I finished the game today and as expected, I was pretty satisfied with the story, after the excellent Thieve's End. One thing that didn't sit well with me is the very end they decide to give the artifact, which was the original motivation for the expedition, to the goverment/mistry of culture. I mean, the part when the group dedices to chase the bomb train and not innocent people die was understandable, even thieves and mercenaries are humans after all, but once they have done that they should just enjoy the loot. All three of the characters are on the shadier side of the moral spectrum for most of the duration of both games, driven by profit...so it felt like a bit forced happy end for my tastes. Other than that it was a great ride!

Does Cutter get mentioned or show up?

@achillesforever: nope

I Loved it overall.

I think Asav is underdeveloped and the overarching treasure hunt is the least interesting of the series with the exception of Golden Abyss but I love Chloe and Nadine's relationship and I think it develops in a really nice way. It looks incredible and they do a lot to make the environments look really interesting considering most of the game is set on one island.

Also, the last big action set piece is one of, if not the best in the entire series.

I know that it uses a lot of assets from U4 and the gameplay remains largely unchanged but I'm shocked they made this in a little over a year.

I really liked it!

Chloe is fantastic and after playing this I think she could fit nicely as the protagonist in future Uncharted games (since Drakes story is done at the end of 4). Nadine was my least favorite character from 4, but I think she is good in this and is a really good foil for Chloe. Their banter was as good as any in the series.

I thought the stuff with Chloe's dad was fairly cliche and boring though, but it didn`t take up too much time and didn`t negatively impact other story elements so it didn`t bother me too much.

And yeah. That last action sequence was amazing and ended the game on a really strong note. I just finished it yesterday, but I kinda already want to go back and play through that part again.

I finished the game today. As usual from Naughty Dog, a very polished, gorgeous game with great character interaction.

I find the best parts of Naughty Dog games are the quieter moments where they let characters develop and talk. It comes across so much more natural then a large majority of other games out there. I liked the relationship dynamic between Chloe and Nadine and was pleasantly surprised to see Sam back again, all be it for a rather brief amount of time - he still had some great funny moments.

And as others have said - that finale was awesome. Probably the strongest in the series. I liked the general pacing and build of the story over all, it built up gradually at first then really got going and had a great finish.

It just leaves me wanting more uncharted and I think Naughty Dog proved they don't need Nathan to make it work.

@mikey2d: I liked Sam as well, but now that I think about it, I think it would be better to leave Drakes out this time around. Glad they didn't pull Nathan in at least.

I enjoyed it and I agree that it seems uncharacteristic for them to give the tusk to a museum instead of the highest bidder. I thought the final fight with Asav was pretty shit, much like the end of Uncharted 1 & 4 it just felt like a QTE to me. The stuff on the train was great but there was some Uncharted 2 deja vu, which isnt too bad since I still think it's the best one.

I think the story in these games are generally very run of the mill but the banter is always pretty great.

I liked it, though it was very pared down compared to the 'bigger' stories the last couple Uncharted games have told. It was focused on one location and one pursuit, which reminded me of Uncharted 1 but not necessarily in a bad way. Unlike others I wasn't a huge fan of Nadine in this (she's not horrible, she's just...no Sully. Or even Chloe as a sidekick.) I thought it was weird how they replayed the story beats from 4. Finding the city you think you're supposed to go to only to learn that nope, there's another city where all the wealth is. That's an odd thing to play twice in a row. I also thought having Sam be part of a swim towards the light sequence was reminiscent of 4, and of course the train reminded me of 2.

The story of the young king was not nearly as compelling as that of the pirates, though part of that is just that the pirate story had a lot more time to grow. And of course there was nothing that resonated quite like Nate's lying to/fight with Elena or seeing Sully show up in 4, but those are characters I've spent so much time with that it's unreasonable to expect the first adventure with Chloe and Nadine could be comparable. That kind of emotional resonance needs time to build.

But the tighter more focused story worked, I thought Asav was a good villain compared to the bad guys of the first 3 games (I did NOT think he was underdeveloped compared to Lasarevic, let alone Navarro), and while I missed having a larger and more sprawling cast I understand the desire to focus on Chloe and Nadine (with just a sprinkle of Sam for seasoning.) Having Chloe and Nadine make fun of Nate was also always good for a chuckle, and a nice way to show that this is not his series anymore.

I did miss Cutter though. What's going on with Cutter? He wasn't even mentioned. That's kind of a shame.

Anyway, I hope they do make additional games with Chloe and Nadine, whether of the smaller more focused variety or the larger more sprawling style. Chloe is a solid character, I ambivalent on whether Sam should continue to tag along. I like Sam, I think he's a fun character, but he's so tied to Nate it mires the series in the past a little. Of course if Sam shows up with Sully in tow next time I won't complain. It might be cool to have a game where you play as multiple teams. Sam and Sully, Chloe and Nadine, and maybe even one more. Cutter and Tenzin? I don't know. It might add more variety to the experience, especially if the characters had somewhat different abilities (I did not love that Chloe played exactly like Nathan Drake.)

But I thought the story was good overall. If I had to rank the games for story it would probably be 2-4-LL-3-1. So I'd put this right in the middle. Interested to know how others would say this stacks up to the previous games.

The ending made sense to me because during one of conversations between Nadine and Chloe, she talks about the Museum giving her father a grant for one last expedition so in a way, I feel like she's completing the last job her father was sent out to do. That's my interpretation at least.

One thing I enjoyed was that it called back to a lot of the main Uncharted series. There was mention of machetes cutting down vines, there was an absurd shadow puzzle, stupid spinning disc puzzles, climbing all over a giant sculpture, light puzzles, the final set piece was a modernization of the train level (though after they did a similar trick for U4's big piece, it felt a little bit stale). I liked that they just made the final boss a simple little fight, even compared to Uncharted 4.

Really my only complaint is that I decided to play the game on Hard thinking there might be tiered trophies and that I wouldn't be playing this again for a long while, and that being a DLC it wouldn't be so hard. Most of the encounters weren't terrible, I just made bad mistakes during them, but playing on Hard definitely robbed me of a lot of the tension of chapter 9; I was essentially auto-save scumming until I finally made it to the end over an hour later, haha.

As for the story itself, it was fine. Pretty much entirely focused on Chloe and her daddy issues which made her a little too similar to Drake (makes more sense why he wound up falling for Elaine, this isn't a drawback to her character) with little hints of Nadine having a very similar mindset. It was cool to see Sam again if a little extra. I wish that there had been more cutscene work, though - the facial animation was incredible but where this game most exposed itself as the equivalent of a direct to video sequel that got the bump to a theatrical release was in its cutscenes, most of which were just Chloe and Nadine staring off into the distance while they talked nostalgically about the things that made them sad. The dialogue was typically nuanced as well, it was just fairly trope-laden and delivered in a repetitive way that didn't always present things in the most engaging way.

Overall I'm super pleased with this and couldn't be happier I paid the money for the deluxe release of Uncharted 4 with no expectations of ever playing the MP and no promise as to what the DLC might be; Naughty Dog more than delivered on their end and I look forward even more to seeing what lessons they learned from Uncharted 4 make their way into Last of Us 2 considering how much Uncharted 4 clearly learned from Last of Us.

I finished it up last night and thought it was a great game. It didn't feel like DLC at all, it just felt like it's own game.

Naughty Dog are worlds ahead of everyone else when it comes to making fantastic looking levels to run around. The amount of work and details put into some areas that you'll never spend more than 5 minutes in is mind blowing. I never felt like I was looking at the same assets over and over, everything felt new and unique with some minor exceptions - but those minor exceptions are things that would make sense to be repeated - like the circular door mechanisms.

I liked the story a whole lot. You get a good sense of Chloe and Nadine bonding, but it never feels forced. It's obvious they're not friends at the start at all, and that punch Nadine throws at Chloe looked vicious. Sam showing up was a nice surprise and I'm glad they didn't do anything like try shift him in as being more important than he was. He never took focus away from the two main characters. I thought Asav was a great bad guy and was portrayed very well. He didn't get much time to develop but I don't think he needed more than what he got for you to have a sense of what type of person he was.

I think my favourite part of the story had to be when Chloe finds out that her dad did make it to the lost city and was close to finding the tusk.

I'd love to see them do more "little" games like this with some of the other cast members.

Yeah, it felt like both characters where dealing with things from there past, and that made them change there motives during the game, and helped influence there decision to donate it later on. Nadine basically gave up on the family business lost on her watch, and Chloe was dealing with her past about her farther and heritage, so both of there motives changed throughout the journey. Sam was totally cool with keeping it tho, but got out voted.

I felt like this was there one time "we are the good guys" moment, and would totally sell another priceless artifact later on, but totally wont because uncharted games are all about having to stop the bad guy, who just so happens to be looking for the same treasure, from stealing an uncontrollably powerful artifact that could harm or destroy the world, and they have to do all they can for the greater good, even if that means giving up on the treasure.

Good beginning, middling (open world-like area) middle, and great, exciting end. I liked it, and it further brought small, surprise twists to the Uncharted formula that I wasn't expecting. Some good bits of dialogue in there and it was all really well acted. I was really surprised by the reprisal of Sam Drake here. The typical searching for ancient artifacts with villain was... typical, and the 'emotional' dramatic scenes in this, like Chloe's father story, fell flat to me even though like the rest of it was well acted. I really thought the much talked about open jungle section was the most boring part of the game. The game had good puzzles too I thought.

I also somewhat enjoyed the stealth/action sections a bit more than what was in four too. I just finished it like thirty minutes ago, I went into the bonus content, like unlockables, and the new renders are cool. It's awesome to make it cel-shaded. Also, it's cool that the things effect cutscenes too, like sound, costumes, and the renders. I am not sure if I want to go through the game on crushing. I like that this was also much closer to the game that came before and didn't just deal with its own contained adventure about treasure hunting. For instance, it's crucial (if you at all care) to know that Nadine's now former private military was against her in this, and she no longer wants to be a part of it, but a treasure hunter.

I love the instances where things you aren't expecting happen, like when Nadine pushes you off the cliff to get your head back into it, making you have to climb all the way back up. The scene where you do the puzzle that has the axe statues swinging with every jump on a platform, and when Nadine crosses, Chloe says 'watch out for that ax!' and something like 'I got you with that one huh?' and Nadine says something akin to '... Kind of.' I also liked that the characters had to share the rope since Sam didn't have one this time or that moment earlier in the game where you think you simply have to push down a box to get above just across from you, but it instead breaks the ground below, opening a different route. Also, the elephant moment was nice, similar to the giraffe part in The Last of Us.

I'm guessing they're planning more games with Chloe as the lead, so they're making her more noble.

I didn't like the big open area too much, much prefer the more linear areas in Uncharted games. Just feel like I'm always missing stuff and it's distracting. Though the tokens were pretty cool, gave you an objective at least.

Fantastic game though, that finale was intense.