Uncharted 4: A Thief's End: Farewell Nathan Drake!

Familial bonds. I am true believer of that term. Family makes us whole and complete. But there are times where one is faced with an impossible situation where one is asked 'How far will you go for your family?'. For our beloved hero Nathan Drake?....quite far it seems. So far as to put everything on the line and take that leap of faith of a sheer cliff.....on to that just out of reach ledge, rope or a helping hand. In Uncharted 4 its Nate and his family against the world of pirates and their intricate games. The game is not only Naughty's Dog best game of the series but also the concluding chapter to this venerable franchise. A hat's off to the directors Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley who have kept the sense of adventure alive while instilling family drama into the mix which elevates this white knuckle, hair raising, heart racing and adrenaline pumping action game into more than just your average run of the mill. Its when Lethal Weapon meets What's Eating Gilbert Grapes!!

Uncharted 4 plays exactly like the Uncharted we have come to know and love for almost a decade now. So tons of platforming and cover based shooting. Naughty Dog has added a couple of game play features like a grappling hook for traversal exploration and in some cases during combat. There are also a couple of instances of driving flighty vehicles in some decently open areas which helps with the pacing of the game.

One of the aspect of the game play that I really liked is how expansive the game feels during exploration platforming. Many of the areas are linear but the perception they give off is as if the game world huge. What that did is during some of the most exciting set pieces the action had a robust 'oomph' to it. Basically Naughty Dog didn't fix anything that wasn't broken, they just upped the ante quite a bit, which was quite clever considering this is basically the last Uncharted game the company is making. So power to the player then?

For to me the most fun moment I had during the game is when I was left to my devices in Nathan Drake home early on in the game. I just loved that feeling of normalcy in an outrageous action game. I went in each and every room and marveled at how meticulously Naughty Dog has observed the mundane. The visuals were able to convey that...homeliness...amazingly. The best I have ever felt in any game of any sort. I know I know many people will love some of the amazing set pieces and I know I did too but it was these small mundane moments which resonated with me.

Like with all Uncharted games the visuals are splendid. The motion and facial capture technology that Naughty Dog employs is still one of the best in the business. All the nuanced movement of the facial muscles and the exoskeleton are eerily real. As the plot is more deep than the previous games the visuals are able to telegraph all the expression of the face and body language during cut-scene which kinda got unnerving after a while but made for a wonderfully looking game.

For me the biggest 'wow' factors throughout the game was scenery. Beautiful environments which made me stop for seconds on end to take in the splendor and grandeur and to of course takes pictures. As I might have mentioned earlier in one of my articles the current generation of gaming will have some of the best skies and Uncharted 4 just did not disappoint. Many a times my siblings or my parents would watch me play and they would always comment on the horizons and vistas. 

There were just 3 instances during game play which had frame rate snags for maybe a couple of seconds but let the record state that I have finished the game without installing ANY of the update files.

The plot was pretty good this time round. Uncharted games never had riveting stories but they had hooks to get the players on their way but in Uncharted 4 the story is quite personal as it deals with Nathan's brother and how each decision that Nate make has a direct impact on all the loved ones around him. That in itself makes of decently heavy drama. Nothing too crazy but deep enough to make you care. There were quite a few occasions where I would be almost yelling at the characters! Yes there are plot holes here and there but in the end I didn't really care as I was enveloped in one hell of an adventure.

As the story was about family once again the game didn't disappoint at showing off the complex relationship in such a real manner. While the game focus was on the Drake Brothers, the marital relationship of Nate and Elena was as real as they come esp in a medium which has historically struggled at showing relationship of this sort. Wherever you look Naughty Dog has done a spectacular job in this game!!

All the story and characters were of course made alive by motion capture acting and voice work which was of the highest quality. Nolan North, Troy Baker, Emily Rose, Richard McGonagle, Laura Bailey and the new comer Warren Kole must be commended on their sterling performances. Not just in this game but in the entire series. No one was hamming, over acting or....under...acting, all the pitches were spot on and it just created this very Hollywood-esque feel which was fantastic. My voice actor of the year award though will go to Laura Bailey with her amazing performance boasting a really well done Afrikaans accent. We don't usually hear Afrikaans accents in games so this performance by Bailey was a head turner. 

Personally though the banter between North and Baker was once the main draw for sure which Naughty Dog and Sony marketed smartly. Here we have argubly two of the biggest voice actors going around putting on a grand show and no one coming off second best! Such chemistry is very hard to show in games but in Uncharted 4 really goes the extra mile in that department. The rest of the cast was great too with a nod to the newbie Warren Kole with a very fine performance. 

So as I start to conclude this piece I just have to mention the beautiful epilogue of the game. Don't worry I wont spoil anything but the way Naughty Dog elegantly concluded the entire Uncharted series tells us a lot about how attached the guys and gals inside Naughty Dog HQ were to the series for having created that epilogue. Suffice to say I was misty eyed with great deal of restraint in an effort to not cry. I wont call myself a die hard fan of the series but still consider myself a fan and I totally was enamored by the end. So here's me raising a glass of a chilled Coke on a hot and sultry Karachi night to Nathan Drake and his band of merry men and women. Thank you for the memories!

Game time: 17 hours 14 mins.

Game rating: 9.5 out of 10

inFamous: Second Son: Next generation has arrived!

Infamous: Second Son

When I first bought my PS4 a mere 15 days ago I was beset with guilt that maybe I had jumped the gun a little too early. My initial plan was to enter the next generation with the release of Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt next year but with birthdays and what not I found myself in a situation where I was given a choice of either getting a PS4 or a new phone. My inner gamer wouldn't have it any other way. PS4 it was! The first 3-4 days I only had Fifa 14 to gawk at, and while the game looked great I wasn't particularly impressed with the visuals (although playing virtual football is ALWAYS fun!). I thought all the hoopla of next generation graphics was just hyper active fan boys running amok on the internet. And I kept on thinking that maybe I should had gone with the much maligned Wii-U (long debate which I will NOT go into, so please DON’T JUDGE ME!).

But then a really great friend of mine lends me his copy of inFamous Second Son and everything changes! Now the inFamous games were always good on the PS3. The games always had some great fun game play which incorporated twitch based platforming with super hero shenanigan in a grungy and modern setting. Sucker Punch pulled no…punches… in their endeavours when it came to game play. Visually though both games on the PS3 were certainly good, they weren’t exactly at the top of the food chain.

Having followed the development of Second Son I was at least positive that I would get a good fun game to play but I didn't expected the visuals to be the tour de force. Let’s just say the moment the game started and I was treated with a cut-scene, all the doubts that I was harbouring simply vanished. THIS is what next generation visuals look like! I mean the facial animations were some of the best I have seen. The varying degree of lighting was caught perfectly, the particle effects were spectacular and the general animations were spot on. If this is how first generation of games will looks in the new generation I just wonder how awesome games will look 2-3 years down the line! 

Now if only the story and game play would have been up to the standard of the visuals this would have been an amazing game. Let me just get the story part out the way first. The story lacked the epic feel that was in hyper drive in the first 2 games. The plot felt like an episode from a TV show rather than a spectacular summer blockbuster movie. While the characters were given ample reasons for their plight and fight, in the end it kinda failed to have an impact and I just feel that Sucker Punch just missed a trick.

I guess the aspect that balanced out the weak plot were the characters esp. the Rowe brothers. Delsin Rowe while may look like your rote white male character we find so often in games, it’s his chip on the shoulder, smart ass and 'snarky' attitude that made him a pretty memorable main lead. You could tell from the moment you laid eyes on him that he is one mischievous bag of tricks. He is definitely a much better character than Cole Mcgrath. Reggie Rowe was basically the voice of reason and comes off as a worry wart but what would you do if you find out your kid brother was a smoke and laser zapping demi-god? I loved the relationship that was on show and there should be more games which explores the relationships of brothers in my honest opinion.

Having said that the other characters just didn't get much screen time to fully show case their person goals and vendettas. Then again I guess that is what DLC’s are for and we already know for sure that a story DLC is getting ready for release centred around Fetch, the crazed girl with amazing powers. I don’t know how I feel about DLCs that could have easily been in the game original game but I guess that is a topic for another day.

As I have alluded to earlier that the 2 inFamous games on the PS3 had fun game play and quite a lot of variety in missions. You always knew that the game would throw genuinely entertaining set pieces and fun sequences. Second Son had it share of fun moments but also had in tow some repetitive tedium to its proceeding. Any new section you would visit you had to take down mobile command centres, then gather blast shards and do other side missions (of same ilk) and then you would tackle main missions. It was fun at the beginning but by the end it got a little boring. Even the skills Delsin get throughout the game had the same problem. As the previous games were so solid I came of  a tad disappointed with Second Son. I mean none of the flaw are a deal breaker that’s for sure but it could had been much better.

Before I conclude my review I would like to give a mention to the voice acting in the game which was just ‘ridonkculos’!. Yes yes we have heard these voices before. Yes you can recognize the voices of Troy Baker, Laura Bailey and Travis Willingham which meant that the fidelity of emotions that were captured pitch perfect by these esteemed voice actors was spot. Its funny really that just a few years ago voice acting was always considered a foot note, mores so on consoles, but now it’s taken on a new dimension.

OK time to wrap this up. inFamous Second Son is easily the best AAA game on the PS4. Yes Sucker Punch could had gone all out and produced a sterling game but they didn't and rather created a really fun game from start till finish (clocking in 9 hours or so for yours truly) inFamous Second Son may not be THE game to buy a PS4 for but those who did (LIKE ME!) don’t have THAT much to complain! A solid 8.1 out of 10. Play time: 9 hours