So, my second post of the year will cover a game I previously reviewed and have just finished replaying on the PS5 which is Uncharted - The Lost Legacy featuring the character of Chloe Frazer who was previously a supporting character in the previous games, who teams with Nadine Ross, who also featured previously in Uncharted 4.
And I just got finished playing the remastered version for the PS5, so figured I would give the game another update and see how it fairs 6 years on...
And a bit of the story is coming up so...
PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD (BUT NOT 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 ex-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 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 (Usman Ally) 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
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!).
AI CO-OP
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.
LOCK PICKING
Another new feature of the game is lock picking where Chloe can use a lock pick to open various crates that can be found around the world or even to open doors. This is especially useful for gaining new weapons and explosives from crates but also plays its part in the story of the game at times too and the process itself isn't too difficult.
INVENTORY
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! And the graphics look even better in the remastered PS5 version with improved detail, lighting and shadow effects.
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!). Nadine can be a bit of a pain and whiny in the game it does have to be said but she does at least lighten up a bit as the story progresses.
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 gets 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) and you really need to in order understand a bit of the game). Baker also gets plenty of funny lines especially the one where Sam mocks one of the shoreline leaders for his "mullet" which even Nadine laughs at.
Usman Ally last of all does a fine job as the main villain, Asav, who is desperately after the Tusk and tries to have Chloe and Nadine killed at every turn and his real intentions for the Tusk are revealed near the end of the game.
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 mechanical guards take swipes at
Chloe with giant axes. And if Chloe gets hit, she takes damage but she
still manages to survive it but in reality she would have been dead
with one strike and most likely to be sliced in half!
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 neck break but not so much Chloe.
And further to that, I have to say from what I've read the instant neck snap thing in games and movies really is a myth and there is no way someone can have their neck broken that easily. In fact I had read an online post on a forum where a medical student suggested it would be very difficult to break someone's neck and also you are more likely to just give them whiplash (and piss them off!).
I also found it a bit strange how Chloe keeps having her hair in her face and getting into her eyes and not at any moment does the game have her push her hair back from her eyes, which would have been a good detail but they just left it alone. This is a minor gripe of course but its still something they could have added in even in the cut scenes.
The game also has a lack of helpful visual cues or hints for when you might be lost and the only marker you do get is for the chapters where Chloe and Nadine look for their jeep. The game does have the option to switch on hints but they don't appear until after a few minutes, which is not much use! The game also could have done with showing the outline of enemies in a similar way to how the Tomb Raider reboot games does making it a bit easier to see your enemies around you.
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 and features a welcome return of Sam Drake.
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.
So, I will rate The Lost Legacy:
8 out of 10
So, that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post at some point or other.
Until then bye the now!
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