videogameblog

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

Naughty Dog finally realised that Nathan Drake is boring. They might be 4 games late, but when they finally did it resulted in their best uncharted entry by far. You play as Chloe Frazer in this one, and she fits into the structure way better than Nathan did. It's super cool that she went from being a generic sexualised character in Uncharted 2 to a more fleshed out one than Nathan in this game. It's great to finally see women in video games chilling out and having fun (sometimes). I also really liked seeing Chloe and Nadine's relationship develop. Having two characters that don't initially like eachother begin to get to know eachother better as the game unfolds keeps things engaging. It feels more involving as the player too, you get to play through virtually every interaction these two characters have ever had. Gameplay also feels like it's driven by a narrative i can actually support? It's no longer a random white dude stealing artifacts from other countries for his own gain; instead you play as a character with cultural connections to the country they're in and their motivations aren't capitalistic. Chloe is looking for 'the tusk' (this game's big treasure) in order to preserve it, and complete her father's life's work. It also breaks from the boring uncharted 'the treasure has been lost!! The temple is collapsing!!' trope, instead climaxing with a sequence with actual narrative stakes. It's also the hardest gameplay portion in anything i've ever played? it's like 45 minutes of massive setpieces. everything on the train is peak uncharted for me.

more than anything this game feels like a reflection on the past uncharted games, a much needed overhaul. Whenever I think about uncharted it has this weird feeling of colonisation to it that the games never really address; you're always playing as a white man stealing ancient artefacts from other countries (not to mention the exoticism and racism in the first two games). Getting rid of Nathan Drake was the best way to move on from this. Gameplay is virtually identical to uncharted 4 (so it's great) but paired with some more likable characters and better level design Lost Legacy blows it out of the water. Hope they never make another one of these, the final scene where they say they're gonna donate the treasure to the ministry of culture feels like a fitting end for the francise; it addresses, corrects and moves on from its faults.

8/10 play this one