Uncharted: Lost Legacy review

Despite a small number of issues, I thoroughly enjoyed Uncharted 4, and the announcement that it was going to get a single-player expansion was exciting. But I dismissed it as a 3-4 hour experience and decided to buy the expansion separately as opposed to buying the season pass and paying for the multiplayer stuff I’m not interested in. A decision I would later come to regret when the expansion became longer and the individual price came out at £25, cheap for a standalone title, which it ultimately is, although about half the length of a usual Uncharted game.

What’s more interesting is their choice of protagonists, Nathan’s story is done, there’s little story left to tell for him, a lot of fans thought they might go for a Sam Drake/Sully story, and whilst that would be cool, there was a character I personally wish had some screen time in Uncharted 4 because she’s that awesome.

This is Chloe Frazer, she’s tough, she takes no sh*t and she’s badass, but has a sense of humour. She’s smart and can be manipulative to get what she wants, but she’s willing to walk away if the risk is too great. Chloe is a well-defined and interesting character and who better to partner her up with than the person who last time I complained was neither of these things, Nadine Ross? Can being a treasure hunter help her character get some much-needed development?

Well, here’s how I rated Uncharted: Lost Legacy

Plot

We open in India with Chloe, bartering with a small, but very streetwise girl whilst catching a transport into rebel territory. A section of the city is under rebel control and has largely been evacuated, life is unpleasant for the few still around and to top it off, the Indian Army are bombing the city to kill the rebels. Chloe meets Nadine there, who’s ill impressed at her lateness, as their target, Asav tends to like things punctual.

Still, they manage to work around this and make into Asav’s office, finding a disk and some information about the Hoysala Empire and their hidden treasure, the Tusk of Ganesh. They’re soon caught by Asav and chased down to the river, where Nadine had managed to secure a boat. Thanks to some fiddling, Chloe manages to activate the disk, which will become a key in the later puzzles.

They drive through the outskirts of Halebidu and find the usual temples and towers to plunder, to unlock the gate to the city. A bit of backstory is exposited through these, first the story of Ganesh. His father, Shiva, gifted an axe to Parasharama who used it against Ganesh. We also find out that Chloe’s father was an expert in the Hoysala empire, he later sent Chloe off to Australia claiming it was too dangerous before she died. Nadine lost Shoreline after her lieutenant, Orca, went off with the bounty from their pirate raid, she wants her share of the tusk to buy it back.

Halebidu was a target for Persian invasions, and upon reaching the inner chambers of the city, they realise it was a decoy to hide the real capital, Bulur. They activate a secret back-entrance to Belur but in the process get the attention of Asav, he catches them and takes back the disk, but they manage to escape, with Chloe shaking off an injury that left her unconscious for half an hour like it was nothing.

But before that can get resolved, time for some drama. They find out Asav had an ‘expert:’ Sam Drake. Nadine wants to kill him before Chloe reveals that Sam was working with her, he’d sent her to get information about the Tusk but he was captured by Asav, Nadine’s inner workings with Asav, which she had somehow, were the reason Chloe chose her, alongside her kickass reputation. This revelation annoys Nadine and she heads out on her own, for about 5 minutes before she’s pinned down by a turret truck and Chloe has to rescue her.

They head through a tunnel, with Nadine still bearing a grudge until they discover a trapped but miraculously uninjured elephant. They manage to free it and take a ride, during which time Chloe tells her how her father was killed by bandits during an expedition to find the tusk, all she has left is a little Ganesh figurine, which she’s been carrying around with her through the adventure. The two make up at this point.

They make their way into Belur and after some battles, discover a set of the figurines from which Chloe’s piece fits, her father was standing where she is now but for whatever reason didn’t make it any further. They manage to unlock the chamber where the tusk is held but are soon captured by Asav again, and Nadine and Sam have a reunion moment. Under threat of watching the others die painfully Chloe successfully completes the final trial. Ganesh yielded. He could’ve defeated Parasharama easily but that would make his father’s axe look weak. He died to protect his father's honour.

Either way they unlock the tusk. Asav chains them all to some railings and floods the room as he makes his escape. Chloe manages to rescue herself and Nadine, who then rescues Sam and they manage to escape. Sam overheard that Asav was planning to sell the tusk so the three head to the railyard where the trade is being made, with Shoreline. This is enough to make Nadine angry and together they manage to bring down Orca’s helicopter and retrieve the tusk.

But the deal has already been made, Asav has a bomb which he’s going to use to blow up the city and spark civil war. Much as the others try and persuade her not to Chloe decides she’s done walking away and goes out to stop them, the others elect to follow along with her. They reach the train but even Nadine can’t disarm the bomb, and the engine room is welded shut so they can’t stop the train. As Nadine fights off some of Asav’s guys, Chloe heads to a crossing point where she switches the track. The track is now heading towards a broken bridge. Chloe and Nadine fight Asav once again, and the fight ends with Asav trapped under his own bomb. Chloe and Nadine make their escape as the train plummets to it’s fiery destruction. Sam is not impressed at the idea of selling the tusk to the Ministry of Culture.

Analysis

Uncharted games have always had strong stories and this one is no exception. Once again, they take real history and locations put their own unique spin on things. Chloe and Nadine are an excellent pair, they’re both no-nonsense characters but Chloe’s sense of humour and manipulative nature alongside her experience cross quite nicely with Nadine’s straight talking and largely stoic attitude, along with her relative inexperience. Neither are especially open with their feelings but not so much that we don’t get some backstory about the both of them, and an insight as to what their mindset is with this journey.

Asav as a villain is… I’m not really sure where to rank him. He’s certainly among the more intelligent villains, but has more of a physical presence to him, plus him having an army without huge amounts of funding makes a deal of sense given the political struggles mentioned here. On the other hand, his motivations are relatively generic, and he rambles about them in pretty much every scene is he’s in to a point where it can get quite annoying.

With regards to the length, it actually helps in most respects, the pacing feels tighter, the characters feel more fleshed out, and at no point did I think the story was compromised for the length. Well, I say no point… the fallout from Nadine and Chloe’s argument feels rushed but I feel that’s less down to the story construction than the gameplay. A lot of Uncharted: Lost Legacy’s levels are designed to have both of them in it, talking or interacting and working together. Having them at odds for a long period doesn’t mesh well with that, hence the elephant journey putting that to a close.

Having Sam involved was a good twist, and helped strengthen the connection to Uncharted 4, his back-and-forth with Nadine given their history was as funny as Uncharted dialogue always is.

Gameplay

By and large, and despite the difference in main character, the gameplay is largely the same as Uncharted 4, which isn’t exactly a surprise as Uncharted games play similarly anyway and this uses the same game engine as Uncharted 4 did. And it was initially designed as an expansion to that game.

  

There are a few differences however. First is the increased emphasis on Stealth. I’m not a huge fan of stealth with little variety, but there’s only one area where stealth is absolutely mandatory on easy mode, which is what I’m playing, sue me! But I’d guess stealth becomes more useful in harder modes. There’s more long grass, a silenced pistol for quiet ranged kills and a team partner who prefers a stealth kill to a shot, although she’s not a bad shot either.

Beyond that, the puzzles are, in my opinion a marked improvement over previous games, there’s no magic book of answers, there’s just intuition and thought, which works really well. That said, the rotating dial puzzle is used maybe a little too often for its own good.

There’s little more to be said when it comes to gunplay. The only major weapon addition is C4, which can used as a timed explosive as opposed the grenades which explode on contact. The auto-aim is still there, but I ended up turning it off as it was becoming irritating and made head-shots more difficult.

With gameplay I should mention one other thing. Chapter 4 goes against Uncharted’s usual linear style for a sandbox level. It’s a jeep level with more openness to explore than the Madagascar jeep level in Uncharted 4. There’s also a lengthy side mission involving the collection of tokens to unlock a special prize. I like the puzzles but the prize is basically an alarm bell for if you’re near treasure, a very loud alarm that annoyed me and I ended up turning it off. Still, it’s one of the best levels in the game.

The final levels feels very much like a cross between the train scene in Uncharted 2 and the jeep pursuit in Uncharted 4, in my opinion 2 of the best levels in the game’s history. Does that make it the best level, no, my biggest issue being the overly scripted brawl that ends it but it’s certainly up there.

Oh yeah, combat, much like Uncharted 4, the fight segments feel overly scripted and don’t allow for a lot to happen. Fortunately, they’re not implemented often. Oh, and Chloe has a lock-pick, it works much like the hacking device in the Arkham games but with one analogue stick, not really worth talking much about

Design

It’s Uncharted and it more or less goes without saying that it looks fantastic. The environments looks beautiful and I’ll show off some of its beauty right now

There are a few bits in the Indian war-zone which also look good, but beyond that, there is noticeable lack of variety in the scenery, mostly down to them pretty much sticking to India in this game, I could put this down to the shorter run-time. But god if it looks this good

Characters look fantastic and dare I mention the voice actors are all top notch, and deliver fine performances in their roles.

Conclusion

Uncharted: Lost Legacy is stunning to look at and has a great story with humorous dialogue. The gameplay remains similar to Uncharted 4 which is not surprising, the gorgeous backdrops help disguise a lack of variety.

Rating 85/100