The end to Nathan Drake's story, A Thief's End, leaves the perfect ending mark to a great series. The highly-engaging and well plotted cinematic story filled with twists and turns, the developed characters that are performed perfectly have incredible roles and concluding arcs that are satisfying, and the locales are larger-than-life with every piece of it being a work of art. The structure of the game is well handled as every beat is top-notch and doesn't leave one second feeling incompleted, and the gameplay is fully perfected, feeling more cinematic than ever before, from new mechanics, re-arranged controls, and improved elements leaving for an iconic and grand end to Uncharted.

The third installment in the Uncharted series, Drake's Deception, may not be a masterwork, but does it's job good enough. The variety of settings still remain heavily detailed, but it's ending locale is a great spectacle that is reflected on the art direction, now having a desert flare to the game's look, added with even more expression and flourish in the visuals. The audio is still well handled, having tracks that reflect the atmosphere and effects have more weight. The level design takes a lot more risks as certain setpieces try to engage the player more in story scenes that are executed greatly and there's more openess to each stage. The gameplay adds a lot more to everything, with an improved combat system and little re-workings of other factors, even if puzzles can be too difficult. The difficulty is way too hard, feeling unfair in an otherwise seemingly balanced moment, the story is engaging, but is clearly repeating beats from the previous entries, and the villains are memorable, but are not standouts. The heroic characters do standout and truly keep the game going.

Among Thieves understands it has the role of being a sequel and chooses to be the best at it. Everything from the last game is entirely improved upon and perfected from every factor. The story is now well-written and engaging, having more weight and charm to it, alongside both old and new characters having more development and charm, now with also a great villain and performances. The variety of locales utilized feel more dynamic and are well-detailed to be immersive and have memorable setpieces throughout the whole game. The art direction is greatly improved, not only with even more detail, but having more tone and designs having more human expression. The audio remains perfected and the linear level design feels more explorative and open-ended than before. The controls feel more active, the difficulty is consistent, and the gameplay now feels fully embraced, with every layer of it being explored.

The basic concept of Drake's Fortune is embedding an action serial into the form of a video game and it almost works. The sound and music are great, with the adventurous movie soundtrack evoking feelings of thrill and excitement, and sound design feeling just right. The character models can be a bit plain, but their designs alongside the world in which the game embarks are truly astonishing. The controls are basic, but are servicable, and the difficulty is just right, even if there are some large spikes. The real flaws come from the story being very generic and though it works for the game, doesn't really stand out. The heroic characters are all likeable and played well, but the villains are just forgettable. The gameplay's arrangement of gun play, platforming, and puzzle solving work, but the level structure makes it strictly mostly gun play, which leaves the game undesired and very repetitive.

The third installment, THPS 3, should not work as the series' formula was already perfected, but it instead perfects perfection. The great roster and variety of avatars, decks, and unlockables leave the game having replay value. The now larger and endlessly creative environments, highly difficult and rewarding Career Campaign, and actively accesible gameplay make the game perfect. The even larger soundtrack leaves every track stuck in the player's head (in a good way) and the game mixes the best of it's predecessors with a realistic grounded THPS and over-the-top fun nature of THPS 2, combining the best of both worlds to be the definitive Tony Hawk experience.

THPS 2 is a masterpiece and the ultimate sequel, setting out what it's predecessor did and perfecting it, as all sequels should. Returning and newer decks/avatars, arranging from pro skaters to Spider-Man, new settings that standout, even if some are tedious, but at least remain memorable, and the new Career Campaign is a great progression that is better than the last game. The new soundtrack is just as incredible as the last game, with even more tracks added, and the game takes a more over-the-top goofy approach than the last title's realistic nature, which is fresh, fun, and works, going into it's wacky sound design. The gameplay now works better for the accurately responsive controls, alongside the new mechanics of manuals, dynamic animations, and even better balanced difficulty, leaving Pro Skater 2 as an all-time great.

The concept of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is to simply make the player grow into becoming a professional at the game's complex inner-workings, making it for a truly remarkable sports title. The focused gameplay of skate tricks, combos, simple challenges, crushing but rewarding difficulty, and environment interaction make the game feel almost fully intact and can leave it being really addicting to feel the power of skating. The only drawback are that the controls can mostly be unresponsive and sometimes ruin the momentum of gameplay. The arena-designed levels of progression within the Career Campaign are excellent, taking everyday settings and making it epic skating sessions that are fully interactive, detailed, and memorable. The other modes of free skate, multiplayer, and single sessions are great for replay value. The wide selection of decks and avatars off professional skateboarders stand out with unique tricks and combos and really add variety. The sound design is great in emulating skateboards and feeling realistic, but the licensed music utilized in the game truly immerse the player and are iconic as all.

The sequel to the remarkable Last of Us has heavy shoes to fill, and has a struggle doing it. The major pros are that of it's overall visual fidelity, as the game is truly a marvel to view, from it's open-ended landscapes, realistic character models, and lifelike expressions that are handled by phenomenal performances. But what keeps Part II from standing alongside it's predecessor is that the gameplay is just nothing new and though understandable since it's already been perfected, at least some new concepts would be nice, plus the difficulty is way too inbalanced and the controls can be wonky at times. The major drawback is that of the story, for it is a great standalone and continuation that is risky, bold, and unforgiving in tackling a heavy theme, but the pacing of it is what really ruins it, as in it's attempts to evoke emotions and plot beats, the structure of it makes it's goals feel unaccomplished.

The Last of Us should be considered as one of the greatest video games of all time. The true passion in it fully flourished from the survivor-based gameplay of battling human-devouring monsters feels fully realized as it truly puts the player in a tough position with scarce weaponry and items, helping others, and enemie types giving the right amounts of stress and exhailaration. The look and sound of the game is also incredible from the acoustic score feeling so beautiful, calming, but having strikes of violence, and a very realistic, down-to-earth, and grounded art style that can't be replicated. But the main draw of the game is that of it's story that is a true accomplishment for gaming, having a tight structure that allows the story to be fully realized and unfolding dark takes on it's many morally questionable themes, to the fully detailed apocalyptic civilized world that is haunting and depressing. But the standout being the characters, with all of the supporting cast serving a role to the main duo that are iconic and are played incredibly well. The game leaves for an experience that is memorable and most of all, life-changing.