Over the summer, thanks in large part to my discovery of blood plasma donation, I was able to play a truly insane number of games. Titles included, but are not limited to: Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, Undertale on PS4, Yakuza 0, Overwatch and, for the sake of this week’s column, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.
Now, Uncharted has been a fixture of the Playstation landscape for nearly a decade, but the series wasn’t much more than a series of well-made fireworks shows until the fourth game, whose story wrapped up series protagonist Nathan Drake’s overall character arc and gave him the kind of closure that the third game failed to give him.
Of course, if Sony and/or Naughty Dog wanted to keep making these things, they’d have to find another avenue through which to do so without making a straight reboot. So along came The Lost Legacy, a $40, seven-hour adventure that is set after Uncharted 4. Starring Chloe Frazer, the breakout character from Uncharted 2, who teams up with Nadine Ross, Uncharted 4’s co-antagonist, to find a treasure in the Western Ghats of India before the local warlord can.
Really, if you’ve played Uncharted games before, and specifically the fourth, you’ll know almost every trick this game has up its sleeve – stealth, cover shooting, climbing, some driving and at least a couple big set piece moments. There is a bit more integration of the story into the gameplay, especially the relationship with the two leads. Also new to the game are a few new weapons and Nathan Drake’s snarky journal is swapped out for a cell phone camera. I’d be loath to call it low-effort, however, because the polish endemic to Naughty Dog games is still here in force. But then again, they do just copy and paste the multiplayer modes over from Uncharted 4 in order to justify the $40 price tag, and my pre-order included a copy of Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy simply emulated on the PS4, as opposed to a port of the prettier PS3 version.
What I’d recommend doing here is wait for a price drop. You can reliably find both the Nathan Drake Collection on PS4 and Uncharted 4 for $20 or less each, and that is the maximum price I’d pay for something as short as this is, absent professional obligations and full games as pre-order bonuses. Now, watch me go and make myself a hypocrite by buying the upcoming Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus at $60 for the sake of a terrible Trump joke in the headline. I’ll keep you in suspense as to what it is.
Logan Graham is a senior studying media arts with a focus in games and animation at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Are you a fan of the Uncharted series? Let Logan know by emailing him at lg261813@ohio.edu.
