Uncharted 4: A Thief's End Review

Uncharted 4 spends its enormous budget on two things: the best looking human faces anyone had put on a console, and an argument that its own hero has a problem. Nathan Drake is retired, lying to his wife about it, and visibly delighted to be lying, and the game keeps letting Elena catch him. The set pieces are still why people buy these, and the Madagascar chase, a jeep and a rope and a convoy strung across open hillside, is the best sustained action sequence the studio has ever staged.

What changed underneath is the space. Combat arenas are wider and offer real approach options, a grappling hook and a piton make verticality a choice rather than a scripted beat, and the stealth actually functions instead of politely pretending. Naughty Dog's animation work carries the script, since much of the story is told in glances during dialogue nobody is required to stand still and listen to. It remains a linear game that sometimes mistakes walking for pacing, and the puzzles are a courtesy at best. The epilogue, though, is the most graceful goodbye a series this size has managed.