characters. The treasure hunt this time is a joy to achieve through the story campaign. New and old characters are amazing and the voice acting is top-notch. Highly detailed environments and animations are truly impressive and the best visuals to date that add more immersion into the story. Congratulations for Naughty Dog for these past nine years from the Uncharted series. This is definitely a must play game if you own a Playstation 4 and a contender for game of the year. Thank you for the adventures Naughty Dog and I can’t wait for what your up to next.

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