Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Review - A New Adventure With Some Familiar Faces

Written by Chris Woodside  on August 25, 2017

Reviews: The latest installment in Naughty Dog’s epic franchise gives diehards more of what they want, but the large open world is a major disappointment.

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Uncharted has undoubtedly become one of Sony and Naughty Dog’s most successful and lucrative franchises. It should come as no surprise, then, that the Uncharted universe would come to an end with Nathan Drake’s journey in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. A new focus away from Drake’s character serves as a fresh coat of paint for the series in Lost Legacy, but it’s hard to see Lost Legacy stand out from the longer and meatier numbered installments in the past.

The Lost Legacy’s greatest strength is the relationship between the two main protagonists, Chloe Frazier and Nadine Ross, and the brilliantly crafted story. Both of these characters are familiar to fans of Uncharted 4, and the writers do an excellent job of maintaining the same wit and humor of past games in the series, while also providing the serious dramatic dialogue towards the end of the game. The chemistry between the two character is so strong, that I found myself actively looking to complete the optional dialogue moments throughout the story, because I became so invested in the relationship between Chloe and Nadine.



The amount of detail put into this game isn’t only seen in the relationship between our two main characters. Simply put, Lost Legacy continues Uncharted’s tradition of stunning visuals. When Uncharted 4 was first released, few games looked as good on the PlayStation 4. This is the first Uncharted game really built from the ground up with the PlayStation 4 Pro in mind, and it shows. Having played this game on both the Playstation 4 Pro and my 4K television, I was truly blown away by the intricate attention to detail. Naughty Dog games have long been a master class in art direction and design, and The Lost Legacy is no exception to that.

I was largely disappointed when I reached around the halfway point of the game though. It’s here where The Lost Legacy breaks from past Uncharted games by providing players a somewhat open world area, where you can explore and do tasks in whatever order you like. The problem with the open world in this game is that there is just nothing in there. India looks beautiful and I had a lot of fun exploring and looking at nature, but after experiencing the open worlds of games like Horizon: Zero Dawn and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild this year, this just seemed like a half-baked, afterthought of an open world which discouraged open exploration rather than encouraging it. Still, it was a bold move to bring a series that is known for being a fairly linear experience into an open world, and may be something Naughty Dog builds upon for future adventures in the Uncharted universe.



I think Uncharted: The Lost Legacy’s proof of success is that it succeeds without its iconic hero, Nathan Drake. Few developers can take two secondary characters from its series and create a game that in many ways lives up to the success of previous main installments. The Lost Legacy is definitely weaker than other games in the series, but it is a strong enough adventure on its own thats fans will readily accept this adventure as part of the beloved series. Despite its empty open world and mechanics that don’t seem to bring anything new to the series, I would absolutely recommend this game to fans of the Uncharted series. I was satisfied with the ending Nathan Drake got to his story in Uncharted 4, and I thought that might be the last we see of this series. After playing The Lost Legacy, I hope we see more of Chloe and Nadine in the coming years.