Remember a few weeks ago when I replayed Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End for the sake of typing a proper review on the game? How I appreciated the game more than when I originally played it and realized that it may be one of the best Triple A games I have played in a very long time? Well I still agree with what I stated even though I sounded like a sell out. Uncharted 4 had everything it needed to be a timeless masterpiece. An incredibly written story dealing with the topic of family and the inner drive, memorable characters and moments, action packed swashbuckling gun fights, unique puzzles that didn't just move a block in the room, beautifully designed environments, bombastic cinematic set pieces, and whatever icing was left to put onto the cake. I believe Uncharted 4 is one of Naughty Dog’s greatest achievements, and while some of you may disagree with me you have to admit Uncharted 4 took a huge daring leap towards the right direction both story and gameplay wise. It’s a Triple A game that stands above the crowd and it’s hard to find someone who absolutely believes it’s terrible.
With the massive success of Uncharted 4 in 2016, Naughty Dog decided to immediately begin development on an expansion. They gathered up a small group of Naughty Dog developers and tasked them with making an entirely new story campaign within a year. Originally this team contemplated whether they should make a fifth game in the Uncharted series when the fourth game marked the end, but instead they opted in for reusing the same engine and assets from Uncharted 4 to make a whole new adventure.
Now some of you may hate the idea of downloadable content that should have been there at launch, because sometimes it feels like developers cut out huge parts of their games to resell later. That or come up with reasons to make you playthrough more of the same game, but I think DLC is a good thing because developers can experiment with the core mechanics of a game and expand upon what they originally had. A few worthy examples of DLC would probably include Prey: Mooncrash, where they took the maze-like exploration of Prey and put a fun twist on it by turning it into a more action focused roguelike. The Old Hunters for Bloodborne added new weapons, new bosses, new areas , and expanded Bloodborne’s universe by exploring the important figures in the world's history. Then there are the three additional campaigns for Shovel Knight, each allowing you to play as a new character with a unique moveset, allowing you to experience an entirely different tale, changing the way you navigate levels, adding tons of lore, and feeling like an entirely new game each. Should I also mention each of these three expansions were free if you already own the base game?
Basically rather than call them DLC let’s call them expansions like the good old days of retro gaming. Anyways the small team tasked by Naughty Dog began working on a standalone expansion follow up for Uncharted 4, and near the end of 2016 they revealed their new adventure to be titled Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Players would step into the shoes of a previous character from the series named Chloe Frazer, and it would take place a few months after the events of Uncharted 4, because they have to tie it together in some way. The Lost Legacy came out around mid 2017 and it was received pretty well. I guess people just wanted more Uncharted 4 and are easily deceived by good looking graphics. More of the same game we played a year ago.
Nothing new and nothing to worry about, because we didn’t complain about the previous game. Just the same exact game we know and love, but slightly shorter and hitting the marks that the story of Uncharted 4 hit. Also it feels kind of enforced and pulled out of nowhere to be honest. Maybe I’m just being nitpicky right now. I spent an entire day playing through Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and while I found the game to be not as memorable or enjoyable as Uncharted 4, what I can state is that I still had a very good time with it. Today we’ll be talking about why I enjoyed Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and why it deserves your attention. So load up in the buggy, wrap up those grappling hooks, and unravel the mysteries of the Hoysala Empire.
Story
Taking place a few months after the events of Uncharted 4 we follow the role of Chloe Frazer, one of many recurring adventurers in the series who helped Nathan during a few expeditions. She journeys to India all by herself to hunt down the legendary Tusk of Ganesh, Ganesh being the son of the ancient Hindu god Shiva. She finds the country to be in total dismay and is on the brink of going to war. Chloe is searching for the Tusk of Ganesh because years ago her father was also searching for it, but he was killed when his camp was raided by foreign bandits. Chloe is accompanied by another thrilled adventurer named Nadine Ross and if you remember carefully from Uncharted 4,
Nadine was one of the two antagonists who owned a private militia named Shoreline and helped Rafe work against Nathan and Samuel Drake to find Captain Avery’s treasure. She got a small handful of the treasure and fled when the whole operation started to go downhill. However after the events of the last game Nadine lost the rights to her private militia because she failed to keep a majority of her workers alive during the hunt for Avery’s treasure, and hopes that when she and Chloe find the tusk she can earn enough money to buy her militia back and regain the respect she once had.
Once Chloe and Nadine sneak into a building where the first clue is hiding they are confronted by Asav, leader of the insurgency in India. Asav states that he too is after the Tusk of Ganesh, because the tusk is a symbol of power. With it he will spark a civil war within India, possibly endangering and killing thousands of innocent civilians. Chloe and Nadine make an epic escape and realize that they have to find the tusk before Asav does. They'll uncover ancient ruins, piece together the remnants of the Hindu god’s past, open up a few past wounds, and hopefully find the Tusk to prevent a war.
Gameplay
The Lost Legacy is basically more of Uncharted 4, and when I say more of Uncharted 4 mechanically I literally mean it’s more of Uncharted 4. The team behind this game knew how to make new environments and an arching plot, but when it comes to the iconic roots the series is known for they stuck to it like glue. Reusing several assets from Uncharted 4 to create what is “supposed” to be a new experience, but really is just rehashed content. Gunplay is the same as always and there is a variety of weapons to pick up and shoot enemies with. There are pistols, rifles, shotguns, explosives, and occasionally the one legendary weapon with a very low ammunition capacity.
You take cover behind walls and if you take too much damage then you die. You are kicked back to the most recent checkpoint, but during states of near death you can wait for your health to regenerate. The grappling hook from Uncharted 4 is still here allowing you to swing across huge gaps, gain access to hard to reach areas, and possibly swing through the air while firing your gun at the same time like you're riding on one of the magnetic rails from Bioshock: Infinite. There are still stealthy options like in Uncharted 4, allowing you to get the edge before a battle begins by picking off enemies one by one so that when the gunfights do start you aren’t overwhelmed.
One complaint I do have about The Lost Legacy and stealth is that the environments aren’t really designed for the stealthy approach. Uncharted 4’s environments were more open and offered you more choices to approach combat, and in The Lost Legacy everything feels a little more restrictive due to how condense it is this time around. Once in a while the game will throw a puzzle at you. Requiring you to either analyze your surroundings or use your own creative thinking skills. However there aren’t as many well thought out puzzles as Uncharted 4. Some of the puzzles I really liked from Uncharted 4 would include the water wheel where you have to position the barrels carefully while remembering the other ones, or the part late in the game where you have to carefully navigate across an explosive floor and the only way to tell what floor boards are safe to step on is to remember Sam is wounded and navigated the section earlier. So you look for the floorboards with slight droppings of blood on them.
There are the occasional climbing sections where you have to scale along cliffs and along edges to get to where you need to go. I don’t have to explain any further, because it’s the exact same game you know and love. Same gunplay and fluid movement, same controls, same grappling hook physics, and same goddamn water effects. Just less puzzles, less imaginative level design, and different characters to make it feel “unique”. If you want more explanation for the gameplay then why not check out my review for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Maybe I should stop being so negative with this review, because this is just a standalone expansion and we’re not judging a full fledged game. More of the same isn’t that bad sometimes, because if it’s a phrase I once learned, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. That’s why I love the Soulsborne games so much, because the formula worked and still works today. Hopefully Nadine and Laura Cro- I mean Chloe can track down the Tusk and prevent an all out civil war from happening in India.
Thoughts
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy may not have done much to change up the formula we’re used to and I’m not sure whether to recommend this expansion. Don’t get me wrong The Lost Legacy is a decent follow up to Uncharted 4, but maybe that’s just the problem. It feels like Uncharted 4, but with a good chunk of it hacked off with a big old machete. Uncharted 4 was supposed to mark the official end, but they decided to drag out the story even longer and that’s how we got an unsatisfying conclusion or the expectations of more. Do we really need more Uncharted, because where the f*ck do you take the franchise next? Nathan is an old man and now his grandkids do the adventuring? Okay, what are some actual downsides I have with this game?
The environments are stunning as always, but there isn’t much variety as I said with Uncharted 4. That game took us to the bustling streets of King’s Bay, a snowy cathedral in the Scottish Highlands with a hidden underground temple with scriptures and tombs, the lost tropical city of Libertalia located in the middle of nowhere which added to that sense of mystery, etc. In The Lost Legacy you spend a majority of your time exploring a forest and ancient temple, which are basically stereotypical Uncharted standards. I looked it up and it turns out the original Uncharted was just forests and ancient temples, but that’s the first game in the series. They didn’t have the technology or to be honest the direction to create more varied environments, so they kept to one consistent one. Why would you take a step back instead of forward of all things?
Level design is decent. There is this one level that is possibly one of my favorites in the series. It’s a big open map that follows you traveling to three different towers. Any of the towers can be approached in any order and you can even roam around collecting coins to unlock a secret item that reveals hidden treasures later in the game. I want games to make more open ended levels like this. Ones that offer choice and more than one direction. Nothing bad about linearity, but it makes the level more replayable and offers a much grander scale. Levels like the twisting neon plaza of Fort Frolic from BioShock to the sprawling sandboxes of Metro Exodus.
The story is decent enough and kept me interested in playing to the end, but unlike Uncharted 4 I feel like you really have to play the previous games to fully appreciate what is actually happening this time around. Uncharted 4 did make references to past games, but you didn’t have to play the other games to understand what was going on currently. Basically, you didn’t need the nostalgia to appreciate the characters. Each character in Uncharted 4 was well presented and had personality. You knew who was who and what their motives were. For example, near the end of The Lost Legacy the game just goes out of it’s way to pull out of it’s ass Sam Drake from Uncharted 4 and pretends the player already knows who he is. Nothing bad about it, but imagine new players who apparently chose this as their first Uncharted and have absolutely no clue who Sam Drake is and what his significance has to the series. He’s not even presented as well as in Uncharted 4, but maybe it’s because that game introduced him and had more time to establish him as a significant character to the world of Uncharted.
I also looked it up, but The Lost Legacy seems to be rehashing the plot of Uncharted 2. Find some treasure, stop a warlord, and save the day. It works better the first time, but I don’t know about the second time through. So from what you can tell right now Uncharted 4 had the better story. I don’t know about you, but I feel like trying to save your long lost brother’s life while finally living the adventure the both of you have always dreamed of has more of a connection. Plus it sticks around longer. Again, maybe I’m being too harsh on The Lost Legacy. It would have made more sense to sell this as DLC rather than a standalone game though. The physical version cost forty dollars during release and these days it’s mainly around twenty. Forty dollars seems like a lot for a campaign that lasts only six to seven hours. Compare that to Disco Elysium which is forty dollars as well, but takes close to around twenty hours to beat and has more content. We can even bring up Divinity: Original Sin 2 and how it has more content too.
I did enjoy my time with Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, but it's hard to have fun with it without having played the terrific Uncharted 4 beforehand. It’s much longer, has a stronger narrative and focus, the level design and variety was grander, contained more replay value in my opinion, and has what is needed to appreciate The Lost Legacy from the first place. I recommend getting Uncharted: The Lost Legacy only if you really enjoyed Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End so much to the point you just want more of the same swashbuckling action you have already experienced before. Otherwise you can just replay Uncharted 4 because replaying the game is always a choice, or maybe just spend your money on another Playstation 4 exclusive like Bloodborne. I like promoting games I love. In the end I give Uncharted: The Lost Legacy an 8/10 for being pretty good.
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