Uncharted 4 – Review incoming

I’m about 20 hours deep in Uncharted 4 and I’m moments away from finishing it.

Initially I was going to do my usual 3-part review of “Initial thoughts”, “further thoughts” and “final thoughts”, but some games deserve more than that.

Also, I’ve spent so long taking screenshots, I need more time to pick out the best ones……..there are A LOT……..

So here’s the pre-amble from the review, which sets the scene for my experience with the series, and basically begins the pouring-on of love for the 4th entry into the stellar collection of games by Naughty Dog.

The Uncharted series

The Uncharted series was the sole reason for me buying a PS3 a few years ago.  I’d read and watched videos about them, and I wanted in on some of that action.  I was not disappointed, the whole series was gold, gradually improving and refining the gameplay and characters over the course of the trilogy, I found myself sad that they were over.

With the release of the Playstation 4, came the almost inevitable release of Uncharted 4, a title that I’ve yearned to play since the moment I heard about it.  Being PS4-less, and having plenty else to play, it went on the back-burner, until very recently.

Here we go again

My biggest fear with Uncharted 4 was that it was just going to be more of the same, with perhaps a much nicer sheen.  Not that it would be a problem, because I love the characters and the series, but you always hope for that little bit more, that extra bit that sees refinement and improvement, whilst holding onto the core of what Uncharted is.

What is Uncharted?

Good question.

The way you’d see it most commonly described would use both the Tomb Raider series, and Indiana Jones as frames for reference, and in many ways, that’s great place to start.

Uncharted is more than that though, it’s a cinematic gaming experience, with decent dialogue, excellent voice acting and motion capture.  It’s adventure to find lost cities and treasures, it’s gun fights and punch-ups, all with a sprinkling of climbing and scaling buildings/mountains, thrown-in for good measure.

Uncharted 4 is all of this but turned up to 11.  It looks incredible, it sounds incredible, the dialogue is easily better than that of some big films I’ve seen in recent years.  There’s so much room for exploration, and of course the little glimmer that I’m constantly looking for, as soon as I get to a new location………….Treasure.  I bloody love treasure.

The review

Next week, I’ll have finished Uncharted 4’s campaign and lived through the story and all the set pieces.  I’m hoping to have taken it all in, and be able to do it justice in the form of a review.

It’s not a perfect game, I have some niggles, but it’s definitely up there with the rest of them.

The review will be up by the end of the week, screen shots and all, but here’s a spoiler for you: It’s great, I love it and I’m really really pleased it’s the first full game I’ve played through on my PS4.