Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - Honest Review

Read Time: 3 minutes

Year of release: 2016
Main game: 15 Hours | Rated: 16 | Genre: Action-adventure / Third-person shooter | Platforms: PlayStation 4 & 5 / Windows

On the hunt for Captain Henry Avery’s long-lost treasure, Sam and Drake set off to find Libertalia, the pirate utopia deep in the uncharted forests of Madagascar.

Introduction

It’s been 8 years since the game’s release, but every now and then, some of us go back to Libertalia and just explore. Bask in the greatness of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.

This is the 4th, and final installment, of the (main) Uncharted Series. To all of us who’ve been with Drake since UC1, this game feels heavier on us, it’s not just “a game” it’s a culmination of almost a decade of epic adventure, and probably one of the most sincere display of in-game couple romance between Nathan “Nate” Drake (VA: Nolan North) and Elena (VA Emily Rose). Let’s not forget his longtime partner, Victor “Sully” Sullivan (VA: Richard McGonagle), his best friend and a treasure hunter as well, and with Sam Drake on the mix as well.

Based on history

All the 12 pirates in the game are based on real historical facts, except for one, “Guy Wood” is a fictional character and a reference to “Guybrush Threepwood” from the Monkey Island games. The “Gunsway Heist” was also a real historical occurrence. “Libertalia” on the other hand, unfortunately never existed, or it did but was never found.

Awesome Music

Background music is nice, especially those chase scenes, gets you really fired up. Original soundtrack is composed by Henry Jackman, unfortunately he wasn’t able to live up to the bar set by Greg Edmonson (composer for Uncharted 1, 2, and 3), Greg was able to use a variety of instruments to fit the mood of the current scene, and everything was just perfect. Jackman’s work on the other hand felt a little bit weak, it’s nice and it grows on you the more you play/hear it, but for first impressions and overall impact, I’d go for Greg’s work.

You want to hear insane? “Nathan Drake raced a madman and his entire army to the steps of Shambhala.” “Nathan Drake found a lost city in the middle of the Rub’ al Khali desert.” “Nathan Drake discovered the fabled El Dorado”! “Nathan Drake is a legend”. You know, I shot the man who told me that. You know, for all your “greatness”, Nate, you have nothing. You are nothing. And I warned you to get out of my way.

— Rafe Adler

Gameplay

Overall gameplay of Uncharted 4 is flawless. The wall climbing, as usual, is iconic, every time another game does it, I go “Meh, Uncharted did it better.” The one thing I could critic about the gameplay is the removal of the “grenade return” concept that they did in Uncharted 3.

Another PlayStation exclusive that came out which I loved was Ghost of Tsushima.