Abzu is a relatively short experience that focuses more on exploring and admiring the beautifully crafted world around you than the gameplay itself. The ocean environments are really quite beautiful and it is wonderful to just watch the sea creatures swim around and interact with each other while you move through the game. I think there are some moments that place a little too much emphasis on the spectacle of the world as there is not a ton of variety after you experience the first couple chapters and the beauty ends up losing a bit of its luster. Otherwise this was a beautiful and relaxing little game, even if it left me wanting something more out of it.

Rӧki is a point and click style adventure game based on scandinavian folklore that has you searching for your brother in a mysterious world filled with magic and creatures while solving various puzzles. The puzzles are pretty standard for point and click style games and mostly require you to search for certain items that can be used on different things in the environment or combined with other items to progress. They are mostly straightforward but some are surprisingly complex. Sometimes they are a bit too elusive in that it is not very clear what items need to be used or combined together in order to proceed. Additionally sometimes the items needed to complete a puzzle are scattered across the map and if you miss these it is very tedious to go back and try to find it. This is because backtracking in this game is very tedious and is required fairly often.

Navigating the world in this game is just slow and not very fun. After you've explored each room it can be a bit of a pain to have to go back and search the whole map for an item you’ve missed and need for a puzzle. This got so tedious that towards the end of chapter 2 (out of three chapters), I ended up following a guide as I wanted to focus more on enjoying the environments and story rather than slowly trekking through each level looking for a means to progress. I suspect that people more familiar with point and click style games might not mind this as much though. This would have been extremely annoying in chapter 3 where items are scattered throughout the entire map and you control two characters. Most puzzles require both the characters meaning you often have to move one character from point A to B, switch to the other character, and then move them from point A to B yet again. Traversing the world is just quite tedious and is my main gripe with this game.

The world and creatures are fortunately very well designed. There are some annoying issues with the camera (I honestly wish that they just went 2D or a semi-3D route), but these creatures look so good and are paired with some great animations. It's very fun exploring every room for the first time and seeing what this world has to offer. Some animations that play during cutscenes are not the best but typically the art direction side of things is fantastic. The titular character Rӧki especially looks amazing. Unfortunately the cutscenes overstay their welcome very frequently and these cutscenes are everywhere. I get that the story needs to be conveyed somehow but these definitely could have been trimmed down a lot. Especially since these cutscenes just involve clicking through dialogue and watching characters on a screen. There are a few cutscenes that have you repeat the same action multiple times in order to break up the dialogue and this just doesn’t work. It feels like padding and I think the better strategy would be to break up some of these cutscenes into smaller chunks or strip some of the dialogue back.

The story itself is nice although it is nothing terribly groundbreaking. You are searching for your brother while also unraveling the main character’s tragic backstory. Its ending feels a bit rushed but all in all it’s a fine story that mostly serves to showcase the folklore stuff. The dialogue feels a bit simple and childlike but it's definitely fitting for the style that the devs were going for. I do appreciate the lighter approach to the narrative as it feels like lately there’s been a lot of media looking at fairy tales and folklore in a more mature and darker way so this was a bit of a breath of fresh air.

I can tell that there was a lot of heart put into this game and there really is still quite a bit to appreciate here. I really did enjoy playing up to part way through chapter two where things started to go downhill for me. Although I got a bit tired of things as it went on I expect that fans of this style of game would enjoy it more. This is also a surprisingly long game for an obviously indie title, taking me a bit over nine hours to complete. I almost wish that it was shorter as I think that would help to mitigate some of the tedium I experienced in the latter half of the game. Nevertheless, there are bits and pieces to love here and the design of the world and creatures makes it worth the visit.

The Uncharted franchise played a big role in defining my love of video games growing up so I was excited to play the one main entry that I hadn’t yet completed. The Lost Legacy is a comparably short entry in the franchise, taking me around five and a half hours to complete, although it is still a standalone title and not an expansion.

The Lost Legacy brings back an apparently beloved character from the original trilogy, Chloe, who I admittedly do not remember much of as I haven't played those games in ages. Additionally Nadine, who was introduced in Uncharted 4 acts as Chloe's sidekick now. While I know that there were many complaints about Nadine's character, I personally do not mind her all that much. I think many complaints were based on Nadine’s actions in the previous installment which I do not really remember much (that’s a common theme here I guess). Regardless I think both characters are fine although they are a bit under developed and never feel like fully fleshed out characters. Part of this is likely due to the short runtime as there is just not as much time to develop these characters and the relationship between the two.

The story is a typical Uncharted treasure hunt but is remarkably generic. The villain is the sort of generic bad guy that is evil because he wants power and the motivations behind both parties are either dull or not explained very well. You have your arcade-like shootouts, puzzles, and big set pieces that the Uncharted franchise is well known for as well as a large open world section. The open world section is similar to that of Uncharted 4’s where you get to explore the level in a vehicle and can find treasures and clear outposts along the way. Unfortunately, I don’t think that the Uncharted franchise is very well suited for these large and open areas as there is really no incentive to explore other than to find meaningless treasures.

The combat in these games has never necessarily been all that great. Maybe it’s the result of my maturing, but I found the shootouts to be a bit tedious and repetitive after awhile . It really comes down to just shooting until you run out of ammo and then picking up another weapon to repeat the process until everyone is dead. It’s not necessarily a bad time but it certainly gets old after a little while.

While there are certainly parts of the game I didn’t enjoy, there is still a lot to like. The introduction of new characters is refreshing even if they are not as fleshed out and interesting as I would have liked. Chloe and Nadine have some fun banter and although obvious Nadine’s arc through the story is enjoyable. I also particularly enjoyed the introduction and finale levels. The environment in the introduction looks fantastic and I thought it was a fun way to get the ball rolling. The set piece at the end feels a bit generic but is a pretty thrilling experience. All in all the game works out as a pretty standard Uncharted experience, which is to say an enjoyable time. At this point I think the series has kind of exhausted itself and needs to bring something new to the table in future installments.