Uncharted 4’s Greatness Lies In Its Tiniest Details

After the ending of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, there wasn’t really a need for Naughty Dog to make a fourth game. Nathan Drake’s story could have ended happily ever after, as he walked off into the sunset once again. But that wasn’t to be, and now he’s sucked into an adventure one more time.

And Naughty Dog could have easily just made a new game that followed the same path as before, albeit with newer and shinier graphics for the PlayStation 4. In some ways they have, with adventuring gameplay that’s going to be very familiar to anyone that’s played the previous games, but there’s also a lot of new ideas being added to the mix, from grappling hooks and vehicles to stealthier combat.

In and of themselves, they’re hardly remarkable new additions; they’ve all been done before in other games, and been done very well. What makes them stand out here is just how seamlessly they’ve been added to the mixture of what has made up Uncharted up until now. Take the improved stealth, for example, where you can now hide in thick foliage and strike when the enemy aren’t expecting you. It’s no longer just a prelude to a large scale battle, but a means to its own end, with the ability to either take out all of the enemies quietly, or skip past the meat of the encounter entirely.

Better yet is when you use it as just another part of your arsenal. If you’re fast enough, you can run, break line of sight, hide and then strike from another angle. The AI will be in a more alert state as a consequence, but you’re back to picking your next battle, as opposed to hunkering down behind a wall and forcing your way through a gun fight.

There are points where Uncharted 4 reverts to type with some rather exacting and difficult pitched battles and set pieces in the final third of the game – especially so if playing on Hard difficulty and up. For me, those were perhaps a little too on the nose, but they’re just one part of rich collage that makes up this game and feel fewer and farther between than before. Sure, there’s also few too many box puzzles – and while I’m criticising, I’ll mention the over reactive animations for Drake trying to cut through crowds and walk closely by people – but there’s a confident swagger to how Naughty Dog have paced this game and a willingness to step away from the action. That confidence can easily be seen in countless little moments and tiny details.

It’s the sign of a developer at the height of their abilities to be able to take the time and create an entirely new game mechanic just for one or two small moment. Nintendo are fairly well known for putting levels in their Mario games that cut against the grain and do something totally different, and there’s elements of that here as well. They’re far from afraid to add in new gameplay ideas halfway through the game, leave you for a few moments to try and figure out a new combination before your companion offers a hint, or simply let them take a different route through some of the broader, more open spaces, to quietly show that you can.

But perhaps it’s all of the small details and nuances that they’ve poured into the visuals and the way that the story is told that really impressed me most. The technical prowess is clear to see at every turn as you emerge into yet another sumptuous location, but Naughty Dog really get to turn up the wick for the cutscenes. They’re no longer pre-rendered, but running in real time on the PlayStation 4, and there’s a staggering amount of detail to be seen in each character’s face, the mud and sweat that they’re covered in, their animations and the way that their clothes and hair gently ripple and blow in the breeze. Heck, they’ve even managed to make kissing that looks real and genuine, as opposed to smashing two plastic doll faces together.

A lot was made of the branching dialogue options, but they’re really just another minor side note that add to the greater whole. There’s also the stories of people through history that you can uncover by exploring and filling in pages of Drake’s Journal, and a lot of incidental and optional dialogue that you’ll hear as you play, filling in some of the backstory of those alongside you on this adventure. It was with genuine surprise and pleasure that I discovered that hopping out of the 4×4 elicited a disgruntled “Hey, where are you going?” from Sam, only to have him pick up from where he left off with a little, “Now, where was I?”

They might be off on a grand and utterly implausible adventure into the unknown, but it’s little things like that which help to make these feel like people. Even when it’s a character that’s new to you and the series, the relationships are clear to see and hear, but when it’s the likes of Sully or Elena, there’s that foundation, that established bond between them that underscores the personal drama.

Sometimes they don’t need to do or say anything at all.