PixlBit

If Uncharted 4's subtitle “A Thief’s End” didn’t clue you in, main character Nathan Drake ended his adventures with the last entry. However the series has continued with Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. This entry follows the adventures of Chloe Frasier, Drake's former partner and love interest as she teams up with Uncharted 4’s villain Nadine Ross to find an Ancient Indian treasure on some grand adventure full of climbing, explosions, and wonderfully corny jokes.

Rather than deliver this through a true sequel, however, the game instead opts not to tweak 4’s graphics or engine with a shorter game at a $40 price tag. This ends up being a brilliant move. While I enjoyed Uncharted 4, I was fairly critical of the game. However, my issues were in terms of pacing, not polish, issues which are not really present in The Lost Legacy. The glitches I encountered in 4 are nowhere to be seen, the game is still unbelievably gorgeous with the best production values in the industry. Yet 4 was an adventure of about 7-8 amazing hours sandwiched between some lengthy portions that dragged on. Here there is just an amazing 7-8 hour adventure.

Chloe ends up a strong stand in for Nate, as she shares his encyclopedic knowledge of ancient civilizations, ridiculous combat skills allowing her to take out an entire mercenary faction, and throwing smart ass quips the whole way. Granted, she stands out as her own character, especially in how she interacts with other characters. This is especially apparent during banter with Nadine. I thought she was a decent villain in 4, but she works much better as a companion in TLL. She has very little patience and ends up pointing out how ridiculous many series conventions are, which provide some great banter. Her personal motivation is interesting as well, even shedding some light on some of her shortcomings as 4’s villain.

The story is my favorite since 2. It cuts out much of the filler that plagued 3 and 4 while still keeping their strong points. I'll admit some bias towards Ancient Indian culture, as I was hooked by the treasure the second Chloe spoke of Hindu gods and the Hoysala Empire. However, there were still a great number of twists fueling a fun roller coaster ride. While I do not want to give too much away, rest assured, there are no supernatural enemies once again. These are complemented well by the villain, who takes on a gentle persona until he needs to show how threatening he can really be.

4’s sandbox levels make a return as an early portion has plenty of hidden temples to explore complete with a reward for finding every treasure. Combat is still better than ever, offering more open arenas that actually require strong stealth skills to plow through on a harder difficulty. Try to start a firefight too early and enemies will quickly flank the player from behind, rendering cover useless. Overall, I felt the arenas were a bit better designed than 4’s, though unfortunately there were fewer combat scenarios than ever.

These bouts of combat are complemented well with puzzles and climbing sections. The puzzles can occasionally just be about finding the right ledge to climb, yet a good portion also revolve around scanning and analyzing a room with others revolve around pictures placed by the ancient civilization. Climbing is still not the most engaging platforming, but the grappling hook and moments where ledges break apart keep them feeling engaging.

There are also some slower moments without any of these elements, yet they were generally shorter and served the story better than similar moments in 4 so they fit in well with the game’s pacing. The game balances these moments well with its other aformentioned gameplay elements creating an experience that never gets dull. No portion of the gameplay ever outstayed its welcome or felt shoehorned in. Some may miss the more varied locations of the globe trotting Uncharted adventures, but I prefer the more compact adventure for the same reason Temple of Doom is my favorite Indiana Jones movie.

Honestly the only complaint I have is the Uncharted formula is somewhat predictable at this point. I can almost call out when a ledge Chloe is grabbing will fall apart or when a group of enemies are about to show up. However, The Lost Legacy throws just enough twists and keeps the game going at a fun enough pace that these moments never pulled me out of the experience. I was still excited and having a blast the whole way through.

Past Uncharted games have felt like a ribeye or porterhouse steak. Plenty there it to fill you up, but with varying degrees of fat that you could have done without. The Lost Legacy, meanwhile, is more like a filet mignon. Not as much, but what is offered is prepared as perfectly as you could ask. Some may be fine with or prefer that porterhouse and even enjoy the fat. But that filet still stands out to me more when all is said and done that all I can do after is ask Naughty Dog for some more.