Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

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Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

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Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is supposed to be Nathan Drake’s last adventure and it is a good one. It has exciting set pieces, some good character development, and a very impressive presentation. It just feels this has all been done before.

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It’s not my first lost city,” protagonist Nathan Drake says to his brother at a certain point in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. This is a technically gorgeous, but ultimately safe sequel, bringing familiar set pieces, locales, and characters: it’s a game that tries very hard to marvel the player with its visuals, but, just like Nathan, the player will nonetheless still feel like they have seen it all before.

The game, after a brief action sequence, opens with a flashback that shows the relationship between a young Nathan and his brother, Sam. The protagonist appears to admire his brother, who encourages him to sneak out of his orphanage and even teaches him parkour moves while they climb the roofs of the place. Sam appears to be much more than just an inspiration to Nathan, marking who the protagonist would eventually become: he acts precisely as Nathan would do later. When the boy asks his brother if he knows where he’s going, Sam’s answer couldn’t be more Drake-ish: “Eh, more or less.” Their relationship is shown to be built around trust, but also around abandonment and loss.

In the present, Nathan is living a normal life together with his wife, Elena. However, he still yearns for adventure, which is shown in an excellent scene: when Elena starts to talk about her day, his mind drifts away when he looks at a picture of an island. Therefore, when his brother comes back from the dead and reveals that he’s in big trouble, Nathan quickly embarks on yet another quest: he must search for the lost treasure of the pirate Henry Avery if he is to save Sam’s life.

A Thief’s End’s story is well told, but very simple in structure and plot. The protagonist travels to a lot of places in search of Avery’s hidden treasure, finding there only clues to the next place where it should be hidden. And players will soon become very acquainted with some of the elements of that search, as they are repeated quite often – after this game, they will certainly be able to recognize the statue of St. Dismas, for example.

Meanwhile, Nathan lies to Elena about his adventures. He had agreed to retire and live a normal, safer life – even though he hates it – and can’t bring himself to tell her the truth. The game shows a lack of trust in their relationship. Nathan hasn’t the guts to tell Elena that he has hidden the existence of his brother from her, and one lie starts to stack on top of another: Nathan may be fearless when it comes to exploring dungeons and climbing steep cliffs, but he’s a coward when it comes to relationships.

For this reason, most of the time the protagonist will be stuck with his brother. Sam, however, is not an interesting character for a very simple reason: he is just Nathan Drake 2.0. When they are adventuring together, both will say the exact same things and react in the exact same way. He is practically Nathan’s double. They both love what they do, and after each incredible and dangerous stunt, they will tell each other how they thought that was amazing and exhilarating: “That’s was fun, right?” they all say after nearly dying.  Sam being so like Nathan is kind of the point, as the protagonist’s brother is shown to be the reason for Nathan being the way he is. However, in practice, it is like watching two copies of the same character talking to each other the whole time.

Near the end, there is a plot twist involving Sam, but one that is utterly predictable and – which is much worse – doesn’t change their relationship for long. They will still love each other, protect each other and, sometimes, abandon each other: that is how their relationship works. Elena is the character that stands out the most: if, at first, she appears to be an obstacle in Nathan’s true path, later she demonstrates how that is only his fault. She understands his wild nature, but still never lets him off the hook for his lies and deceits. The villain, on the other hand, acts precisely like the previous ones: he is one-dimensional, seeks the treasure because of “power/fame and fortune”, will kill everyone on his path, and so on. There is a mercenary called Nadine, who appears to have more common sense than her partner, but she ends up being just a wasted opportunity, with little screen time to really shine.

The gameplay remains almost the same. Sliding sections were added and they function almost the same as the ones in God of War: Ascension, with the protagonist avoiding debris on the way down and jumping when the time is right. Besides that, there is a hook, which provides more interesting moments: it can be used to push objects, jump over huge gaps, or slide down mountains. The rest remains the same: Nathan will climb mountains; some things will break – making him fall quickly to somewhere a bit safer – and he will shoot down hundreds of bad guys or take them down stealthily and things like that.

The level design, however, is much more open, affording even driving sequences over some big landscapes. Most of the time, there will also be more than one ledge you can jump to, and there will be caverns and optional buildings to explore.

The places that the protagonist visits sure are pretty to look at, but they are not awe-inspiring. The problem is that this time the designers decided to take a much more realistic approach not only when it comes to the story – there are no more supernatural undertones, for example – but when it comes to the environments as well. There are no more impossibly huge statues to climb this time around and the lost city looks just like a lost city would: just a huge amount of forgotten ruble. There are some eccentricities along the way – like an enormous revolving puzzle beneath an island – but these are few and far between. Make no mistake: A Thief’s End is a beautiful game to look at, but it has lost its sense of wonder and magic.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is supposed to be Nathan Drake’s last adventure and it is a good one. It has exciting set pieces, some good character development, and a very impressive presentation. It just feels this has all been done before.

January 04, 2019.

Overview
Developer:

Naughty Dog.

Director:

Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann.

Writer:

Neil Druckmann and Josh Scherr.

Composer:

Henry Jackman

Average Lenght:

15 hours.

Reviewed on:

PS4

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About The Author
Rodrigo Lopes
I'm a book critic who happens to love games as well. Except Bioshock Infinite. Ugh.
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