Uncharted 4: a Thief’s End is one of the best games I have ever played. Uncharted 4 is an action and adventure game that tells the story of the wise cracking Nathan drake. With their newest game, Naughty Dog have truly mastered their craft, and the PS4 hardware, in this truly spectacular showing of how far games have come, and what they’re capable of.
The technology behind the game alone is enough to astound anybody. Seriously, despite it being a console game, Uncharted 4 is probably the best looking game of all time. The only games that come close are Star Wars Battlefront, and the Witcher 3; but the thing is, while those games may have slightly better texture or shadow quality, and effects like anti-aliasing can be turned up more, simply for being on the PC, none of them come close to the unbelievable visual polish and detail of uncharted 4. 
An area where this polish is really seen is the animations. If you’re a long time reader, you may know how much I absolutely love good animations in video games, and Uncharted 4 does not disappoint. In fact, Uncharted 4 by far, has the best animations of any video game ever made. It really is jaw dropping how incredibly fluid every single facet of the game is. All of your movement and abilities flow together seamlessly, and make it really seem lifelike. On top of the main gameplay animations, the motion capture work for cut scenes is also incredible, and the superbly detailed facial models gives Uncharted 4 easily the best looking cutscenes in any game. One of my favourite parts of the game is how, since the cutscenes are all rendered in-game, some of them perfectly transition straight into gameplay, it’s a small thing, but impressive nonetheless.
Besides the animations, despite being on console, uncharted 4 still has better visual detail than any other game I’ve ever played. The entire game is just full of intricate details: Nathan leaving footprints in sand and dust, rain changing direction due to wind, crowds full of incredibly detailed and animated NPCs with great A.I, physics systems for every aspect of the game from water, to mud to plants and beyond, Nathan’s clothes, weapons and car getting dirty from mud but being cleaned from water, people wincing when you shine torches in their eyes; I could go on, and on but we would be here all day. 
As well as all the small details, Naughty Dog also managed to get the larger graphical details down. Despite what I said before about other games on PC having better quality and what not, Uncharted 4 still looks incredible in terms of those details. The textures are great, anti-aliasing is awesome, the lighting is absolutely amazing, in fact, the only area where it sacrifices quality is shadows, but they still look great. It really is game development magic; how Naughty Dog managed to squeeze that much quality out of the PS4, I don’t know. I could try to give you a ham-fisted explanation of how I think they did it, but It wouldn’t be great. If you want to see an analysis of the tech behind Uncharted 4, with some explanation of how Naughty Dog pulled it off, I would recommend watching Digital Foundry’s video here:
The visual quality of Uncharted 4 is impossible to describe with words. Seriously, try to play the game for yourself, or at least watch some videos online. It truly is mind-boggling how Naughty Dog were able to pull off such mind-blowing visuals, and is a true testament to how far optimization and dedication can take a game’s graphics.
But enough of graphics, how’s the gameplay? To put it simply: great overall. I already spoke about how fluid animations are, and just like the animations, the movement controls are extremely fluid. They aren’t as tight as many other games, but they are some of, if not the best feeling movement controls in any game. The fluidity of the movement also transitions into the shooting, which has a very unique reticle and recoil system. The shooting, like the movement, feels amazing, but the high skill floor, and low skill ceiling may put off players looking for a more hardcore shooter experience.
In fact, the gameplay as a whole in Uncharted 4 is very casual. That may be off-putting to some of you, but it actually helps the game. Uncharted 4 is a tightly crafted experience, and tightly crafted experiences are all about the pacing, and the casual gameplay is essential to controlling it.
The puzzles and combat, especially with its new stealth and open-ended nature, are both deep enough to not become repetitive by the end of the game. What can become repetitive are the navigation sections. The majority of the gameplay in Uncharted 4 is spent navigating the environments, and while the navigation feels incredible thanks to the amazingly smooth controls and animations, it is quite simple. The fact that traversal sections do get more complex in interesting ways as the game goes on, and that the car sections do break it up a little, combined with how good it feels was more than enough to keep me entertained, but for more veteran players of the series, or especially people playing through it multiple times, it may get boring.
I know what you’re all thinking though: “how are the set-pieces?” Well, its complicated. Long time fans of the series may be disappointed, as all though none of the set-pieces are bad, most of them have a much smaller scale than the previous games, and very few compare to the set-pieces of Uncharted 2. But on the other hand, many of the set-pieces have improved from a gameplay sense and seriously, the car set-piece in Madagascar is absolutely incredible. What really makes it great is its open-ended nature, and multi-stage layout. Without giving too much away, it starts off with a gunfight in the town, goes to a car chase down a hill, then to a convoy-top fighting sequence, then to the jaw dropping finale. It is one of my favourite pieces of gameplay in any game ever, and is by far the best set-piece of Uncharted 4, and probably the best in the series. 
One of the best part about Uncharted 4’s gameplay that really separates it from other games is how there are a multitude of mechanics in the game that are only used once or twice. Mechanics like the winch on the car, moving pieces of paper around in Nathan’s journal and taking photos with Sully’s camera, are only used a handful of times throughout the game. These mechanics only being used a couple of times really enhances the immersion as the they stop feeling like ‘game mechanics’, and feel more like things the characters just thought of doing. Interesting mechanics like this are all throughout Uncharted 4 and it really keeps the game feeling fresh throughout some of it’s longer navigation sections.
Moving away from the gameplay, the story in Uncharted 4 is really, really good. In the previous Uncharted games, the story was more of an excuse to get to the action, but in Uncharted 4, it seems as though Naughty Dog has learned from the last of us, as the story takes a more central role and is in my opinion the best part of the game. Ironically, seeing as though Uncharted 4 has the best and most complex story of the series, the game has the most generic basic premise of the series: an adventure to find pirate gold. While that may seem generic, Uncharted 4 uses the basic premise to tell a complex character drama that focuses heavily on Nathan’s childhood, and his brother Sam. Sam is uncharted 4’s most prominent new character, and much of the story revolves around him, his past, and his relationship with Nathan. Uncharted 4 also strays away from the previous games in the series by focusing a lot more on Nathan’s relationship with Elena, rather than Sully. The villains: Rafe and Nadine, are also very good, and have their own arcs. That’s pretty all I can say without spoiling anything, oh and, Nathan is as witty and funny as always.
Conclusion
Uncharted 4 is the peak of linear game design. It perfectly demonstrates how the control gained from linear design can do great things. The amazing story, fun gameplay, mind-blowing visuals, and the tightly crafted pacing come together to make one of the best experiences in all of gaming.
10/10
Totem Toast 