When you think of Uncharted, you think of bombastic set-pieces, simple platforming, an easy to follow story with a loveable cast and a very linear structure. It’s not inherently wrong, but it gets formulaic over time. Uncharted 4 messed around with the formula by a bit, but this time, we get a chapter that is basically a mini-open world for the duo of Chloe and Nadine to trek across.
This one chapter early in the game breaks the mold of what you expect as the typical Uncharted experience by giving you a map, a jeep and a few hotspots for you to explore. And it fits what you expect of an open world game in 2017 would do- there’s a tower to climb that gives you various points of interest, several major dungeons, forts in this case, to navigate through and some optional outposts. While it seems that The Lost Legacy traded one tried-and-true formula for another, the chapter does a few tricks that makes it feel fresh.
For one, the map is not huge- what you see on Chloe’s map is what you get. But the whole map is brilliantly designed. It’s fun to traverse thanks to the many kinds of surface your 4X4 jeep has to go through, but it’s easy to track where you need to go. There’s no mini-map, but if you pay attention to the details like where the river is flowing it’s easy to get around with just a quick glance. The locations you visit also stands on its own. It’s not the same clear-the-outpost situation. Each main location, the three forts, are all self-contained Uncharted levels with puzzles and enemy encounters. The optional outposts also have their own unique gimmicks- and it’s worth hunting them all down.
If it gets any bigger or longer it would have been a bore, but this chapter featured the right size of an open world that would fit the Uncharted mould. It’s a breath of fresh air after all these years of the same linear experience. It can go as long as two hours if you keep on hunting for all the collectibles, which feels just about right before things get tedious.
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is out now on the PS4, free for Uncharted 4 Season Pass owners and as a standalone title for the mid-budget price of RM149. Stay tuned for a full review soon.