Uncharted The Lost Legacy Review
Uncharted The Lost Legacy
Publisher: Sony
Developer: Naughty Dog
Genre:
PEGI: T
Comments:
Although I would never recommend someone play Uncharted The Lost Legacy before playing the other titles in the series, part of me loves the short nature of this experience that might be more digestible for those intrigued by the series and looking to play for the first time, while also looking for a sub 10 hour experience as opposed to a 20+ hour slog. Regardless, no matter which way you approach this title, you are in for a real treat!
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is a shorter Uncharted experience that pulls all the gameplay elements you loved in Uncharted 4, and leaving nothing out. For a brilliant price of 49.99, you’ll be treated to a 8-10 hour experience – with a few extra hours for completionists – as well as full access to the Uncharted 4 multiplayer modes! Whether you are a lifelong Uncharted fan or new to the series, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is accessible for all.
Gone are the Drakes taking centre stage, and instead we are reintroduced to characters who have made appearances in past Uncharted titles: Chloe – who is returning to hear Indian homeland in search of treasure and answers to the ongoing civil war, and Nadine, mercenary for hire. The writing in The Lost Legacy is top notch throughout, with the writers playing the playful and sarcastic nature of Chloe against the serious and hardened personality of Nadine. The character themselves each have a unique and interesting story line, with aspects of their past slowly shown to the players as the game progresses. As a bonus, their relationship to each other is just as interesting, not only from a storyline perspective, but also as a reason to keep on playing.
My only wish in The Lost Legacy was that the antagonists role was more pronounced, or that perhaps he would be painted as much more evil than he ever really was. More of an emphasis on his character – like, for example, the villains in the Far Cry series – could have made that story arc much more interesting.
Even during those moments were The Lost Legacy slips into a monotonous cover-shoot-cover-shoot scenario, wanting to know what might happen between the two protagonists often kept me playing. Thankfully, the gameplay throughout holds up really well, and Naughty Dog did a good job of removing what didn’t work in Uncharted 4 to improve The Lost Legacy. Some of these changes were even highlighted in a humorous way. Remember those terrible ‘move the trolley to create a platform” moments in Uncharted 4? Well, they return for about fifteen minutes in The Lost Legacy, before one such trolley crashes through a roof, prompting Nadine to say, no more trolleys. And sure enough, that gameplay element is basically gone for the remainder of the adventure.
The gameplay in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy feels a lot more fluid than it does in Uncharted 4, and I think this could be because the gameplay elements were set before the design of the world was done. I find a lot more uses of grappling locations, especially in combat zones, that allow you to flank enemies using quick jump-grapple-jump-grapple combinations to move quickly around the map. With in the first few hours, you will be doing this around a broken down temple complex, and it was some of the most fun combat I’ve ever experienced in any action adventure title to date.
Even though most of this experience is rehashes of things already seen and accomplished in Uncharted 4, a few new mechanics are introduce into The Lost Legacy that keeps things fresh, most notably the lock picking mechanic. Throughout your journey, you will find a number of locks that can be picked, mostly on weapons crates that, when opened provide you with weapons, grenades, and sometimes collectible treasures. Once you hit the open world area of the game, each chapter will have a number of weapons crates you will need to open if you hope to achieve 100% completion!
The ‘open world’ jungles of India are well crafted, and whether exploring via jeep or on foot, there are tons of nooks and crannies that can be – and for the full experience, should be – explored. This time around, Naughty Dog is doing very little hand holding for most of the experience, allowing you to tackle specific ruins in any order you wish. I often found myself lost in exploration for hours on end, realizing I wasn’t really progressing the story in any way. And frankly, that’s ok!
The price point of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy can not be lost in this review. Much of what you will play will feel incredibly familiar if you explored the wonderful world in Uncharted 4. Civil War India and the jungles that you inevitably explore – in the largest ‘open world level’ Naughty Dog has ever created for Uncharted – feels very similar to the what I played in Uncharted 4. The noticeable reuse of many assets – including the jeep, enemies, the jungle, and more – are obviously recycled; that being said, the price justifies the reuse of these assets, and I for one have no problem with this approach by Naughty Dog, and actually wish other companies would do this more often to tell more stories in a world we already love.
Multiplayer
As stated earlier, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy carries over all the multiplayer elements from Uncharted 4, and even allows players to cross play between the two experiences. Included with Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is all the DLC currently available for the Uncharted 4 multiplayer. Outside of letting you know we had tons of fun playing the multiplayer modes in Uncharted 4, we will hold our thoughts on the updates to Uncharted multiplayer until a bit after launch.
Conclusion
The trend of studios pumping out shorter experiences for less than retail price is a trend in 2017 that I hope carries forward into the years to come. Some of my favourite expereicnes in 2017 have been titles offering an 8-10 hour experience at the $40-50 price range. These games are easily digestible, are often much more polished, and tell well though out stories without attempting to fluff them up with lots of ‘extras’ to justify a higher price point.
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is one of many titles like this launching in 2017, and if you own a PS4, it’s not an experience you will want to pass up.
Trailer
Article By Adam Roffel
Adam Roffel has only been writing about video games for a short time, but has honed his skills completing a Master's Degree. He loves Nintendo, and almost anything they have released...even Tomodachi Life.
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