Instead of opening with the epic and bombastic Drake's Theme at the main menu, Uncharted 4 opens with a caged skeleton hanging from a rock and eerie silence with a bit of wind. This sets the mood for what is a gritty bitter tale of Nathan's life gone horribly wrong.................
I'm just kidding, it's an action-packed Uncharted game just how you've come to expect. Bad guy works with Nathan at the beginning, becomes bad guy, Nathan is one-step ahead to finding the treasure, shoots a bunch of dudes, and without getting too spoiler-y, it ends just how you'd want it to.
And that's not a bad thing at all. The story plays out like a fun action-adventure Indiana Jones style adventure. It has its twists and turns how you'd expect, and some them are predictable, others not, but it never feels overly-contrived. Well, there are the usual Uncharted contrivances that make you ask "wouldn't they have discovered all that by now", or "surely they'd have seen that from satellite". There are strong narrative themes and metaphors that last through the game, and make a strong impact, and the story feels satisfying on the whole. Nolan North's acting is, as always, spot on and the witty, snarky Nathan is as witty and snarky as ever, sometimes to annoyance, but I'm nitpicking here.
But let's get to the gameplay. It's Uncharted, and not much has changed. You're still taking cover behind rocks and crates, or sneaking around to silently kill the opposition. It still has the one thing I'm very surprised no other game has managed to pull off, and that's using the uncharted-style parkour and climbing system alongside the shooting in a visceral and smooth way. There are set-pieces that really force you to use that to your advantage or get blown to bits. But doing the shooting and climbing at the same time is great, but doing one of them and not the other can get boring and tedious. Luckily, enough new mechanics are introduced to keep it fresh, but by the end, I was tapping X quickly to jump around on the rocks to get to my destination more quickly during the "filler" sections. The puzzles are really easy, but still satisfying for the most part. There are a few, like the one in the clock tower, that are very tedious and annoying.
In the end, Uncharted 4 is a very satisfying end to the series, and I'm happy with the direction the plot went for this thief's end.
