UNCHARTED:THE LOST LEGACY

PS4

WHO wouldn’t want another 10 hours of play on one of their favourite games of last year?

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy was originally to be added DLC to the brilliant Uncharted 4 from last year but quickly moved to more than 10 hours of gameplay in the same mould as Nathan Drake’s adventures from 2016 – just without Drake. No problem. The main protagonists this time around are Chloe Fraser – treasure hunter extraordinaire and first featured in Uncharted 2 – and Nadine Ross, who, if Uncharted 4 was anything to go by, should be a bad egg, but not in this game.

Starting off, it felt like the game was a little slow to get going and the first chapter was almost boring. But everything changed as the storyline progressed.

The game looks incredible on screen and some of the set pieces are breathtaking – despite being linear in their layout.

It’s as much fun as you will have while holding a PS4 controller this year.

The banter between Chloe and Nadine is great and gives a sense of their ever-progressing relationship building.

The addition of a third character in the later hours of the story adds more scope for chit-chat between the heroes.

We follow Chloe in India on her search for the legendary tusk of Ganesh, son of Hindu god Shiva, who lost the tusk while defending his father’s temple.

It’s a search that took over Chloe’s father’s life and she feels she has to find it, so enlists the help of mercenary Nadine to recover the tusk.

Needless to say, she is not the only one who is after the tusk.

An Indian warlord named Asav wants it for himself to sell on to the highest bidder to help fund his bad-guy plans.

Chloe can climb, swing, and shoot just as well as any of the Drakes from previous outings.

The puzzles are sometimes excruciating but give a real sense of achievement once completed. However, one of them was so difficult to work out, the game offered to have Nadine take over and finish it.

A little embarrassed, I chose, “Yes” and moved on.

Quite a few games this year have looked great but almost too good to be computer-generated.

The imagery in this one is breathtaking and you’ll probably find you take a lot of pictures with Chloe’s phone.

Naughty Dog have given us a great storyline here and some beautiful set pieces as part of a brilliant game with excellent characters.

STEPHEN McKEOWN