Uncharted - The Lost Legacy Review

Right, so this will be my last post of the year, as 2017 draws to a close and this post will be a review of a PS4 game, which I got for Christmas (which I still haven't quite finished yet!) and the game in question is Uncharted - The Lost Legacy, which is a spin-off of the regular series.

So, let's see how it fairs in comparison to the regular Uncharted games.

And as I will refer to a little bit of the story, I will issue the usual warning...

SPOILERS MIGHT BE AHEAD (BUT NOT TOO MANY!!)

STORY

So, instead of Nathan Drake, the story instead follows two women, a treasure hunter, Chloe Frazer (voiced by Claudia Black) who also enlists the help of mercenary, Nadine Ross (voiced by Laura Bailey) to find the legendary tusk of Ganesh.  Chloe with the help of a young girl, Meenu, who's father is in the Indian army, get's past an insurgent group and she meets up with Nadine.  The two of them together then sneak into the office of the insurgent leader, Asav, who is also after the tusk in an effort to rally India into a civil war.  Chloe and Nadine also manage to steal a map and a disk that is a key of sorts before they finally manage evade Asav's men.

The map leads the two women into the Western Ghats in India where they start their hunt for the tusk and encounter plenty of dangers along the way....

THOUGHTS

As a follow-up to the highly acclaimed, Uncharted - The Lost Legacy is a very enjoyable game and even with the absence of Nathan Drake here, the game works very well thanks in part to the two lead characters of Chloe and Nadine, as the two of them work well together and have a nice chemistry.  And the fact that there are two female leads for a change adds a refreshing dynamic to the Uncharted series and a welcome change in itself.

GAMEPLAY

As for the gameplay, its pretty much the same as the previous Uncharted games with a third person perspective with the usual moves and Chloe being your main playable character.  And Chloe pretty much has the same level of ability that Nathan Drake has as she is a great climber and her moves are more or less identical as she can run, jump, swim, climb aswell as perform other actions such as driving vehicles.  Chloe can also use a rope to swing from trees to reach platforms and other areas (again similar to Nate in Uncharted 4).

Combat wise, the game is also very much the same as the other games in the series, where Chloe can use both weapons and melee attacks when fighting against enemies.  There are also a large number of different weapons available in the game, which Chloe can pick up as she goes along as she kills her enemies.  The different weapons include handguns (pistols and revolvers), shotguns, rifles, rocket launchers as well as grenades.  Chloe can also perform stealth attacks, as she sneaks up on her enemies and breaks their necks (yeah she even manages to do that with the bigger guys!).

As for the game's AI starting with Nadine, she will be able to help out Chloe as the go on through the adventure by also taking down enemies aswell as helping with certain sections of the game that might involve opening sealed doors (Nadine at some point will use Chloe's jeep to break open sealed doors).  As for the enemy AI, they will react to certain situations, especially as Chloe and Nadine sneak around, there will be a detection meter that goes from white, yellow to eventually red when they are detected.

And last of all is the inventory system, where Chloe can access her mobile phone to take pictures of the scenery at certain points, which she can also scroll through.  Chloe from the inventory can also access her map, which she will use at certain points to scribble down entries for new destinations as she gathers information from different places. 


GRAPHICS, VOICE ACTING AND MUSIC

As for the game's graphics....well similar to Uncharted 4, they are simply stunning as the environments in the game are just gorgeous to look at and richly detailed from the temples, to the trees, to the rocks, to the mud ridden terrain not to mention the weather.  The character models are also all excellent as both Chloe and Nadine look great (particularly Chloe!) although they are not quite lifelike, they aren't entirely far off either!  Basically, The Lost Legacy is a visual treat in full HD but at 4K resolution it doubtless will be even better (but I don't have a PS4 Pro).

As for the voice acting, again the performances are excellent as Claudia Black and Laura Bailey are both great in their respective roles as Chloe and Nadine and they work well together as a team and they share a natural chemistry also.  Claudia Black as Chloe, has the more flamboyant of the two characters as Chloe is quite witty and enjoys bantering with her co-workers (a bit like Nate does!) whereas Nadine is a bit more serious but she too has some good lines (especially when she refers to looking up a certain type of catapult on Wikipedia!).   

Troy Baker also later appears in the game as Sam Drake (Nate's brother, who appeared in Uncharted 4) and he is once again great in the role and the game actually even get's better when Sam appears as the banter between the three characters at from this point on is great.  And its clear from this point on that there is no love lost between Nadine and Sam (which you would understand if you played Uncharted 4) but I won't say anymore than that for now!  

And last of all the music score by Henry Jackman is also very good and is quite similar to the score that features in Uncharted 4 and it is more than suitable for the tone of the game and it has plenty of good sections.  The score is also both adventurous and atmospheric and even though it is a bit samey at times to Uncharted 4, its a still a good one.

FLAWS

As for flaws...well yes OK, The Lost Legacy isn't quite perfect.


And to kick off, the first thing I would have to say about the game's flaws is basically that it really doesn't offer much new over the previous games, particularly Uncharted 4, as the gameplay is practically identical.  The only real new inclusion here is the ability for Chloe to take pictures of the vistas and that's probably about it (well that and the two female leads in the game).  But that aside it is pretty formulaic as a game but with a formula as good as the one in the Uncharted series, there isn't too much to complain about here.

Another issue is to do with the gameplay physics as there are certain scenes where Chloe should basically be dead from certain injuries or falls (although she is more likely die from falling than get shot!). As an example, Chloe in certain action sequences, can appear to take on a fair bit of gunfire without actually dying and this is quite remarkable in itself!  Then there is another sequence in the game where Chloe has to evade a series of traps where giant mechnical guards take swipes at Chloe with giant axes.  And if Chloe get's hit, she takes damage but she still manages to survive it but in reality she would have been dead with one strike!

I also find it a bit incredible that Chloe can posses the same level of strength (or appear to at any rate!) as Nate does in the series, as she can appear to break men's necks with great ease (even if they are a big guy!) which is something I don't quite buy!  However when you look at Nadine's physique, she is certainly a bit more muscly than Chole, so I can buy her taking down a guy with a neckbreak but not so much Chloe.

And lasty I found some of the game's puzzles also a bit annoying and tedious at times particularly the ones in the later chapters as there is one in chapter 5 that will have you tearing your hair out trying to suss it!  But puzzles and Uncharted have always gone hand in hand but I myself have never been a fan of puzzles (and little patience for them either!) so for me it was always the part of any adventure I like least.   

Anyway that's it for the flaws!

SUM UP

So, in summing up, Uncharted - The Lost Legacy is a very enjoyable spin-off game in the Uncharted series, which features plenty of great action and platforming as well as two great female characters in Chloe and Nadine, who work well together in the game.  It could be argued of course that the game doesn't really offer anything new over Uncharted 4 but its still a very worthy and entertaining follow-up which is worth playing and if you are a fan of the Uncharted series then you won't be a disappointed.


Right, so that's it for now and as this is my last post of 2017, I will wish you all a Happy New Year when it comes around and I will see you in 2018.  

Ciao for now!