The franchise soars without iconic hero
Initially planned as a DLC for Uncharted 4, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy was announced as a standalone entry in the series in December, 2016 at the PlayStation Experience. While the prospect of getting a new Uncharted title so quickly was very titillating, the decision to not include the series' regular protagonist Nathan Drake created divisive opinions among gamers. However, as always, it is not okay to judge a book by its cover.
Developer: Naughty Dog LLC
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Platform: PlayStation 4
Release Date: August 22, 2017
The Lost Legacy is set after the events of Uncharted 4. Chloe Frazer is looking for an ancient Indian artifact known as Ganesh's Tusk which her father had spent a significant time of his life pursuing. Chloe hires Nadine Ross to help her on the quest. Upon arriving in India, they come to know that Asav, the leader of a rebel army, is also looking for the artifact and he is much more well-equipped than they are. The rest of the game deals with Chloe and Nadine going up against Asav and laying their hands on Ganesh's Tusk.
The game is visually similar to Uncharted 4, which is not a bad thing at all. You can expect the same level of graphical fidelity and life-like animations from The Lost Legacy that you saw in Uncharted 4. In fact, The Lost Legacy has much more diverse and detailed fauna than UC4 did. You can often see monkeys jumping from tree to tree or families of elephants bonding with each other. The Indian setting of the game gave me some major Uncharted 2 feels. The sound design is fantastic as usual and if the audio settings are tweaked properly, the immersion reaches a whole new level.
I was very unhappy with the uneven pacing of UC4's plot. The Lost Legacy, on the contrary, does a far better job in that department. What's even more surprising is that I did not miss Nathan Drake. Not one bit. Nathan Drake's light-hearted personality has been nicely channeled into Chloe Frazer making her even more likable. Nadine, on the other hand, is a no-nonsense girl and together, they complement each other really well. Some of the puzzles in the game were very creative and equally as difficult and frustrating. The gameplay of The Lost Legacy focuses much more on stealth than the previous entries in the series. Thankfully, it does not shove the stealthy gameplay down the gamers' throats since it is still possible to beat the game without being stealthy.
The Lost Legacy is not without its faults, though. Asav, despite being the sole antagonist of the game, is very poorly developed. He has very few dialogues and they are neither memorable nor do they provide any insight into the psyche of the character. His motivations are very unclear as well. Even though I struggled to pass the shooting galleries and the puzzle sections, it took me barely six hours to beat the game. For $40, I don't think I am wrong to expect a little more content.
Uncharted 4 was a satisfying conclusion to Nathan Drake's story and I didn't think I needed another Uncharted game. The Lost Legacy, however, is good enough to prove me wrong and get me hyped about the series once again!
Nony Khondaker is an introvert who complements his non-existent social life with video games, Netflix and a whole lot of ice-cream. Send him memes and cat videos to cheer him up at fb.com/NonyKhondaker