Oh, how we already miss Nathan Drake—a roguish type indeed,who leapt, shot and puzzle-solved through his final adventure last year in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End after nearlya decade of damn-near perfect games from developer Naughty Dog (also known for The Last of Us and the Jak series). How sweet it was, then, tohear of The Lost Legacy, a one-timeDLC addition that ballooned into full-on standalone adventure starring ChloeFraser, Drake's former lover, cohort and general badass from Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Uncharted 4's Nadine Ross.
When we join Chloe, she's in India searching for thelegendary Tusk of Ganesh. Whether this is for money, power or some combo ofboth is unclear, but she's hired Nadine to act as a bodyguard (of sorts; Chloecan handle herself). We're pleased to report The Lost Legacy stands up as an all-around Uncharted experience, it just doesn't quite focus enough on thebest bits of the series as to be the perfect sendoff.
First things first, Chloe might just be better than Drake.We know, we know—them's fightin' words, and our hero even says it herself:"He's charming in his own way." But whereas the beloved Nate definitely camefrom small beginnings (boom—Francis Drake jokes), he seems to have mostly keptthe past in the past. Chloe, however, feels more human and relatable. Delvinginto her backstory is a quite satisfying ending to the larger Uncharted lore as many a gamer felt thisloose end was an oversight right around the time the credits for A Thief's End rolled.
Turns out her dad was an archaeologist who sent her and hermother to Australia after his obsession with that selfsame Tusk of Ganesh madethings “unsafe” for them. This sparked a similar obsession in Chloe, thoughthrough cleverly inserted cut-scenes and dialogue between our hero and herpartner, it becomes clear that there’s darkness underneath her motives. Is it a“Screw you, dad!” kind of thing? Or is it some misguided attempt to completehis work as a tribute? Either way, it sounds awfully Lara Croft-y (and is), butis somehow far better. Even with developer Crystal Dynamics’ recent forays into Tomb Raider stewardship, and thelong-overdue fleshing out of the Croft narrative, Chloe Fraser remains a farmore multidimensional character. We know she has trust issues, generally looksout only for herself and fears vulnerability, expertly deflecting it with goofyjokes and snide remarks. Voice actor Claudia Black (also known for Gears of War ) continues her excellentperformance from previous games, her slightly gravely timbre full of naturalchoices and nuanced, emotional delivery.
Still, the organic progression of the writing in Lost Legacy helps us to understand herpast motives (such as growing tired of Drake's shit and defecting to the sideof a Russian warlord for survival's sake). At her heart, however, she is good.Mostly. Ditto for Nadine, whom we only saw as hapless semi-villain in Uncharted 4, but who now gives us aclearer idea of why she worked with the unbearable Rafe Adler and why she's abit more complex than we assumed. For her part, she screwed up her birthright,the merc company Shoreline, and signed on with Chloe to regain a foothold. Shecares, she says, "because it happened on my watch." Laura Bailey (who rose toprominence in the VO game as Elizabeth in BioshockInfinite) brings a spot-on South African accent to bear as themilitary-inspired character, all at once tough and capable but withdrawn whilelicking the wounds of failure.
If this sounds heady or complicated or even just plainawesome for a video game, that's because it is. Naughty Dog has long straddledthe fence between interactive game and cinematic-narrative tour-de-force; Indiana Jones this isn't, but whywouldn't one want to interact with a CGI-movie caliber story and gamingexperience? Further, that we are given women characters who aren't representedas sexual objects or in need of male saviors is excellent. Oh sure, strongfemale leads have been an Uncharted staple,but it still bears repeating, especially since Naughty Dog never leans tooheavily on it as a gimmick, choosing instead to simply make them awesomecharacters, gender irrelevant.
But no game is ever flawless (not counting Uncharted 2 , whichpretty much is), and it seems that new-to-the-series directors Shaun Escayg andKurt Margenau may have leaned too hard into elements from previous games thatweren’t quite as exciting. It was much-ballyhoed that Lost Legacy would feature the largest open world Naughty Dog hasever created, and this is technically true. The downside, however, comes fromthe realization that there really isn’t that much to do there. Outside of aside quest that takes one all over the map and a few puzzles that rank betweensimple to full-on difficult, it’s mostly an excuse to reveal large amounts ofexpositional dialogue. For Uncharted veterans,this is forgivable or even welcomed; for newcomers, however, it’ll mostly feellike lots of driving interspersed with a few easy firefights with the bad guys.They belong to Asav, some kind of rebel who spearheaded a war in India and afine villain because he’s, like, spooky and stuff, but an easy representativeof the number one issue that’s plagued Uncharted all along: There’s not a whole mess of variety between stories and villains.
Like its forebears, LostLegacy falls under the loop of "hero goes here, soles puzzle, dimensionlessevil guy tries to stop them, gunfights ensue." It's fun, though, dammit! Andhell, if Zelda can churn out the samebasic game for three decades, this should be OK, too. It's best to just notthink about it too much, because we're talking about gorgeous games withincredibly over-the-top set pieces that play well.
Uncharted is thememory-maker, the long-standing top of the heap when it comes to blurring theline between game and film. If nothing else, we get a closer look at charactersthat previously lived on the periphery of the fiction and never quite got thechance to shine. At its best, Lost Legacyreminds us why we fell in love with the series in the first place; at it'sworst, it is still a blast. If this truly is the end for Naughty Dog's world ofNathan Drake, they'll go out on top with industry-defining writing andenvironment-building. Either way, we're just glad to see Chloe finally had herday in the sun and can't believe it took this long.
8
Rated M (Did we just kill 300 people?!)
$39.99
