Ever since Uncharted 4 was announced for the first time at November, you could hear the tidal wave of excitement miles away. I was part of the tidal wave since I'm a bit of an Uncharted fan from the superb Uncharted 2. However, I won't let my emotions affect my opinions and will give an unbiased review of this long-awaited game. I promise. Pinkie swear.
The game begins with an action-packed opening, Nathan and his older brother Sam are urgently escaping on a speedboat from unknown forces that want them both dead. You are immediately introduced to the controls of how to drive the boat and the camera. Once the enemies draw near and fire at you, you are urged to swerve the boat around to dodge the bullets. However, dodging won't stop a large enemy boat from ramming you, forcing you to swim back to your boat and take cover. The game now teaches you the gun firing mechanics in the game. Now this is how you do a tutorial!
There is no pause to the action, there's just little prompts on the screen telling you what to do. It doesn't feel forced or unnatural, instead it actually progresses the story. Naughty Dog has a history of incorporating gameplay to the story seamlessly, just look at The Last of Us. Naughty Dog also has a history of making incredible-looking games, and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is no exception.
In the next chapter of the game, you are introduced to young Drake in a Catholic orphanage. He is speaking to a nun regarding his violent behavior at nighttime. The facial expressions on the character models are frighteningly realistic. All cutscenes in the games are executed in real-time, unlike Naughty Dog's previous titles which used pre-rendered cutscenes. You can examine the character models in the main menu. You can see every small detail on those character models, from the pores of their skin to the wrinkles of their cheeks, from the strands of their hair to the sweat on their forehead. All of that can be seen in the game.
I can geek-out about polygon counts later, however. If you wish to a detailed look on the graphics of this game, I highly recommend you read or watch Digital Foundry's technical retrospective of it. Now let's dive in to the most important part of any video game: the gameplay. Uncharted 4 introduces many new gameplay mechanics to the game. The biggest ones being driveable vehicles, stealth, and a rope that can be swung at any available vantage point. All of which are easy to understand and can be used in different ways. However, stealth is the most in-depth addition.
Whenever enemies control the territory, you are given options. Come in guns-a blazing, silently take them out one by one, troll them with grenades, or sometimes sneak past them without using a bullet. When enemies see you, a diamond floats above their heads and when they fill up, they turn yellow. When they're yellow, the enemies start to investigate and see if it's really you, and when they do, their diamonds turn orange and they begin attacking you. You have plenty options to hide, thankfully. There's tall grass to cover yourself, so if an enemy turns yellow, you can duck behind the grass and they'll go back to normal; you can also silent kill an enemy who's in the grass with you. If you were already caught, you can run away to a hiding place and then the enemies will revert back to search mode.
[Review is a work-in-progress. Will add more information at a later time. Please bear with me. Writing reviews are difficult and require lots of time and effort.]