this game is an absolute masterpiece and a game that even stands out nearly 8 YEARS later , the graphics , story , locations , gamrplay , characters , evolution of characters , everything is astonishing
I'm right there with you! It has stood the test of time so well. I imagine we'll be saying the same thing in another 8 years. Thanks for watching the video!
Uncharted 4 is #1 on my favorite games of all time list. Excellent review, Wilson. Your channel has so much potential to blow up. Keep up the great work!
I'm actually replaying it now and had the same thought. I am amazed at how captivating it is and how it is a slow burn until the final part, when it makes you want to see the ending after all the build up. I hope I'll finish it again tomorrow. I finished well over 200 campaigns over the last 20 years but this one still got me like it's the first time playing it.
I'm right there with you! I had so much replaying the game to capture footage for this video. Here's hoping the series continues someday! Thanks for watching the video, I hope you enjoyed it :)
Haven’t watched yet, but the answer is yes Edit: watched the video now and I have to say, I love your format. You’d think this was a much bigger channel based on how well you speak and such. Good work dude
Hey, thank you so much for saying that! Can't tell you how much I appreciate it. People like you are the ones who help the channel grow! Let me know if there any other games or series you'd like to see me cover :)
Uncharted 4 was the reason my dad got me a PS4 and I replayed it so many times until I got my PC in uni. Even though Bloodborne is my favourite game from the PS4, Uncharted 4 is a very close second that I never got tired of replaying
It's such a fun game to replay! I love Bloodborne as well, I'm planning to cover that in a separate video at some point. Thanks for checking out the video!
I was just about to say the same thing. I wholeheartedly disagree with Wilson’s claim that the game wants you to like Sam. It wants us to feel sorry for him, to disapprove of him. The impression I get is that the game doesn’t want us to like Sam, but rather to see Nate’s love of his brother and the exuberance he feels to have his brother back in his life, even as Sam drags him back into old selfish habits.
That's a good point! I based that perception off of how often Sam is featured in the game, but maybe your perspective is more aligned with what Naughty Dog was going for.
Nicely said. Personally, I must say I never minded Sam’s presence. That’s probably due my light time spent with the og trio. I’ve only played the PS3 trilogy once back the 2011 PS3 generation. So coming into the 4th game 7 years later gave me next to no real emotional attachment to the characters. I was just in for the ride and really enjoyed it. While I did somewhat crave for the hilarious company of Sully, and Elena’s constant state of worriedness , or even Chloe’s snarkyness. I still didn’t feel as if Sam stood in the way of those possibilities. I do however know of the differently planned story from Amy Hennig that would’ve likely gave us more time with Nate’s companions and I can’t deny that I would have much preferred her version of events.
Thank you so much for watching, Larson! I bet that if I hadn't played the OG 3 first, I wouldn't have found Sam as problematic. I think that if he had been balanced out a bit better with the original cast, I also would have tolerated him more easily. I would *love* to see what Hennig's version of the story would have been! I guess we'll never really know :(
Yes. The story of this fourth chapter is so well wrote. The pirates and how they constructed the myth, the mystery and how dark turns to be…i always have a rule for these videogames. If at the end it leaves you thinking: “how it should have been that legend if everything went well?”. Then is a good game
Thank you for another awesomely narrated video covering this incredible game franchise. I recently played through all uncharted games as well and was reminded of how much I love this game series. Naughty Dog knocked it out of the park with Uncharted. Next on my list is to replay The Last of Us after many many years and I'm super excited! Unfortunately I have no desire to play The Last Us 2 again.
Thank you very much for watching, Ted! Glad to have you back for another video. You'll have to let me know your thoughts on The Last Of Us after your replay. I'll be covering both TLOU games in the future!
@@Wilson-108 Changed my mind about The Last of Us 2, went ahead and purchased a used copy (to play for the second time, sold my first copy). I will just skip the cut scenes that don't agree with my religion and ethics.
Couldn't agree more about feeling like I was stuck with Sam and constantly hoping the story would take me back to Sully or Elena. At least on the first playthrough. It was extremely frustrating at the time since we knew it was the last Uncharted game. After 5 years dreaming of one more adventure with that gang, it was annoying how much the story focused on a new (and unlikable) character. It didn't feel like something the story should be focusing on during a last hurrah.
I'm glad to hear someone affirm my take on Sam, haha. It seems like I may be in the minority on that one. To your point, I think my single biggest issue with Sam as a character is how much the game pushes him to the forefront. If he were featured in a more supporting role, I think I would have liked him more. Thanks so much for checking out the video!
@@Wilson-108 I think it's only the minority today. At the time I remember that being said constantly. Knowing how the story all works out now, and having him more likeable in The Lost Legacy has helped his character's reputation a lot in hindsight.
He's definitely more likable in Lost Legacy! I actually just replayed that because I'm covering LL in my next video, which made me realize how much better Sam works as a side character.
Well, I promised to dig into U4 as soon as you review it, and I'm a man of my word, so here we go! First off, thank you for this review! You get your points across as pointedly as usual, and I can definitely see where you're coming from. I don't happen to agree with you on pretty much anything 😉, but I respect the hell out of the way you presented your case! The key word in your review of the first Uncharted game for me was: light-hearted. The word I feel describes the fourth Uncharted's story and atmosphere best is: sullen. You pointed out that Rafe feels less cartoonish than previous villains which makes him more memorable. I agree with the first statement, which makes him *less* memorable for me because he, alongside so, so, so many other aspects belongs in a different franchise. Allow me to copy and paste a lengthy reply I wrote several years ago in which I addressed everything I dislike about this game: Take M:I by Brian De Palma, and then think of M:I2 by John Woo. That the sequel's script was bad is one thing, but that it had a totally different tone, a different style, even different emphases (while just halfheartedly paying lip service to the emphases of the original) carries even more weight. There's a reason they went back to the original with M:I3. Please compare the flashbacks to Nate's childhood in U3 and U4 - could they possibly take place in the same universe? No, because they're tonally *completely* different. If these were from two movies, they'd be in different genres, like The Mummy and Steel Magnolias, and they show two completely different Nates. (No, it's not about Nate being a bit younger in the U4 flashback. This is not the same person. Oh, and grown-up Nate doesn't fare much better.) My problem with U4 is that everything about it screams to me in Neil Druckmann's voice: "I don't like the genre, and I don't really understand it, but here, I'm giving you what you want. This is what you want, right? It's supposed to be like this, right? Look, it's even better than the first three! You should be thankful that a lauded auteur took over. Am I not great, giving this silly franchise what it's always been lacking? Isn't this deep? Please admire me!" If I had wanted more melancholy, I would have played The Last Of Us, truly outstanding masterpieces of storytelling, world-building and characterization, and I rate both games (the second one even way much more than the first which was already a masterpiece) as two of the very best pieces of fiction, regardless of the medium. But Uncharted went for something completely different, and it did it well, obviously. The franchise never took itself seriously, it proudly reveled in its Indiana Jones pulp action vibe, it was like a 1930s comic book brought to life in the 21st century with love and a hell of a lot of tongue in cheek. Things happen to extremely likeable and charming stereotypes just to get to the next exciting set piece, fleshing out the characters along the way, but in keeping with the genre. It's not meant to be deep, it's not meant to be plausible, it's just plausible *enough* to suspend your disbelief. Uncharted was a boyish larger-than-life rollercoaster ride and had a tone all of its own, and Druckmann's version doesn't *want* to be what Uncharted used to be. That's why I think U4 doesn't work at all for me because it uses the same set-piece-centered formula (albeit way more sparingly because it needs so much time for pretending to have to say something), but tries to be more grounded at the same time, which is pretty much Uncharted's antithesis. Yes, the acting is good as usual, but the tone's completely different. Right off the bat you can tell this wasn't written by the folks who gave us the adventures we fell in love with, but by someone who wanted to give us something *else*. The light-hearted fun, the tongue in cheek, the old-fashioned serial vibe, the sense of wonder and adventure - partly heavily diminished, partly gone. Just a reminder: Alan Tudyk was the most famous actor in the fourth installment's original version. After the shooting had wrapped, Naughty Dog kicked Amy Hennig out (and parts of her team alongside her) and gave the franchise to their golden boy Druckmann, and he didn't like the game one bit. Of course not. This genre clearly doesn't appeal to his tastes. So he threw eight months of work out of the window, wrote a new script (and took out most of the fun, apparently) and ordered to reshoot the whole thing. (By the way, Claudia Black and Graham McTavish originally had returned as Chloe Frazer and Charlie Cutter in the inital version of U4, their scenes were already in the can. Druckmann wrote them out, though. I guess they brought too much levity for his liking to the table. Can't have that.) Tudyk read the new script and didn't return because that wasn't what he had signed up for. He didn't like it. Of course, while *he* could afford to say no, voice and mo-cap actors usually can't, so North, Rose, McGonagle and Atkin Downes obediently returned, Druckmann recast Sam Drake with his buddy Troy Baker, and to this day none of them has ever said one word as to how they felt about the original version, the loss of Hennig and the change in direction mid-production. Which I understand, the business is a shark tank and they want to keep getting work.
What had appealed to Tudyk was the comic book feel. Initially Nate's long lost brother was the bad guy of the story, that alone tells you all you need to know. But Druckmann's script took itself way too seriously and kept on and on and on about the marriage and Nate's self-doubts, so Tudyk knew that the parts that were supposed to feel like Uncharted - just wouldn't. So he walked away. Hats off to him. Druckmann wanted Hennig's handwriting out and his own in, so the next order of business was to kick Greg Edmondson out. That's like shooting a Star Wars movie and not wanting John Williams although he's available, and not even wanting to imitate his style. No, the music needed to be more "grown-up", so it had to be a prestigious Hollywood composer. (Henry Jackman did a great job, by the way. His score's actually really good. It just deliberately goes as far away as possible from the musical style Edmondson established. Just compare how many somber tracks the first three scores have (about one or two each, if memory serves) - and how many U4's has. Again, in completely different styles: Even Edmondson's somber tracks still feel like Indiana Jones, Jackman's feel like a serious introspective drama.) Edmondson's scores are unique, they are unmistakably Uncharted. Play Jackman's U4 score, and you'd have no idea for which out of thousands and thousands of possible movies or video games it's supposed to be. Edmondson's contribution alone would have mad a huge difference here, but Druckmann didn't *want* U4 to feel like the trilogy. He's better than that. Next thing on the list was to alter the visual style. For me, Nate's visual portrayal peaked in U3: Within the framework of a slightly exaggerated style, he was a really handsome devil, the kind of guy at whose sight girls get dreamy-eyed, the blueprint of Hollywood's golden era serial hero with dashing good looks, personifying the genre, and his face already gets his personality across. Not to Druckmann's liking, he wanted Nate's looks to be in line with the way he wrote him, melancholy and a bit crestfallen, so he had to look more average, even a bit goofy. This is very obviously not the same guy because Druckmann didn't like Nate, so Nate had to become someone else Druckmann liked better. And don't get me started with the unrecognizable Sully who used to look like an aging but still charming scoundrel with fatherly qualities and who now was given the face of an unlikeable over-the-hill pimp you can't trust. On top of that, he suddenly looked like he was going on 80 - how old is he supposed to be in the epilogue around 14 years later? Over 90 and still going on adventures? According to U3, he's 25 years older than Nate. Anyway. This is such a sad ending for a franchise that was so stalwart in its old-fashionedness that it managed to become original again. There just wasn't anything like it. I don't see that a more down-to-earth characterization and a melancholy overdose is what this franchise needed. Aren't there, like, *thousands* of other works out there exatcly like this? It's like Indiana Jones coping with depression in the Last Crusade, or Rick O'Connell having anxiety attacks in The Mummy, or Luke Skywalker trying to make a difficult marriage work in Return of the Jedi. I mean, you still could pull it off... somehow... I guess... but you'd have to maintain the established tone so much more carefully. And to add insult to injury, they made sure that there would never be another Uncharted game again, because they "told Nate's story". Damn, how I hate this self-important figure of speech. Nathan Drake was never more than the archetype of the reckless, witty, cocky, loveable rogue with just as much background as was necessary, and he didn't *need* to be more than that. But they went ahead and neutered what made him what he was and pretended that this was a complex character's story all along whose arc had to come to a close. If they hadn't shut the door to potential sequels, if there was the possibility for another classic Uncharted, I wouldn't feel so bad, but as Nate's sendoff this was a disappointment for me. I love Druckmann for both TLOU parts, but I hate him for U4. You can't hire, say, Alfonso Cuarón and expect him to deliver a film that feels like 80s era Spielberg. As I said, it's not a bad game, the gameplay mechanics were still fun. However, I found it to be almost as repetitive as the first game. U2 and U3 bombarded you with variety, location changes and set pieces - U4 had lots of stretches that outstayed their welcome, some were downright boring, and for a one-button climbing system you sure had to climb more than in the first three games combined. But that's just nitpicking and easily forgiven. The whole package just never felt like Uncharted to me. I can't count the times I've played the first three over and over and over again, I could say the lines along with the characters in all three. While playing U4, I knew I'd never replay it - and to this day I haven't. Not out of spite but because U4 feels joyless, and despite their faults, what the first three games got across above all else was pure, unadulterated joy. Lost Legacy is... okay. Just more of the same, it plays and feels exactly like the Libertalia part of U4. Nevertheless, if you manage to trudge through four of roughly five hours, when the duo becomes a trio, the game really picks up. The light-hearted banter returns, the dynamic between the three protagonists feels great, the actors play off each other really well, the gameplay gets a bit more varied, and in the final chapter, which is nothing short of a love letter to U2, the game really kicks into high gear all of a sudden - and the epilogue actually manages to develop almost as much charm as U2's epilogue. To me, LL's last two chapters felt more like Uncharted than the whole of U4.
Conclusion: If I had played U4 without having played the trilogy first, I would've liked it. I wouldn't have loved it, there's not enough there for that, but I definitely would've liked it. But Uncharted was so damn special: The first modern video game to live and breathe the old Indiana Jones adventure vibe with all the clichés and James Bond villains and joyful light-heartedness and a modern twist, the best of both worlds. And U4 buried that in its self-important fake gravitas. It didn't add to the franchise, it rather took everything away that made the franchise what it was. Whatever U4 may be, but I know what it isn't: It's not unique.
A man of your word, indeed! Thank you for sharing all of your thoughts; I really enjoyed reading through everything. And I love that we disagree! Hearing different perspectives is always great. I completely understand everything you say about the narrative/tone disappointments. Frankly, I think it's entirely possible that I'd vastly prefer the Hennig incarnation of the story more than what we ended up getting. I think the tonal shift in U4 didn't feel as jarring to me, and falls more into my narrative wheelhouse. But I completely hear everything you're saying. I hate how everything transpired with the OG story being scrapped, I didn't even know about a lot of what you said. Strangely, I think Troy Baker voicing Sam made me like the character less. Something about his portrayal just didn't work for me. I'm truly curious to see what the original version of Uncharted 4 would have looked like. Given that this video series has started to pick up a little momentum, I'm tempted to go ahead and give Lost Legacy its own video. Your notes have made me more inclined to give it another play through and see where my opinions fall. Thanks again for all your support and feedback of these videos! I'm gonna be bummed going back to reviewing game you haven't played, haha, your insights are really fun to hear! Hopefully there will be more overlap. :)
@@Wilson-108 Well, we're all terribly subjective creatures trying to come up with a rational reason for our gut feelings all the time, aren't we? It's fascinating how impressions differ between people. In my book, Troy Baker can do no wrong, I've got a mancrush on his work. (Not necessarily the guy himself, he seems to be a handful sometimes. ^^) He's incredibly versatile, and he made Sam work for me as well as the character possibly could, given the circumstances, whereas he turned you off. For whatever reason that's really fascinating to me. I think it's safe to say the OG would've worked perfectly for me. ^^ Amy Hennig just has the golden touch, as far as the genre's concerned, although she's very versatile, too. Speaking of Hennig: If you wanna go really niche, you could put up a couple of hours of reviews for the Legacy of Kain saga. 😁 Nah, just kidding, I wouldn't do that to you. Anyway, I'm looking forward to your secret new project and the next reviews, and don't worry, with all the overlap we've already had, we're bound to have it again! (Next thing you know, Wilson's putting out a scathing TLOU2 review and hating on it for two hours straight. 😅 )
It truly is fascinating how differently we all perceive things so differently. I gotta give it to Troy, his versatility is insane, he deserves major props. Ooh interesting, I didn't even know she was involved with Legacy of Kain, nor do I know much about the series in general, haha. Maybe I'll give it a spin sometime! Well I look forward to your future input. Honestly, I'm gonna call it now that my eventual TLOU2 analysis is gonna be at least 30 minutes long. I'm already terrified, lol
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this game is an absolute masterpiece and a game that even stands out nearly 8 YEARS later , the graphics , story , locations , gamrplay , characters , evolution of characters , everything is astonishing
I'm right there with you! It has stood the test of time so well. I imagine we'll be saying the same thing in another 8 years. Thanks for watching the video!
Uncharted 4 is #1 on my favorite games of all time list. Excellent review, Wilson.
Your channel has so much potential to blow up. Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much, Alex! Can't tell you how much I appreciate the kind words.
It's up there for me too, it was such a blast to replay it!
I'm actually replaying it now and had the same thought. I am amazed at how captivating it is and how it is a slow burn until the final part, when it makes you want to see the ending after all the build up. I hope I'll finish it again tomorrow. I finished well over 200 campaigns over the last 20 years but this one still got me like it's the first time playing it.
I'm right there with you! I had so much replaying the game to capture footage for this video. Here's hoping the series continues someday! Thanks for watching the video, I hope you enjoyed it :)
Haven’t watched yet, but the answer is yes
Edit: watched the video now and I have to say, I love your format. You’d think this was a much bigger channel based on how well you speak and such. Good work dude
Hey, thank you so much for saying that! Can't tell you how much I appreciate it. People like you are the ones who help the channel grow! Let me know if there any other games or series you'd like to see me cover :)
Uncharted 4 was the reason my dad got me a PS4 and I replayed it so many times until I got my PC in uni. Even though Bloodborne is my favourite game from the PS4, Uncharted 4 is a very close second that I never got tired of replaying
It's such a fun game to replay! I love Bloodborne as well, I'm planning to cover that in a separate video at some point. Thanks for checking out the video!
This channel is underrated!
Thank you so much, I really appreciate you saying that! I hope you'll come back and join for future videos! :)
Sam is what Drake could and would be without the guidance of his friends and family.
You're right! Sam definitely serves as a display of Nate's growth over the course of the series.
I was just about to say the same thing. I wholeheartedly disagree with Wilson’s claim that the game wants you to like Sam. It wants us to feel sorry for him, to disapprove of him.
The impression I get is that the game doesn’t want us to like Sam, but rather to see Nate’s love of his brother and the exuberance he feels to have his brother back in his life, even as Sam drags him back into old selfish habits.
That's a good point! I based that perception off of how often Sam is featured in the game, but maybe your perspective is more aligned with what Naughty Dog was going for.
Great thing about games, shows, films… sometime each person has their own idea and each can be true to the player I feel.
Very true!! The beauty of games :)
Nicely said. Personally, I must say I never minded Sam’s presence. That’s probably due my light time spent with the og trio. I’ve only played the PS3 trilogy once back the 2011 PS3 generation. So coming into the 4th game 7 years later gave me next to no real emotional attachment to the characters. I was just in for the ride and really enjoyed it.
While I did somewhat crave for the hilarious company of Sully, and Elena’s constant state of worriedness , or even Chloe’s snarkyness. I still didn’t feel as if Sam stood in the way of those possibilities. I do however know of the differently planned story from Amy Hennig that would’ve likely gave us more time with Nate’s companions and I can’t deny that I would have much preferred her version of events.
Thank you so much for watching, Larson! I bet that if I hadn't played the OG 3 first, I wouldn't have found Sam as problematic. I think that if he had been balanced out a bit better with the original cast, I also would have tolerated him more easily. I would *love* to see what Hennig's version of the story would have been! I guess we'll never really know :(
Yes. The story of this fourth chapter is so well wrote. The pirates and how they constructed the myth, the mystery and how dark turns to be…i always have a rule for these videogames. If at the end it leaves you thinking: “how it should have been that legend if everything went well?”. Then is a good game
Great channel man! Just subbed
Thank you so much, welcome aboard!! Let me know if there are any particular games or series you'd like to see me cover :)
Love your analysis. Uncharted 4 is my favorite game of all time 👑❤️🥺
Thank you very much for watching, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I hope you'll join us for more videos in the future :)
Thank you for another awesomely narrated video covering this incredible game franchise. I recently played through all uncharted games as well and was reminded of how much I love this game series. Naughty Dog knocked it out of the park with Uncharted. Next on my list is to replay The Last of Us after many many years and I'm super excited! Unfortunately I have no desire to play The Last Us 2 again.
Thank you very much for watching, Ted! Glad to have you back for another video. You'll have to let me know your thoughts on The Last Of Us after your replay. I'll be covering both TLOU games in the future!
@@Wilson-108 Changed my mind about The Last of Us 2, went ahead and purchased a used copy (to play for the second time, sold my first copy). I will just skip the cut scenes that don't agree with my religion and ethics.
Hey, Ted,! Sorry I didn't respond to this, I'm just now seeing it. I hope you're enjoying a replay of TLOU2!
Couldn't agree more about feeling like I was stuck with Sam and constantly hoping the story would take me back to Sully or Elena.
At least on the first playthrough. It was extremely frustrating at the time since we knew it was the last Uncharted game. After 5 years dreaming of one more adventure with that gang, it was annoying how much the story focused on a new (and unlikable) character. It didn't feel like something the story should be focusing on during a last hurrah.
I'm glad to hear someone affirm my take on Sam, haha. It seems like I may be in the minority on that one. To your point, I think my single biggest issue with Sam as a character is how much the game pushes him to the forefront. If he were featured in a more supporting role, I think I would have liked him more. Thanks so much for checking out the video!
@@Wilson-108 I think it's only the minority today. At the time I remember that being said constantly. Knowing how the story all works out now, and having him more likeable in The Lost Legacy has helped his character's reputation a lot in hindsight.
He's definitely more likable in Lost Legacy! I actually just replayed that because I'm covering LL in my next video, which made me realize how much better Sam works as a side character.
THE BEST PS4 EXCLUSIVE by a fair margin
I think many would agree with you!
Well, I promised to dig into U4 as soon as you review it, and I'm a man of my word, so here we go!
First off, thank you for this review! You get your points across as pointedly as usual, and I can definitely see where you're coming from. I don't happen to agree with you on pretty much anything 😉, but I respect the hell out of the way you presented your case!
The key word in your review of the first Uncharted game for me was: light-hearted. The word I feel describes the fourth Uncharted's story and atmosphere best is: sullen. You pointed out that Rafe feels less cartoonish than previous villains which makes him more memorable. I agree with the first statement, which makes him *less* memorable for me because he, alongside so, so, so many other aspects belongs in a different franchise. Allow me to copy and paste a lengthy reply I wrote several years ago in which I addressed everything I dislike about this game:
Take M:I by Brian De Palma, and then think of M:I2 by John Woo. That the sequel's script was bad is one thing, but that it had a totally different tone, a different style, even different emphases (while just halfheartedly paying lip service to the emphases of the original) carries even more weight. There's a reason they went back to the original with M:I3.
Please compare the flashbacks to Nate's childhood in U3 and U4 - could they possibly take place in the same universe? No, because they're tonally *completely* different. If these were from two movies, they'd be in different genres, like The Mummy and Steel Magnolias, and they show two completely different Nates. (No, it's not about Nate being a bit younger in the U4 flashback. This is not the same person. Oh, and grown-up Nate doesn't fare much better.)
My problem with U4 is that everything about it screams to me in Neil Druckmann's voice: "I don't like the genre, and I don't really understand it, but here, I'm giving you what you want. This is what you want, right? It's supposed to be like this, right? Look, it's even better than the first three! You should be thankful that a lauded auteur took over. Am I not great, giving this silly franchise what it's always been lacking? Isn't this deep? Please admire me!"
If I had wanted more melancholy, I would have played The Last Of Us, truly outstanding masterpieces of storytelling, world-building and characterization, and I rate both games (the second one even way much more than the first which was already a masterpiece) as two of the very best pieces of fiction, regardless of the medium. But Uncharted went for something completely different, and it did it well, obviously. The franchise never took itself seriously, it proudly reveled in its Indiana Jones pulp action vibe, it was like a 1930s comic book brought to life in the 21st century with love and a hell of a lot of tongue in cheek. Things happen to extremely likeable and charming stereotypes just to get to the next exciting set piece, fleshing out the characters along the way, but in keeping with the genre. It's not meant to be deep, it's not meant to be plausible, it's just plausible *enough* to suspend your disbelief. Uncharted was a boyish larger-than-life rollercoaster ride and had a tone all of its own, and Druckmann's version doesn't *want* to be what Uncharted used to be. That's why I think U4 doesn't work at all for me because it uses the same set-piece-centered formula (albeit way more sparingly because it needs so much time for pretending to have to say something), but tries to be more grounded at the same time, which is pretty much Uncharted's antithesis. Yes, the acting is good as usual, but the tone's completely different. Right off the bat you can tell this wasn't written by the folks who gave us the adventures we fell in love with, but by someone who wanted to give us something *else*. The light-hearted fun, the tongue in cheek, the old-fashioned serial vibe, the sense of wonder and adventure - partly heavily diminished, partly gone.
Just a reminder: Alan Tudyk was the most famous actor in the fourth installment's original version. After the shooting had wrapped, Naughty Dog kicked Amy Hennig out (and parts of her team alongside her) and gave the franchise to their golden boy Druckmann, and he didn't like the game one bit. Of course not. This genre clearly doesn't appeal to his tastes. So he threw eight months of work out of the window, wrote a new script (and took out most of the fun, apparently) and ordered to reshoot the whole thing. (By the way, Claudia Black and Graham McTavish originally had returned as Chloe Frazer and Charlie Cutter in the inital version of U4, their scenes were already in the can. Druckmann wrote them out, though. I guess they brought too much levity for his liking to the table. Can't have that.) Tudyk read the new script and didn't return because that wasn't what he had signed up for. He didn't like it. Of course, while *he* could afford to say no, voice and mo-cap actors usually can't, so North, Rose, McGonagle and Atkin Downes obediently returned, Druckmann recast Sam Drake with his buddy Troy Baker, and to this day none of them has ever said one word as to how they felt about the original version, the loss of Hennig and the change in direction mid-production. Which I understand, the business is a shark tank and they want to keep getting work.
What had appealed to Tudyk was the comic book feel. Initially Nate's long lost brother was the bad guy of the story, that alone tells you all you need to know. But Druckmann's script took itself way too seriously and kept on and on and on about the marriage and Nate's self-doubts, so Tudyk knew that the parts that were supposed to feel like Uncharted - just wouldn't. So he walked away. Hats off to him.
Druckmann wanted Hennig's handwriting out and his own in, so the next order of business was to kick Greg Edmondson out. That's like shooting a Star Wars movie and not wanting John Williams although he's available, and not even wanting to imitate his style. No, the music needed to be more "grown-up", so it had to be a prestigious Hollywood composer. (Henry Jackman did a great job, by the way. His score's actually really good. It just deliberately goes as far away as possible from the musical style Edmondson established. Just compare how many somber tracks the first three scores have (about one or two each, if memory serves) - and how many U4's has. Again, in completely different styles: Even Edmondson's somber tracks still feel like Indiana Jones, Jackman's feel like a serious introspective drama.) Edmondson's scores are unique, they are unmistakably Uncharted. Play Jackman's U4 score, and you'd have no idea for which out of thousands and thousands of possible movies or video games it's supposed to be. Edmondson's contribution alone would have mad a huge difference here, but Druckmann didn't *want* U4 to feel like the trilogy. He's better than that.
Next thing on the list was to alter the visual style. For me, Nate's visual portrayal peaked in U3: Within the framework of a slightly exaggerated style, he was a really handsome devil, the kind of guy at whose sight girls get dreamy-eyed, the blueprint of Hollywood's golden era serial hero with dashing good looks, personifying the genre, and his face already gets his personality across. Not to Druckmann's liking, he wanted Nate's looks to be in line with the way he wrote him, melancholy and a bit crestfallen, so he had to look more average, even a bit goofy. This is very obviously not the same guy because Druckmann didn't like Nate, so Nate had to become someone else Druckmann liked better.
And don't get me started with the unrecognizable Sully who used to look like an aging but still charming scoundrel with fatherly qualities and who now was given the face of an unlikeable over-the-hill pimp you can't trust. On top of that, he suddenly looked like he was going on 80 - how old is he supposed to be in the epilogue around 14 years later? Over 90 and still going on adventures? According to U3, he's 25 years older than Nate.
Anyway. This is such a sad ending for a franchise that was so stalwart in its old-fashionedness that it managed to become original again. There just wasn't anything like it. I don't see that a more down-to-earth characterization and a melancholy overdose is what this franchise needed. Aren't there, like, *thousands* of other works out there exatcly like this? It's like Indiana Jones coping with depression in the Last Crusade, or Rick O'Connell having anxiety attacks in The Mummy, or Luke Skywalker trying to make a difficult marriage work in Return of the Jedi. I mean, you still could pull it off... somehow... I guess... but you'd have to maintain the established tone so much more carefully.
And to add insult to injury, they made sure that there would never be another Uncharted game again, because they "told Nate's story". Damn, how I hate this self-important figure of speech. Nathan Drake was never more than the archetype of the reckless, witty, cocky, loveable rogue with just as much background as was necessary, and he didn't *need* to be more than that. But they went ahead and neutered what made him what he was and pretended that this was a complex character's story all along whose arc had to come to a close. If they hadn't shut the door to potential sequels, if there was the possibility for another classic Uncharted, I wouldn't feel so bad, but as Nate's sendoff this was a disappointment for me. I love Druckmann for both TLOU parts, but I hate him for U4. You can't hire, say, Alfonso Cuarón and expect him to deliver a film that feels like 80s era Spielberg.
As I said, it's not a bad game, the gameplay mechanics were still fun. However, I found it to be almost as repetitive as the first game. U2 and U3 bombarded you with variety, location changes and set pieces - U4 had lots of stretches that outstayed their welcome, some were downright boring, and for a one-button climbing system you sure had to climb more than in the first three games combined. But that's just nitpicking and easily forgiven.
The whole package just never felt like Uncharted to me. I can't count the times I've played the first three over and over and over again, I could say the lines along with the characters in all three. While playing U4, I knew I'd never replay it - and to this day I haven't. Not out of spite but because U4 feels joyless, and despite their faults, what the first three games got across above all else was pure, unadulterated joy.
Lost Legacy is... okay. Just more of the same, it plays and feels exactly like the Libertalia part of U4. Nevertheless, if you manage to trudge through four of roughly five hours, when the duo becomes a trio, the game really picks up. The light-hearted banter returns, the dynamic between the three protagonists feels great, the actors play off each other really well, the gameplay gets a bit more varied, and in the final chapter, which is nothing short of a love letter to U2, the game really kicks into high gear all of a sudden - and the epilogue actually manages to develop almost as much charm as U2's epilogue. To me, LL's last two chapters felt more like Uncharted than the whole of U4.
Conclusion: If I had played U4 without having played the trilogy first, I would've liked it. I wouldn't have loved it, there's not enough there for that, but I definitely would've liked it. But Uncharted was so damn special: The first modern video game to live and breathe the old Indiana Jones adventure vibe with all the clichés and James Bond villains and joyful light-heartedness and a modern twist, the best of both worlds. And U4 buried that in its self-important fake gravitas. It didn't add to the franchise, it rather took everything away that made the franchise what it was. Whatever U4 may be, but I know what it isn't: It's not unique.
A man of your word, indeed! Thank you for sharing all of your thoughts; I really enjoyed reading through everything. And I love that we disagree! Hearing different perspectives is always great.
I completely understand everything you say about the narrative/tone disappointments. Frankly, I think it's entirely possible that I'd vastly prefer the Hennig incarnation of the story more than what we ended up getting. I think the tonal shift in U4 didn't feel as jarring to me, and falls more into my narrative wheelhouse. But I completely hear everything you're saying.
I hate how everything transpired with the OG story being scrapped, I didn't even know about a lot of what you said. Strangely, I think Troy Baker voicing Sam made me like the character less. Something about his portrayal just didn't work for me. I'm truly curious to see what the original version of Uncharted 4 would have looked like.
Given that this video series has started to pick up a little momentum, I'm tempted to go ahead and give Lost Legacy its own video. Your notes have made me more inclined to give it another play through and see where my opinions fall.
Thanks again for all your support and feedback of these videos! I'm gonna be bummed going back to reviewing game you haven't played, haha, your insights are really fun to hear! Hopefully there will be more overlap. :)
@@Wilson-108 Well, we're all terribly subjective creatures trying to come up with a rational reason for our gut feelings all the time, aren't we? It's fascinating how impressions differ between people. In my book, Troy Baker can do no wrong, I've got a mancrush on his work. (Not necessarily the guy himself, he seems to be a handful sometimes. ^^) He's incredibly versatile, and he made Sam work for me as well as the character possibly could, given the circumstances, whereas he turned you off. For whatever reason that's really fascinating to me.
I think it's safe to say the OG would've worked perfectly for me. ^^ Amy Hennig just has the golden touch, as far as the genre's concerned, although she's very versatile, too. Speaking of Hennig: If you wanna go really niche, you could put up a couple of hours of reviews for the Legacy of Kain saga. 😁
Nah, just kidding, I wouldn't do that to you. Anyway, I'm looking forward to your secret new project and the next reviews, and don't worry, with all the overlap we've already had, we're bound to have it again! (Next thing you know, Wilson's putting out a scathing TLOU2 review and hating on it for two hours straight. 😅 )
It truly is fascinating how differently we all perceive things so differently. I gotta give it to Troy, his versatility is insane, he deserves major props. Ooh interesting, I didn't even know she was involved with Legacy of Kain, nor do I know much about the series in general, haha. Maybe I'll give it a spin sometime!
Well I look forward to your future input. Honestly, I'm gonna call it now that my eventual TLOU2 analysis is gonna be at least 30 minutes long. I'm already terrified, lol