It makes you truly wonder what made the Uncharted trilogy great, when the send off of Nathan Drake becomes such a mess when it comes to understanding your own IP.

Naughty Dog did a phenomenal job when they wanted to create their own take on Indiana Jones with the gameplay of Tomb Raider sparkled in, and when I played those games, I slowly began to realize, that despite being an action-adventure title, they were always about mystery and wonder, the discovery of ancient things. These games were gradiually becoming more and more action oriented, but they always had these subtle moments where characters needed to understand each other more, in order to progress forward as a team. Drake and Sully, or even Drake and Elena both had great dialogue, and the fact that they even Chloe as a mainstay was awesome. In fact, both of the girls were greatly written, and had really enjoyable character arcs.

So, here comes Uncharted 4, three years after The Last of Us and sadly, it shows how much of an influence that game was for Uncharted, as the writing gets so incredibly frustrating without any reason, that I cannot believe some people state, that this is the best game in the franchise.

Just to show the earliest example: The game opens with a flashforward, only to continue with a flashback, to show an another flashback, and then it is almost in chronological order. Do not even start with Sam, the most idiotically written character for this franchise, as the just comes out of nowhere, never mentioned before (for story reasons), and when he comes back, he seems like the guy who actually made Nathan the way he is. Every major thing is thrown out of the window, to tell a tale, that is not suited for this franchise, and needed probably it's own separate thing to begin with. There is nothing wrong with introducing the style of the Last of Us, that game is really good (I am replaying it currently), but the Uncharted games needs to show an alternative option for raiding tombs, fighting against mythological creatures and being in a whimsical adventure.

The gameplay also suffers a lot, because of the change in writing. They needed to implement overly long sections of climbing where the characters talk about nothing, they just yapping about stuff, and almost every one of them is the same characterwise, while Nathan is the one that sticks out. Weird.

Let me tell you though, this game has some decently made, even great sequences that I really enjoyed. Weirdly, I found the convoy section a bit janky, the game made me redo it 2 times because Nathan got stuck. What I liked the most was the driving section in Madagascar, simply because the driving was fun and engaging, and some of the setpieces were okay and that is it.

Still, my rating reflects my respect towards Naughty Dog, because I really like their games, I really do, just please, if you revisit Uncharted again, do the things that made him famous in the first place.

I think this game appeals to my taste better than dishonored ever could, honestly. Quick writing, removal of the honestly very minimal d1 chaos system and a gameplay loop that ENCOURAGES creative play rather than punishes it. This game has so many flaws but I can't being myself to hold them against it when the writing is so fun and the gunplay (in an ARKANE GAME?) is so satisfying. I do wish some of the writing was less hidden, shift and melee less of a dominant playstyle and generally the AI can be a bit weak. And while the first two flaws are genuinely frustrating, the weak AI is more a double edged sword to allow for creativity. I'm rambling just go play this game. Instant classic.

As much I love what this game is going for and it's satisfying as a rail shooter, the dialogue is just this:

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK
PENIS PENIS
PUSSY PUSSY
DICK DICK