For almost a decade, Naughty Dog has been entertaining fans of the PlayStation brand with Nathan Drake and his adventures with several Uncharted titles over two console generations already. Now that he is out of the picture as his story concluded with Uncharted 4: The Thief’s End, Naughty Dog can now spread out their wings and explore new stories and characters of the franchise. In Uncharted: The Lost Legacy – that’s what exactly happened, as they are able to bring Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross as the lead protagonists of the mini-expansion to Uncharted 4. Despite the Lost Legacy being a mini-expansion to Uncharted 4, the game is on par in terms of experience and quality the game delivers and can be considered as one of the best games for the PS4.
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy takes place immediately after the events of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Players who have not played Uncharted 4, definitely consider it first as the game has some spoilers. Instead of assuming the role of Nathan Drake, this time it’s Choe Frazer as she cracks down the secret of the mysterious Gold Tusk of Ganesh. The game now takes place in India where players will guide her while she searches for the artifact and of course, stay alive while being pursued by people who want the artifact as well. Sound overly similar eh?
In Chloe’s quest to get the mysterious Gold Tusk of Ganesh, she will be accompanied by Nadine Ross, who appeared as well with her in Uncharted 4. Her role in the story is similar to Sam where she will guide Chloe on her adventures in India. Aside from having that overly familiar plot and theme, there’s one thing that is unique in the Lost Legacy and that’s delving deeper into Chloe’s origins. For fans who don’t know, Chloe Frazer is from India and her family will most likely be talked about frequently in this game.
Discussing about the gameplay, The Lost Legacy offers little new things in the franchise like adding a silenced pistol that Chloe can use, and adding new puzzles that are easy. Those who love the puzzles in past Uncharted games, they will somewhat feel disappointed in some of the puzzles in the Lost Legacy. Instead of taking about 5 to 10 minutes in solving a puzzle, it will now take about a minute. When it comes to progression, it’s what you already have seen in an Uncharted game – go through ruins and temples, solve puzzles, run around from enemies and shoot them, jump from cliffs, and survive from falling rocks. Yes, what the Lost Legacy offers is the same thing Uncharted 4 offered, just with a few surprises.
In terms of execution of combat, which is the gun fights, it’ss similar as well to Uncharted 4. What Nathan can do in past Uncharted series, Chloe can as well. As usual, Chloe will have to rely on cover while using about 20 weapons in taking down enemies. Playing on Crushing Mode, the game will really crush you as the difficulty is really over the top. The AI isnn’t that bad this time around but there can be some moments they can annoy you. In addition from simply going crazy and shoot enemies around, stealth is also an option in Lost Legacy. To make it more stylish in doing stealth kills, a silenced pistol has been added to take out enemies in a quiet fashion.
With the game being a mini-expansion, don’t expect it to be overly long like Uncharted 4. For moderately skiledl gamers, the game can be finished in roughly 8 hours but can be less to veterans. While that may be short to some, there are things that you can do after finishing the game and that vary from collecting the treasures you missed, play around with the unlocked gameplay and render modifiers, or simply play the multiplayer portion. If you haven’t had a chance to play Uncharted 4’s fun multiplayer, you can do so here in Lost Legacy as everything from the Uncharted 4’s multiplayer is here with all of the DLC included.
Now with the visuals, the Lost Legacy is on par with the visual fidelity Uncharted 4 offered. With India being the main locale, the beauty portrayed in the game is just unimaginable. Players who play on a 4K TV with HDR will definitely enjoy what the game has to offer and it’s another big thumbs up to Naughty Dog for having an engine that is unparalleled. Cinematic-wise, it’s phenomenal and there’s no complaints here whatsoever. This includes the voice overs and top notch acting performance of some of the characters in the game, though there are not a lot of new ones introduced in this one.
Verdict
Fans looking for a new adventure, new characters and story to explore, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy will definitely be the game you are looking for, despite being over familiar with Uncharted 4. Even though there is nothing significantly new introduced when it comes to gameplay, the Lost Legacy still manages to have that charm and exotic feel that any Uncharted fan can appreciate.
[Editor’s Note: Uncharted: The Lost Legacy was reviewed on PS4 platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]