Uncharted 4: A Thief's End review

When it does get going though, it's a solid mix of shooting, brawling and climbing that resembles some of the best adventure movies. While it stumbles along the way and certain segments drag a little, generally it was paced fairly well, and only one location really outstayed its welcome. Each location has a different feel to it: in Italy you're dashing around rooftops and scrambling to avoid guards, whereas in the Scottish Highlands you're solving puzzles and ambushing patrolling guards with the game's stealth mechanics.

The stealth parts still feel a bit fudged, sadly. Drake can take enemies down from behind with ease, and he's definitely good at waddling in a weird crouch-walk, but the system feels poorly implemented and sometimes all it takes is for a guard to look at a weird angle or for Drake to make a mis-timed jump for you to get rumbled, and then it's on like Donkey Kong and you're fired off into another massive firefight.



In reality, Uncharted 4 is at its best in the quiet moments, the chats between Nathan and his estranged brother Sam as they hint at a shared history and try to talk through the gaps left during their years apart. The action moments work, and it is a lot of fun to play, but there's a human story bubbling away just below the surface that keeps you ploughing through the single player campaign, and it was a much more effective draw than finding some collectible treasure.

The Multiplayer is better than expected, similar to how The Last of Us built on the series singleplayer mechanics to add to the multiplayer, and here there's an acrobatic multiplayer shooter with all of Uncharted 4's map design, coupled with the usual mountain of unlocks - kills with weapons will give you mods for that weapon, new weapons, skins for the weapon, and help you with challenges involving that weapon. If you like unlocking stuff this is a game for you.



There's a nice flow to the combat, and you find you're moving through the maps mobbed up. When downed, a teammate can revive you, and the amount of damage required to kill means that you can't face off against the entire time and walk away, so your team become close friends.

Really, if Uncharted is a delicious chocolate cake, the multiplayer is the scoop of ice cream that comes with it, not everyone wants to eat the ice cream, but it's served next to the cake anyway, and for some people they'll enjoy that as much as the cake itself.



Breaking away from the stretched metaphor, Uncharted 4 is a bloody good game. It ticks a lot of boxes and I genuinely enjoyed myself - it's more National Treasure than Tomb Raider's most recent reboot and the globe trotting adventuring suits it well. Naughty Dog have already said this'll be the end of the Uncharted series (Bungie said Halo 3 would be the last Halo, so…) and if so this is a hell of a send off. It's not perfect, but it deserves a spot in your collection if you've got a PS4. Pick it up, you won't regret it.