Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

Even though the scope of this stand-alone adventure is smaller than usual, there‘s enough exciting, yet all-too-familiar blockbuster scenes, a daring escape from a crumbling temple, a high-octane car chase and a sequence that can only be described as the train from Uncharted 2 on steroids.

The main problem with Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is its underdeveloped main character. The game is good, but it doesn't stand against previous entries to the franchise.

The smaller scale works for such swashbuckling adventures, and its more open-plan design shows how the series should evolve. Early promise falters around the halfway point due to some noticeable shifts in what the player is able to do in any given space, but it quickly ramps up again to a spectacular finale. The game also serves as a reminder of how strong the supporting cast of these games has been. Chloe makes for a fine hero, and Nadine would have been as well. Perhaps they'll get a chance to return one day.

The Lost Legacy is proof that there's still life in Uncharted, though it'll need to break out of it's own formula a bit in the future. Chloe and Nadine could do that for the series. You just have to let them.

The game looks beautiful and plays back well, but leaves no lasting impression. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is not a must play like The Last of Us: Left Behind. This solo add on feels like something we have already played, but it does offer two other cool characters in key roles.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy offers more of the same cinematic and action packed gameplay as we're used to with the series. The story and the characters are well-written, and the graphics are stunning. On the negative side, the new mechanic that lets us explore the world at our own pace feels a bit underdeveloped.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy plays flawlessly. It’s impossible to criticise the level design, the basic mechanics, or indeed anything that involves pressing buttons. Naughty Dog is simply a developer of such quality that it’s not going to make mistakes there. But I like my games to have narrative, and I like games that get me thinking. I like my games to have purpose, and I find The Lost Legacy to be a very purposeless game. It’s fun, I enjoyed my time with it. I doubt I’ll ever feel inspired to play it again, much less remember it.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is a technical marvel, and offers a lot of great treasure-hunting moments throughout. The characters and their dialogues are also a huge part of what makes the game work – this makes the plot quite enjoyable, despite it (and almost every other aspect of the game) being incredibly formulaic. If this is not the end, but instead a new beginning for Uncharted, I really wish Naughty Dog would make something that's way less shooter-y and way more unique going forward.

The larger issue, though, is that heavy, uncomfortable shooting mechanics like these have no place in a series like Uncharted. It was fine in a gritty, downtrodden survival tale like The Last of Us, but this is a series in which inhumanly characters are constantly falling from perilous heights and surviving without a hair out of place afterward. This is a power fantasy. Let it be a power fantasy.