Played on: PS4. Available on: PS4.

The Lost Legacy is really, really fun. All of the Uncharted trademarks are here. The quirky, clever dialogue is back. The great characters are back (although I have a reservation or two in this area). The cinematic storytelling and great set-design is back. I went into The Lost Legacy expecting Uncharted, and I got Uncharted, alongside all of its great features. However, I’m a bit…disappointed regardless. Perhaps disappointed is too strong a word. I really, really, really liked this game, but didn’t adore it. I had actually read online a few times that this was the best Uncharted. It didn’t reach the heights of Uncharted 4 for me. Granted, that’s my favorite game of all time. Reaching those heights, from my point of view, would have been unrealistic. I still think they could have done a bit more however.

The thing with The Lost Legacy is that, on paper, there’s nearly nothing wrong with it. There are a few small things. My character at some point got hit by a moving statue’s axe really, really hard and survived, proclaiming “Oh no!” or something of the sort. I mean, it’s a video game, you have to sacrifice some degree of realism in order to have a fun experience. That’s not really something I should complain about. And that’s basically what I mean. The majority of my criticisms of The Lost Legacy are nitpicks. Really small things. There’s maybe a bigger issue in that Chloe doesn’t completely act like how I’d expect Chloe to, though. She’s definitely Chloe at the beginning of the game, but then her moral center becomes just a tad bit too defined over time, which isn’t a bad thing at all, except: nothing in the story happens that would cause this, and, it serves for a few moments that seem to try really hard to make you teary eyed.

Now – Naughty Dog are super talented writers, that’s obvious. They don’t fall flat on their face here, and I didn’t expect them to. When Chloe talks about her dead dad the dialogue is done very well. I also don’t doubt that her character would hold some sort of attachment to her father, as any person who has emotions would. I just think the actual ideas that the game seemed to gravitate toward a…drama of sorts. Like a dramatic film. Now; that’s not inherently bad. In fact, Uncharted 4 definitely did it. The thing is, though, is that Uncharted 4 did it super well. It had a lot of more dramatic and serious elements compared to the previous three, yes, but it balanced itself well with quirky dialogue and a carefree attitude. While the quirky dialogue is still definitely here, it feels a tad bit too…serious simultaneously? I’m not sure, honestly. It felt a bit too “The Last of Us,” and wasn’t “Uncharted” enough.

That’s not to say that the whole thing’s super serious. A lot of the things that happen while you play through The Lost Legacy are the series at its core. You wouldn’t mistake this as anything but an Uncharted game. It’s grandiose and cinematic. There are one too many near-death scenes (which really adds to the charm of these games). It honestly would survive on its set pieces and sense of adventure alone. The dialogue, while again a tad bit too serious at times for my taste, is incredibly, incredibly clever. You can tell they put a hell of a lot of effort in it, and it payed off.

The story is great, but a bit too concise for my tastes. I understand that this was originally a DLC, and that therefore it wouldn’t make sense for it to be fifteen/twenty hours or so. But I think a slightly longer story would have benefited The Lost Legacy a considerable amount. This may just be personal preference, maybe it’s just what I’m used to, but it felt to me as if, because of the shorter length, the game missed out on a considerable amount of depth that it could have had otherwise. There are a lot of very depthful moments in The Lost Legacy, don’t get me wrong. In fact, nearly every single one is. The real problem here is that length of this game’s story didn’t match its scope. What this basically does to it is that it often has to cut corners story-wise, which makes it so that things can get a bit predictable.

Naughty Dog writes their games in a certain way, and I sometimes feel they have a checklist of stuff that they get through when writing their games, akin to how a Hollywood film would be (after all, their games are homages to Hollywood films). The real magic, in my opinion, is when their games become unpredictable. See – there’s obligatory character development in Naughty Dog’s games. That’s part of what makes them so great. The characters are well defined, and grow/learn about each other over time. They change. With The Lost Legacy, it’s almost as if they tried to implement the structure they had with Uncharted 4 to a game whose length is half as long. Since everything was therefore so compact, and since they still had to check every box, this removed the moments of unpredictability, and made for a somewhat cookie-cutter Uncharted story overall.

The gameplay of The Lost Legacy is really fun. There’s the trademark “two-person” thing going on here mechanically, which makes perfect sense considering you’re partnered with Nadine throughout playing. There are a few ladders to look for and a few things to move around, in typical Naughty Dog fashion. The experience is also grandiose, and for lack of a better word intense, as you’re often in near-death situations. It’s not unusual for the Lost Legacy, and Uncharted games in general actually, to put you in a situation that serves to add intensity and excitement to your playthrough. I can think of a few moments off the top of my head that would involve Chloe nearly falling to her death, for example. Exaggeration is pretty much an uncharted trademark, and The Lost Legacy doesn’t stray from that. The gameplay, other than what could be considered clichés (personally the infinite ladders and exaggerated moments in the uncharted games have massively grown on me since my first playthrough of Uncharted 2. I love them nowadays), is incredibly fun. The gunplay feels the best it’s ever felt, and movement is as fluid as ever. Your third person view of your character works very well, and the characters are somehow more lifelike than they were in Uncharted 4. Naughty Dog really stepped to the plate with gameplay for their last few games and they deserve to be commended for that.

Everything else is very good. I don’t really have any complaints. This game was made with professionalism and passion, and even the mistakes it makes I can ultimately forgive, as the other elements of The Lost Legacy make up for these shortcomings. The graphics are phenomenal, of course, the world is detailed and interesting and the package as a whole is incredibly, incredibly fun. This game is super great, and I’m really happy to have bought it.

8.5/10.