Tested Games
Nathan Drake is nowhere to be seen, but Playstation’s most bombastic franchise remains a blast in this blockbuster follow-up to Uncharted 4
A Sonic comeback and an Uncharted return
You should know how the Uncharted games work by now. Take a whip-smart lead with more one-liners than the entire Edinburgh Fringe, add a lot of crumbling scenery and an ill-defined baddie, and you’ve got yourself a whole lotta fun. In these terms, and many others, The Lost Legacy doesn’t disappoint.
After Nathan Drake’s awesome last hurrah in Uncharted 4, this may be the series’ first instalment not to star the eternally boyish hero, but little has changed in almost every other respect. Crucially, that includes a central pairing that you’ll root for until the end credits.
Replacing Nate and Sully are Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross: an odd coupling where one member rattles out wisecracks to mask her vulnerabilities and the other relies on experience. They share some hairy moments and find a common bond through them.
All this might make The Lost Legacy out to be a cookie-cutter spin-off, but it’s in the low-key moments that this adventure really endears itself. While the tricksy Chloe will happily lockpick her way through a door, Nadine prefers to take a shortcut and smash its glass window. In other words, they’re proper characters rather than a couple of B-list archetypes who’ve been shoved centre stage – even if they do still need a little more time to establish themselves in their own right.
Once you’re done running and gunning your way through a thrilling cavalcade of gorgeous set pieces, it’s this stuff that’ll have you yearning for more Uncharted – not The Lost Legacy’s flirtation with open-world exploration, or an overly insistent photo mode that similarly detracts from the game’s rat-a-tat charm.
Still, these dalliances never go so far as to derail what is an otherwise joyously gurn-inducing affair. It’s one that can’t match the climactic drama of its predecessor, but promises more of that in the not-too-distant future. Rob Leedham