Solid, but disappointing

User Rating: 8 | Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (Libertalia Collector's Edition) PS4

Great presentation and beautiful environments, but the actual level/mission design, enemy encounters, puzzles, etc. are disappointing. The game focuses too much effort on trying to make you care about the characters and look pretty (which it does well) and neglects the elements that make for a fun game. I enjoyed the cut-scenes a lot, but did not find the gameplay and overall pacing very engaging. There was a serious lack of quality environmental puzzles and the platforming/environment traversal was kind of boring and repetitive. Another thing that was bugging me throughout the whole game was the constant lifting of fallen beams and other obstacles to get through a passage. I thought this was ridiculous as in almost every circumstance, the characters could easily slide or crawl through the opening. It made no sense. This is just one example of how they struggled to design interesting things to do throughout the game.

Uncharted 4 is a solid game, but is nowhere near a 10. Time to slow down the hype train for this game as the station is approaching. The series peaked with Uncharted 2 which is quite a bit better IMO. Rise of the Tomb Raider may not have the presentation of UC4, but it is a funner game to play.