Just When I Thought I Was Out...

Uncharted 4 Pulls Me Back In!

Just to put it out there from the jump: If you want to play a narrative action game there is nothing better than Uncharted 4: A Thieves End. Straight up, that’s the opinion.

When I started this newsletter project, Uncharted 4 wasn’t anywhere near the pile of games to write about. See, I played and enjoyed the original trilogy. Then I went on to love developer Naughty Dog’s next effort The Last of Us, so A Thieves End was a day-one play for me when it released back in 2016. Big surprise, I thought it was the peak of the “game as cinematic experience” genre at the time. There have continued to be a couple moments of the game that still come to mind in 2024. So with my backlog getting larger everyday there wasn’t an immediate need to revisit it. But when the boys at Into the Aether released an Uncharted series episode I wouldn’t allow myself to listen to the Lost Legacyportion since I had yet to play that game. So, I downloaded the 2-game collection to my PS5 with the full intention of playing Chloe and Nadine’s adventure, but the sight of Nathan sucked me back in.

I would just take a dip in the pool, you know, play a couple of the opening chapters just to remind myself of the mechanics before diving into Lost Legacy. Oh, but then I had to replay the Madagascar bike chase that has been burned in my brain for almost a decade - just to see if it held up to my imagination. And at that point I was about halfway through so it wouldn’t have made any sense not to see it through to the end. That checks out right?

Uncharted 4 passed the test - the set pieces concocted by the game designers still feel unique and delightful on a second playthrough. In fact, and this was something brought up on the aforementioned podcast, it feels like more and more games have taken from the Uncharted playbook without finding many ways to expand beyond it. Relative to the prior three entries, A Thieves End doesn’t necessarily do this either give or take a grappling hook. It’s more of a refinement of the previous escapades to the point of perfection. You aren’t necessarily surprised by the game, but that doesn’t make it any less gripping. In some respects this is what makes it so impressive. You may be familiar with the path ahead, but the twists, camera angles, and musical crescendos have your blood pumping by the end of any sequence.

Somewhat surprisingly though, the set pieces weren’t my favorite part. I walked away most impressed with the pacing, character work, and visual design. In many ways this mirrors the modern blockbuster. The spectacle is what makes the biggest impression from the outset - it’s the loudest, most eye-catching component of the experience. But what helps those blockbusters transcend and last in the audience’s mind is an equally impressive foundation. A roller coaster can’t be all 200 ft drops, there needs to be a build up of anticipation. The slow moments help to pack up the punch delivered by the intense ones. The chase sequence I’ve already made reference to (and likely will at least one more time) is one of the most thrilling moments I’ve experienced in a video game, and it’s smartly followed by a simmering, pit-in-the-stomach moment. Nathan and the player don’t get to bask in the “hell yeah”, but are instead forced to face reality. The ebbs and flows of storytelling.

That pit exists because of all the shoveling the character work has been doing. Despite being the fourth game in the series, A Thieves End could also be a suitable starting point for anyone jumping into the franchise for the first time. There is more weight to the internal struggle Nathan faces if you have experience with the previous games, but the central themes are constructed strong enough to stand on their own. In simplest terms, he is a man in the heat of a mid-life crisis with the opportunity to have another run at his previous life. Guilt, greed, family, and legacy are interwoven throughout to ratchet up the complexity. I had just started dating my future-wife when the game was first released, but now six years into marriage the Elena material hits different. There’s a particular moment later in the game where her delivery of “for better or worse” tells you everything you need to know about how much Nathan has lost the plot.

All of this is held together by expert-level visual design. The facial animations are locked in for the emotional moments that matter most, and the level design keeps you in a state of flow. The bike chase (see I told you it would come up again) works because the game walks the line so well between being clear enough that you intuitively move the story forward without getting stuck in a loop but is still hidden enough that you get lost in the illusion and forget that the game has built the outcome for you. Then on a more macro level this is the first game I’ve ever gotten lost missing around with the photo mode, the vistas and staging of the camera are stunning at times. They’ve created a world you want to breathe in.

I’ve yet to play Uncharted: Lost Legacy, so I don’t fully know where this franchise goes next, but from my vantage point there has to be a way to continue it. Ideally in a way that isn’t a mediocre movie (I guess franchise now?). I don’t necessarily want Naughty Dog to go back to this well, I’d rather they tackle something new, but adventures in this world with this framework would continue to be enjoyable every 5-10 years. But perhaps that’s just me doing what Nathan does, remaining unwilling to close one chapter so we can start a new one. Maybe I should play it one more time, you know, to make the message really sink in.

If you read the opening paragraph, and still continued to read the next 1000 words you’re a real one - thanks. But if you just skipped down to the bottom, in summary: If you want to play a narrative action game there is nothing better than Uncharted 4: A Thieves End. Straight up, that’s still the opinion eight years later.