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Finally Finished Uncharted 4

After taking a year-long break between the trilogy on PS4 and the fourth game in the mainline Uncharted series, I've finally finished it. Here are my thoughts that no one asked for:

Uncharted 4 is somehow the best, and worst, game in the entire series.

Gameplay:
I've always maintained a controversial take on the series' gameplay when compared to other fans. I think that the climbing and exploration are the best part of these game. Absolutely phenomenal. By the fourth iteration, the climbing mechanics are better than ever before. The rope and pick are great additions to gameplay loop! Everywhere else, falls completely flat for me. The combat is awful to me. It was awful and the first three games, and it hasn't changed. There was an amazing effort to add verticality to the combat encounters, but it didn't really matter for me since I hated the combat to begin with. The long-grass/stealth option was almost entirely unused to me. I didn't feel like making the encounters last any longer than they needed to.

Story:
Meh. I think the addition of an unmentioned Drake brother is fine, but there really wasn't anything worth writing home about in the writing department. Sadly, I had known about the twist of Sam's betrayal and lies before playing, so every interaction between Sam and Nathan was irritating for me. That being said, this was one of the first games that I've played where a spoiler had a massive impact on the experience, and that is impressive to me. The plot was fine, better than most games, but....

A bit of both:
Unfortunately, the worst part of the entire experience for me ties both into the story and the gameplay. Both categories are at complete odds with each other for the entire experience. The amount of times control was ripped from me for a story beat felt more numerous than all of the previous games. Interacting with object takes up to 10+ seconds for Nathan to complete animations. It's daunting. Puzzles that require an AI partner were the worst, since there was a lot of time just waiting to be able to do something. I almost quit when the flashlight went out in Avery's cave. You have to wait for over 2 minutes to be able to do anything. That was not fun. Who thought that would be a good idea? Also, it's really frustrating to see how many times Nathan conveniently forgets that he has a rope. Both Sully and Elena would have been able to join Nathan for the finally of the game if he had just remembered that a rope was strapped to his belt. A LOT of conflicts in the story would be resolved if Nathan didn't forget about his rope...It's weird.

Summary (also written above): Uncharted 4 is somehow the best, and worst, game in the entire series. 5/10.
 

MadPanda

Banned
I agree with your points. Climbing and animations were huge upgrade but I felt like everything is just an excuse to make the game artificially longer and to deliver that story. Those flashback chapters were the worst for me. I tried replaying the game to go for platinum but I gave up at the first flashback chapter.

I vastly prefer the lost legacy over 4. It's so much better as it was shorter and more focused. I enjoyed it much more.
 
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I agree with your points. Climbing and animations were huge upgrade but I felt like everything is just an excuse to make the game artificially longer and to deliver that story. Those flashback chapters were the worst for me. I tried replaying the game to go for platinum but I gave up at the first flashback chapter.

I vastly prefer the lost legacy over 4. It's so much better as it was shorter and more focused. I enjoyed it much more.
Sounds like I need to try The Lost Legacy! I absolutely agree with your statement on making the game artificially longer. In the big open sections, I didn’t even bother exploring because it felt like unnecessary padding.
 

Trimesh

Banned
I have to congratulate you on your perseverance. It's one of those games that I've attempted to go back to a couple of times, but seem to quickly end up losing interest. At this point, it no longer merely sits in my pile of unfinished game discs, it lurks.

It's a pity, since I always liked Uncharted.
 
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Neil Cuckman ruined the story and characters. It was the worst mainline Uncharted, and the tone was off, like trying too hard to be dark and edgy and "mature".

That end boss had a different minigame out of nowhere. It even had a tutorial.
That was the worst designed game of the series.

Unfortunately with Cuckman in and Amy out I doubt the franchise will ever recover.
I don't get it. The other day we had a thread here saying how ND only delivers games worth of GOTY
 
I liked it for what it was and as an actual ending to the franchise. Just stop right there. Any game more is milking a dead horse vagina. Theres nothing left to say, you even played crash bandicoot on your PS1 in their house...nice throwback. Just dont do another sequel.
 
Uncharted 4 felt Last Of Usfied unnecessarily. Whatever Amy had planned before her departure would've been a more engaging (story, action, and somber moments) 4th game than what we finally got. There are some stellar moments in the final game and I don't want to say anything even if it's critical since I've read the sad stories of game development behind UC4 from Blood Sweat and Pixels book.
 
UC4 is how I knew TLOU2 could very likely be not for me and not what people expect at all.

Really, the only thing that confuses me is how UC4 is not more hated. The pacing is unironically possibly the worst in any AAA game that I can think of ever being released. Hope you like mashing X and walking forward? Or perhaps using a car to drive forward in a big empty zone? If you do, boy do I have the game for you!

And the story is a joke and the gameplay is so anemic and poorly balanced that the game has mostly been forgotten post release.
 
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Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
Uncharted 4 is my favorite game of all time right next to TLOU Part 1. The set pieces are amazing: the collapsing structures in Libertalia while you escape and the jeep chase to rescue Sam 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 I love the game, it's the story, the beautiful graphics, setpieces and the best contextual melee combat I've ever seen in a video game

And being able to play that level of Crash Bandicoot was brilliant. 10/10 game for me
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
Uncharted 4 is my favorite game of all time right next to TLOU Part 1. The set pieces are amazing: the collapsing structures in Libertalia while you escape and the jeep chase to rescue Sam 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 I love the game, it's the story, the beautiful graphics, setpieces and the best contextual melee combat I've ever seen in a video game

And being able to play that level of Crash Bandicoot was brilliant. 10/10 game for me
I didn’t really gel with it. I came into ps4 late in the gen so was really excited to play this one and it was far to scripted all the time. I can understand why people like it but it felt boring to me personally.

is it a bad game now way but is it a great game i dont think it is
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
It’s definitely the end of the story and if they do an Uncharted 6; Nate’s Daughter and the Chamber of Secrets, I won’t touch it with a 10ft barge pole.
 

Zeroing

Banned
The game had to be rewritten when Amy left. So it definitely was dumber... the other guy who also worked on TLOU part 1 left (can’t remember his name) so we had 2 people who worked on the original trilogy leaving. Result,
Uncharted 4 for many times did not even felt like uncharted.
 

GymWolf

Member
It has the best gunplay, graphic and animations in the series, the worse in everything else tho.

Overrated boring piece of shiny shit.

Hopefully we are not gonna have a sequel with the woke lesbian daughter trying to find some bigot aztech artifact...
 
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Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
I didn’t really gel with it. I came into ps4 late in the gen so was really excited to play this one and it was far to scripted all the time. I can understand why people like it but it felt boring to me personally.

is it a bad game now way but is it a great game i dont think it is
I think it deserves every accolade it received along with the huge amount of sales. It's a masterpiece IMHO
 

German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
happiness.gif


First big problem I have with U4 is the pacing, which has been discussed at length. The other games had a much better feel for momentum, not dragging individual bits on for too long. There's a lot of focus on traversal in U4, but it's not engaging for long stretches. It's a particularly bad design decision to suddenly have an entire chapter dedicated to that (21) when you're deep in the finale of the game. That's one example, but there are more. I liked ch16 as a unit, but in the context of the game it was a bit poorly placed, coming right after an already slow chapter. I have no problem with less shoot-outs, but replace it with gameplay that's also engaging. The first half of the game is an even bigger offender. I actually enjoyed the second half more, which was more focused and felt like a long tribute to Drake's Fortune.

On the other hand, there's the tone of the story, which I felt was an even bigger miss. The approach closely resembled TLOU, and the mistake here was using this influence for a franchise that wasn't a perfect fit for it. TLOU had great introspective moments, but that fit the universe and the characters. The bond Ellie and Joel developed for example, was complexed and cut deeper than anything in the Uncharted universe. From the outset TLOU is way more character-driven, whereas Uncharted was kind of forced in this direction.

This is because Uncharted is -and should be- pure lighthearted pulp, with characters that weren't rounded or complex like Joel or Ellie were, which is fine. As much as I love Nate and Elena, I'm not that interested in their relationship therapy. I realized this when the optional convoys in the jeep/elevator chapter didn't do much for me. Don't get me wrong, I love them trying something new, but this was the wrong way to approach it. You can't inject mechanics that worked in TLOU, and expect them to work in a different franchise.

Combine these two points, and you get a game that tries to challenge what makes an Uncharted game (which I applaud), but ultimately fails at it. It was a gamble on two sides, and they lost both times.

Uncharted 4 showed that Hennig was just better at directing this franchise. I love what Drachmann did in TLOU (which is an understatement, it's one of my all time favorite games), but the experiments ultimately didn't pan out.
 

Zeroing

Banned
Neil Druckmann is one of, if not the most awarded game director/writer of all time. From fans and critics both.

His 3 games are each the unanimous game of their years. And sell tens of millions. And all have 93-95 metacritics. And all 3 are loved by millions.

His talent and influence on the industry / art form is undeniable.
I don’t wanna be mean but, he is a wee over rated! He is not a genius, he just had lots of team feedback!

We are talking about the guy who wanted TLOU infected to be only women... until the rest of the team complained about it...
He also had to rewrite TLOU story because it wasn’t working and make his original idea into part 2 - a character who travels the country for revenge!

anyway there was a video on YouTube of him talking about it at a school.
 

kyliethicc

Member
The game had to be rewritten when Amy left. So it definitely was dumber... the other guy who also worked on TLOU part 1 left (can’t remember his name) so we had 2 people who worked on the original trilogy leaving. Result,
Uncharted 4 for many times did not even felt like uncharted.
You're thinking of Bruce Straley, and he co-directed Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us with Neil Druckmann.

He left after Uncharted 4 shipped. Not before.
I don’t wanna be mean but, he is a wee over rated! He is not a genius, he just had lots of team feedback!

We are talking about the guy who wanted TLOU infected to be only women... until the rest of the team complained about it...
He also had to rewrite TLOU story because it wasn’t working and make his original idea into part 2 - a character who travels the country for revenge!

anyway there was a video on YouTube of him talking about it at a school.
No one said he's a genius. And its totally fine to not like his work.

But numbers don't lie, he's very successful.
 
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RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
Uncharted 4 is my favorite game of all time right next to TLOU Part 1. The set pieces are amazing: the collapsing structures in Libertalia while you escape and the jeep chase to rescue Sam 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 I love the game, it's the story, the beautiful graphics, setpieces and the best contextual melee combat I've ever seen in a video game

And being able to play that level of Crash Bandicoot was brilliant. 10/10 game for me
Finally someone who feels like me, the game was an absolute masterclass with incredibly detailed and phenomenonal sets/level design

My only gripe is they completely ignored the supernatural aspect from the first 3 games and went with a more mature grounded feel for this one but still man some of those levels where drop controller gorgeous
 

LMJ

Member
Neil Cuckman ruined the story and characters. It was the worst mainline Uncharted, and the tone was off, like trying too hard to be dark and edgy and "mature".

That end boss had a different minigame out of nowhere. It even had a tutorial.
That was the worst designed game of the series.

Unfortunately with Cuckman in and Amy out I doubt the franchise will ever recover.

The original idea of Drakes brother being an antagonist and villain is far more captivating, and also would give far more reason to explain the lack of mention of him in any other game, the sense of other worldliness is gone, the cop-out death of Drakes Beau was lame and worst of all while the animations were stunning, the climbing had very little consequence, It felt like filler...in a already badly paced game

That having been said, the set pieces, the animations and gameplay are all top notch, and the attention to little details is un-surpassed... Druckman can't write that well, but I would put him on a game lead job anyday!

I don't get it. The other day we had a thread here saying how ND only delivers games worth of GOTY

As mentioned above, ND games since Uncharted 2 have had a level of depth and nuance that few games can match, the series is known for it's setpieces and UC4 doesn't disappoint, the graphics and animations are top tier and well I mean look at this...We have seen Next Gen (PSV XseX) games that don't look this good, and that's compressed to hell (all I could find on the Gif options)


Video Game Adventure GIF by Zenny






The Last Of Us Forest GIF by Naughty Dog
 
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Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
Finally someone who feels like me, the game was an absolute masterclass with incredibly detailed and phenomenonal sets/level design

My only gripe is they completely ignored the supernatural aspect from the first 3 games and went with a more mature grounded feel for this one but still man some of those levels where drop controller gorgeous
I agree the setpieces had my jaw on the floor with the amount of physics and explosions on top of being a visual showpiece while doing so. I have around 8-10 playthroughs
 

cormack12

Gold Member
After taking a year-long break between the trilogy on PS4 and the fourth game in the mainline Uncharted series, I've finally finished it. Here are my thoughts that no one asked for:

Uncharted 4 is somehow the best, and worst, game in the entire series.

Gameplay:
I've always maintained a controversial take on the series' gameplay when compared to other fans. I think that the climbing and exploration are the best part of these game. Absolutely phenomenal. By the fourth iteration, the climbing mechanics are better than ever before. The rope and pick are great additions to gameplay loop! Everywhere else, falls completely flat for me. The combat is awful to me. It was awful and the first three games, and it hasn't changed. There was an amazing effort to add verticality to the combat encounters, but it didn't really matter for me since I hated the combat to begin with. The long-grass/stealth option was almost entirely unused to me. I didn't feel like making the encounters last any longer than they needed to.

Story:
Meh. I think the addition of an unmentioned Drake brother is fine, but there really wasn't anything worth writing home about in the writing department. Sadly, I had known about the twist of Sam's betrayal and lies before playing, so every interaction between Sam and Nathan was irritating for me. That being said, this was one of the first games that I've played where a spoiler had a massive impact on the experience, and that is impressive to me. The plot was fine, better than most games, but....

A bit of both:
Unfortunately, the worst part of the entire experience for me ties both into the story and the gameplay. Both categories are at complete odds with each other for the entire experience. The amount of times control was ripped from me for a story beat felt more numerous than all of the previous games. Interacting with object takes up to 10+ seconds for Nathan to complete animations. It's daunting. Puzzles that require an AI partner were the worst, since there was a lot of time just waiting to be able to do something. I almost quit when the flashlight went out in Avery's cave. You have to wait for over 2 minutes to be able to do anything. That was not fun. Who thought that would be a good idea? Also, it's really frustrating to see how many times Nathan conveniently forgets that he has a rope. Both Sully and Elena would have been able to join Nathan for the finally of the game if he had just remembered that a rope was strapped to his belt. A LOT of conflicts in the story would be resolved if Nathan didn't forget about his rope...It's weird.

Summary (also written above): Uncharted 4 is somehow the best, and worst, game in the entire series. 5/10.

The climbing was pretty much the same. It's basically just amazingly well animated versions of games as old as Underworld. The piton was ripped from new generation Tomb Raider (ice picks on different textured surfaces). The rope was really an answer to the rope traversal in Rise as well but was mainly used for combat. It was slightly more compelling but still falls short of the options Crystal Dynamics founded in my opinion.

The combat was what I expected to be honest? Was a lot more refined - especially coming from the UC collection on brutal. But if you hated the combat, I think 90% of the encounters were avoidable via the vegetation.

The story is just something that happens round the game imo. It was decent enough overall - though playing through a chapter that didn't happen was a bit stupid. I thought it was a solid game, looked beautiful but soem parts were needlessly dragged out. Lost legacy was the better uncharted game.
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
I agree the setpieces had my jaw on the floor with the amount of physics and explosions on top of being a visual showpiece while doing so. I have around 8-10 playthroughs
I've 2 playthroughs of the entire series, I absolutely love em, even exploring the old mansion as a kid was incredible due to the sheer amount of graphical talent on display but yeah the whole set piece at the bell tower and driving down through the streets being pursued by the APC in my opinion can only ever be bate by ND themselves, Christ man can you imagine what they'll bring to the PS5 after what they wrangled out of the PS4!?
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
I've 2 playthroughs of the entire series, I absolutely love em, even exploring the old mansion as a kid was incredible due to the sheer amount of graphical talent on display but yeah the whole set piece at the bell tower and driving down through the streets being pursued by the APC in my opinion can only ever be bate by ND themselves, Christ man can you imagine what they'll bring to the PS5 after what they wrangled out of the PS4!?
Naughty Dog is going to blow minds on the PS5
 

mxbison

Member
I don’t wanna be mean but, he is a wee over rated! He is not a genius, he just had lots of team feedback!

We are talking about the guy who wanted TLOU infected to be only women... until the rest of the team complained about it...
He also had to rewrite TLOU story because it wasn’t working and make his original idea into part 2 - a character who travels the country for revenge!

anyway there was a video on YouTube of him talking about it at a school.

Sure, but it's still very difficult to lead a huge, successful AAA project.

Most people here who are still triggered by Abby's biceps probably have no idea about game development.
 

ZywyPL

Banned
It has the best gunplay, graphic and animations in the series, the worse in everything else tho.

This. The game plays much better than any previous installment without a doubt, especially the combat, but without Amy Henning it just wasn't the same anymore, a huge part of the whole was missing.
 

supernova8

Banned
I bought it when it came out and I dazzled by the visuals. Everything just feels so polished. I've made the same point about Zelda BOTW but there is great consistency across the characters, NPCs, terrain, environment items etc. There are so many games out there with super high-poly, high-res texture character running around slightly upgrade Minecraft maps with occasional Half-Life 1 level NPCs dotted around.

I think their world-building was great and I did enjoy the climbing. Didn't take long for me to notice they were using it to pad out the game in parts but I enjoyed the big changes in scenery. The puzzles were easy but at least mildly engaging and I really like the level towards the end in the thunderstorm. Visuals are unbelievable. Only ever played it on a regular PS4 but if I do get a PS5 (not sure yet) I'll probably re-buy UC4 and play it in 4K.
 
I loved the game except Nadine. Here we have Nathan Rambo Drake fist fighting every 2m 120kg Brawler and winning but 60kg Nadine? No. She stronk! Worse is when both brothers try to take her on and still lose.
"But she is experienced in hand to hand combat". Gtfoh.

Also OP in Averys Cave, no it doesn't take 2 minutes, more like 15 seconds when the flashlight goes out. I replayed that bit just 2 days ago and going for the platinum after all those years, lol.
F the loud PS4, good thing I waited for the PS5 to platinum it.
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
I loved the game except Nadine. Here we have Nathan Rambo Drake fist fighting every 2m 120kg Brawler and winning but 60kg Nadine? No. She stronk! Worse is when both brothers try to take her on and still lose.
"But she is experienced in hand to hand combat". Gtfoh.

Also OP in Averys Cave, no it doesn't take 2 minutes, more like 15 seconds when the flashlight goes out. I replayed that bit just 2 days ago and going for the platinum after all those years, lol.
F the loud PS4, good thing I waited for the PS5 to platinum it.
You are aware it's a videogame and not real life?
 

sircaw

Banned
As a big fan of PlayStation exclusive games like bloodborne, R+c , horizon etc, i must admit that I found uncharted 4 a total letdown.

I would go as far as saying, I think it's the second most boring game I have ever played after Bioshock 3, and believe me, I hated that game.

As far as the uncharted series as a hole goes, I loved the remaster collection, especially no 2, it was simply brilliant.

Uncharted 4 was a pretty game etc with some glorious locations, but the whole loop felt so stale to me, with needless conversations sections of boring climbing, and dragged-out scenarios. I feel like the game could of been shortened by a few good hours too.

I seriously hope they somehow they reinvent the uncharted series in its next reboot because in my eyes it really needs it.

I know some people love the game, i really like the characters in it but overall, i would give it a 6/10. I really was that bored.
 
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ZywyPL

Banned
As far as the uncharted series as a hole goes, I loved the remaster collection, especially no 2, it was simply brilliant.

It kind of feels like the series went the exact same path as Killzone franchise, doesn't it? Just an OK first game, then amazing second 2nd installment (which with time turned out to be the peak of the series), then 3rd part that's a bit technically improved but isn't as good as the previous entry, and then the final chapter on PS4 with outstanding presentation, arguably the best gameplay in the series, but lacking on every other front, where the strength of the series actually lied.
 

sircaw

Banned
It kind of feels like the series went the exact same path as Killzone franchise, doesn't it? Just an OK first game, then amazing second 2nd installment (which with time turned out to be the peak of the series), then 3rd part that's a bit technically improved but isn't as good as the previous entry, and then the final chapter on PS4 with outstanding presentation, arguably the best gameplay in the series, but lacking on every other front, where the strength of the series actually lied.
I have unfortunately never played any of those games yet "lollipop_disappointed: , I know its shameful
 

NeilH1982

Banned
This game is pretty much the whole reason Crash Bandicoot was revived. Gotta love it just for that. Game wasn't bad either. Brought nice close to Nate's story
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
I replayed all 4 last year and 4 is definietly the best one. 3 would be after that but they undercooked the 2nd part of the game so uncharted 2 is right below 4 for me.
I find climbing and mostly all gameplay to be really fun.
 

Reindeer

Member
Niel Drivkman is an awful writer, ND games under him (TLOU1 being exception. One hit wonder?) have some of the worst writing around. My head hurts from all the plotholes his games have.
 
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Reindeer

Member
What are the plotholes in U4?
Everything in Uncharted 4 is conveniently written to make the predetermined events play out, like Elena suddenly being this unadventurous person who wants to settle down even though she was the one pushing Nate a lot of the time in the first two games. Reif killing warden is another rubbish writing just to make priaon break happen and for Sam to presumably die. There was no need for Reif to do what he did whatsoever. The whole thing about there being a massive prison break and riot when Sam escaped and Nathan or Sully (who was well connected) to not know about it is another rubbish writing. Sam being medically treated and well looked after when he was shot just after his accomplice stabbed the warden also makes no sense.

I could go on and on, but I just can't be brothered. It's a typical Niel Druckman game, a game where events and outcomes are already decided before the story is even written.
 
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