I got the game on the 7th and beat the game in a single 13 hour sitting on the 7th. Here's a brief rundown of my experience with the game, entirely spoiler free.
Most notable change going from previous Uncharted games is a shift in the games agenda. In previous games it felt like Uncharted 2 and 3's primary purpose was to 'be the best action game' whereas Uncharted 4's purpose is to tell its story. Significantly, that means that pacing is distinctly different and it isn't the case that every sequence of the game ends in a gunfight. Sometime you will play segments of the game for almost an hour, without killing anyone.
The shifted focus on the games narrative, from the games spectacle enhanced my experience of the game and allowed me to take it more seriously. I loved all of these non-combat instances because of how they develop the narrative and pacing of the game. Similar to TLOU you are rarely alone, and regardless of what you are doing it offers an opportunity to develop or expand upon a relationship between characters. With that said, the spectacular moments from UC2 and 3 remain and I would say that these sequences are better than ever before, contrasting the exploratory and more relaxed gameplay sequences more significantly.
Similar to TLOU there are many environmental interactables that lead to a few lines of dialogue or in some cases additional cutscenes between characters. This is actually heavily integrated into most exploratory segments of the game - more so than in TLOU - and I felt really helped the games pacing, providing ample additional opportunities to interject additional narrative components into the exploratory sequences.
Again, similar to TLOU there are a number of sequences where you need to do things like 'push a cart against a wall' in order to progress, but I didn't feel that these dragged on. Invariably the pacing is very good and the game doesn't ask you to do these actions successively. I feel that reviewers that criticized the frequency of these segments were trying to pick holes with the game, as they do not occupy more than 10 minutes of a 15 hour total runtime. Speaking of runtime. I beat the game in 13hours 30minutes, but I was playing very quickly as I wanted to beat the game in a single day. I only finished with around 20 treasures so I did not make the most of the more open level design and just followed the path that felt natural.
In regards to this 'open level design' it's a big component of the game that's been applied to the Uncharted formula on both a large, and small scale. On a small scale there are lots of small additional routes and climbing opportunities that give you an impression of choice from moment to moment. It's not just a matter of moving up a wall whilst mashing X because there's often more than one route to the top. These route variations are subtle but grant the player a sense of agency that in my opinion the previous series entries lacked, and in turn made me enjoy climbing segments much more enjoyable for me. On a larger scale the game features almost open word levels in a select number of instances, these segments allow for exploration via vehicle with ample opportunity to divert from the main path for additional dialogue sequences or treasures.
In terms of things I didn't like about the game, while the animations and general polish of the game is very good, there were very minor instances where something would stand out as poor. For a moment in one of the caves, the framerate dropped noticably (perfectly playable) and during the cart sequences the motion capture for Drake's legs had not been cleaned up properly, so it looks a bit janky, and doesn't match the quality of the rest of the game, and at times it doesn't feel as though Drake quite touches the surfaces he's climbing on. These issues are not major and in most cases, still better than most triple A titles, but they do demonstrate areas where Naughtydog has not quite reached perfection.
Narratively speaking the game is the best in the series, far less cliche and believable than any other series entries and the quality and consistency of the writing is in my opinion, beyond that of The Last of Us. Naughty Dog harness the narrative structure of The Last of Us, but extend it to the development across a larger cast and in my opinion it feels more accomplished as a result. Gameplay variety helps significantly as the platform of delivery for this narrative varies from one instance to the next. I felt fatigued during the mid section of TLOU, but not Uncharted 4 and in all I felt like it was a slightly better game relative to its context. TLOU tells a great story and has solid underpinning gameplay, but Uncharted tells a great story within the framework of a phenomenally diverse set of gameplay systems that facilitate a different feel and atmosphere from one level to the next.
Finally I'd like to talk about the combat, because it's the best the series has offered and perhaps the best that the genre has offered generally. Controls feel more responsive than they have ever been and transitions between stealth, gunplay are more fluid too. Stealth is a big component allowing you to get through around half of the gameplay encounters completely unseen but significantly it also allows you a lot of gameplay flexibility as you force the AI to shift between various states corresponding to your gameplay behaviour. It feels that you have control over the battle and while it's not as in-depth and they're not as intelligence as in metal gear or something of that sort, it's brilliant relative to the context its integrated and affords the player a much enhanced sense of agency in comparison to previous titles during these combat sequences. The hud is also the best I've seen in a video game of this type. Blood effects clearly indicate bullet direction, and the weapon selection and ammo count is only present when required (during gunplay) most of the game is hud free with some prompts interjected into the environment. It's brilliantly designed.
One thing I will say though, is because the combat is so good yet at the same time, combat is less featured due to more varied gameplay, it's a shame that co-op or something of that sort is missing. I would really like to play more combat orientated sequences, perhaps with some of the replayability that often comes with co-op, but all you can do is replay the scenarios you faced in the campaign. I hope that the co-op that Naughty Dog are releasing at a later date integrates the stealth mechanisms too, that would be fantastic.
In sum, it's the best Naughty Dog game that I have played. Previously, none of the Uncharted series would have made my top 10 of all time, with TLOU and Crash Team Racing being the only titles from Naughty Dog that would sit in one of those spots. However I felt Uncharted 4 was better than both of those games (for me) and certainly, the best the series has to offer.