Uncharted 4 Guide 

What Uncharted 4 brings to the table is a set of robust third-person cover mechanics and what’s probably the best traversal system in any shooter bar Titanfall. Nearly all the moves you use in Drake’s solo adventures – the heroic leap, grapple and swing, evasive roll and the whole range of climbing manoeuvres – all come into play. The result is a game where mobility really matters. Sure, you’ll get so far racing around the level trying to clock up headshots, but you’ll be aced by those who move faster, use evasion and know how to use the grappling points and verticals. That’s true of team deathmatch and absolute crucial in Command and Plunder. The maps actively encourage this, each one packed with different routes and hiding places, tricky obstacles and secret shortcuts, to the extent that you’ll still be discovering new things several days into the game. There’s a real pleasure in seeing scenery from the single-player campaign repurposed for competitive play, with pirate ships, crumbling Scottish castles and tropical ruins all in play, and while other players aren’t as prone to sneak attacks or sudden rushes as the campaign’s Shoreline goons, there’s still thrills to be had in clambering up or swinging down to blindside the enemy. The action also benefits from a smart perks system, where credits earnt in battle and through grabbing caches of treasure can be splashed out, either in-game or before a respawn, on a series of supernatural powers, buffs and sidekicks. The first enable you to summon strange forces from the previous games, with reviving powers, damage-dealing spirits and teleportation capabilities at your disposal.

The sidekicks, meanwhile, put CPU-controlled medics, machine-gunners and snipers on the battlefield. If you just want an over-powered magnum or more potent high explosives, you can have them too. Just save and spend your credits wisely. There’s even room for camaraderie through loadouts which work a little like a class system. You always earn points for reviving downed allies or completing objectives, but the loadouts give you the gear you need to set down mines, throw automatic-revive kits or place explosive charges. Cleverly these are independent from your choice of character, so there’s no reason not to play new bad guy Rafe as a healer or Elena as a shotgun-wielding, grenade-tossing bezerker. The choice is yours.

Uncharted 4 is a difficult game to evaluate, particularly for those of us who have played all of the other games in the series. On the one hand, the game is made to the highest standards of quality, with drop-dead gorgeous graphics, epic set-pieces, and first-rate acting.Uncharted 4 opens with an obligatory in medias res cliffhanger, but quickly pivots to show the life that Nathan and Elena now reconciled as husband and wife — have built together in the years following Uncharted 3. The chemistry between the two characters, fostered by returning actors Nolan North and Emily Rose, is the best it's ever been. They're both given countless opportunities to do stellar character work, and every scene they share carries a lovely, hilarious, heartbreaking emotional payload. Nate's retirement is interrupted by the return of his brother Sam, a former accomplice who was seemingly killed while on a job 15 years prior. Sam's life is in danger, he explains, and the only way he can be saved is if he and Nate pick up that job where they left off. Nate acquiesces, and, under questionable pretenses, sets off on his final adventure. Uncharted 4 has the most cogent campaign of the series. There are no warlords seeking ancient weapons of mass destruction, no sunken cities with immortal mutant guardians there's just the lost pirate colony of Libertalia and a literal boatload of treasure hidden within. It's a straightforward bounty, but it's refreshingly grounded, focusing more on the parties chasing Libertalia than some mystical MacGuffin waiting at the end of their quest.

Uncharted 4 is a game about the high cost of obsession. Everyone, from the pirate founders of Libertalia, to the first explorers who died hunting it down, to the game's current-day heroes and villains, is subject to the oppressive weight of their own unchecked ambition. As cautionary tales go, it's pretty nuanced, and a surprising turn from the franchise's earlier entries, which treated Nathan Drake's unquenchable thirst for adventure and glory as something resembling a superpower. That ambition manifests in different ways. For the wealthy and ruthless Rafe Adler, it's a desire to prove his worth beyond his inheritance. For the mercenary leader Nadine Ross, it's the duty to satisfy a client and rescue her company from collapse. For Captain Henry Avery a founder of Libertalia it's the pursuit of redemption, as inspired Saint Dismas, the "Penitent Thief" present at Jesus' crucifixion. The constant specter of ambition makes every character in Uncharted 4 — even the old pirate kings who died centuries ago, whose plights are detailed through copious journal entries — relatable. But it's also what makes Nathan Drake such a fascinating character in this, his final quest: His ambition isn't nearly as explicit as everyone else's. He's there to save his brother, sure, but there's something else pulling him along; something toxic, something that causes him to make terrible decisions with terrible consequences.

Taking too much damage puts you in a downed state, which a nearby teammate can revive you from, keeping the opposing squad from scoring off of your death. That's not exactly a new concept, but it's enough to organically force players in Uncharted 4's multiplayer to stick together while leaping, climbing and thanks to the addition of the new grappling hook — swinging all around the map, attempting to flank their opponents and gain higher ground. Loadouts are also deeper this time around, giving you more ways to outfox your enemies, support your teammates or go lone wolf, supported by summonable AI soldiers and powerful, supernatural Mysticals. Those boons have to be purchased with in-game currency, which you'll earn based on your performance and by hurrying to the treasures that spawn all around the map, giving you further impetus to always stay on the move.It was extremely easy to pick up on Uncharted 4's multiplayer component; within a few matches I was scoring big for my team, sneaking behind enemy lines with a covert cliffside approach or risky head-on grappling swing. With a bevy of unlockable loadout options and aesthetic upgrades, as well as plans for C that you'll be able to purchase solely with in-game currency, it seems like the tracks have been laid for the game's competitive side to have a pretty long tail. It’s a game full of great moments that I really don’t want to spoil for you, packing in arguably the strongest gun battles, chase sequences and puzzle trials of the whole series, and some of the most astounding ‘I can’t believe they actually went and did that’ gobsmackers too. Just the final act on Libertalia contains a game’s worth of astonishing set-pieces. Yet A Thief’s End seems to have learnt something from The Last of Us and its Left Behind add-on: knowing when to slow the pace down, give the characters some space and the player time to sit back and enjoy the moment.