Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - a third-person action adventure with elements of a three-dimensional platformer. For most of the game, the player’s control has one character, Nathan Drake. In Chapter 5 of Hector Alcazar and in the Epilogue, the player controls Sam Drake and Cassie Drake, respectively. When moving through a level, Drake can jump, cling to ledges, swim, use ladders, grab ropes and sway on them, and perform other acrobatic tricks. In the arsenal of Nate, a rope with a hook appeared, with the help of which, catching, you can overcome large chasms and pull various objects towards you, as well as a special hook that allows you to climb high rocks in certain places. During his journey, Drake keeps a diary in which the found letters are stored and contains hints to puzzles.

As before, the hero can simultaneously carry a limited number of firearms and ammunition to them. One pistol and one machine gun or rifle, as well as up to four grenades or sticks of dynamite. During the battle, Neith can use cover and fire aimingly or blindly. The game has remained the possibility of silent killing of enemies , and the stealth mechanic itself has been significantly improved. Now you can hide in the tall grass, as well as tag enemies. The game has QTE moments .

Like the previous parts of the Uncharted series , A Thief's End is a linear game , but the increased locations several times add to the game the moment of exploration. So in the chapter "The Twelve Towers" for movement on an extensive map, Drake uses an SUV, and in the chapter "At Sea" - a boat. Drake can at any time leave the vehicle for a more detailed study of the object of interest.

The artificial intelligence of enemies is the development of AI from the past project Naughty Dog, The Last of Us . Enemies are now able to respond to player actions more responsively, coordinate tactics, and cooperate with each other. Drake’s satellites, ranging from one to three, are also controlled by artificial intelligence and help Nate in combat situations, although the player cannot command them directly. At certain moments of the game, there are opportunities to activate dialogues with satellites, by analogy with The Last of Us .

Characters

The main hero of the game, as in the previous parts, is the treasure hunter Nathan "Nate" Drake . His adventures are accompanied by best friend and mentor Victor "Sally" Sullivan, a journalist and Nathan's wife Elena Fisher, and his older brother Samuel "Sam" Drake, whom Nathan considered dead for 15 years. The main antagonist of the game is Rafe Adler, 15 years ago with the Drakes brothers made an unsuccessful attempt to find the treasure of Henry Avery . Having inherited his father’s company, Rafe hired a private military organization, Shoreline, to search for treasure and protect it from rivals ^{. 1]} which is headed by Nadine Ross.

History

The prologue takes place 15 years before the main events of the game, as well as before the events of the first part of the series. Nathan Drake is with his brother Sam and accomplice Rafe Adler in a Panamanian prison. They bribe the security chief of Vargas to allow them to investigate the abandoned cell in the destroyed tower on the prison grounds. In the chamber, Neith finds the cross of Saint Dismas , in the cavity of which, according to the heroes, there must be a map indicating the location of the treasure of Henry Avery , but the cross was broken and the map was missing. Sam offers to continue the search for treasure in Scotland, where the Cathedral of St. Dismas is located and where the footprint of Avery is lost. Vargas, having learned about the heroes ’treasure hunt plans, requires them to include him in the share, but Rafe kills him and the heroes have to flee. During the escape, the guards open fire and hit Sam, after which he falls from the roof of the building. Rafe convinces Nate that his brother has died and cannot help him. Nate reluctantly agrees, and together they escape from prison.

Since then, 15 years have passed (and three years after the events of Uncharted 3 ): tied up with a treasure hunt, Nathan Drake works as a diver in the private search and rescue company Jameson Marin in New Orleans and has a quiet family life with Elena Fisher ^[10] . One morning, Sam came to his office, who survived the injury and was again sent to prison for the murder of Vargas. According to Sam, he was able to go free thanks to drug lord Hector Alkasar, with whom he spent the last year in the same cell. After escaping, the Alcazar gave Sam three months to search for treasure, threatening him with murder. Sam also found out that in three days in the estate of Rossi in Italy an illegal auction will be held, in which one of the lots will be another Cross of St. Dismas, this time a whole. Nate and his brother went to Italy, telling Elena that he agreed to work in Malaysia , for which Jameson, Nathan's employer, persuaded him for a long time.

The brothers were able to get to the auction thanks to the help of Victor Sullivan, who was familiar with the organizer of the event. At the site it turns out that the order of the lots has been changed and the Dismas cross will be set up in just a few minutes. The heroes decide to commit sabotage by turning off electricity, and using the confusion to steal the cross. However, Rafe interferes in their plans, which all these years has not abandoned attempts to find Avery's treasures. Having inherited his father's company, becoming a very rich and powerful man, Rafe hires Nadine Ross and her army from the private military company Shoorline to search for treasure. After the kidnapping of the cross behind the heroes, the hunt begins, but they manage to leave the estate and escape from prosecution.

Inside the cross, a map is revealed, according to which, the next clue is not in the Cathedral of St. Dismas, but in a cemetery not far from it. In the Scottish highlands , Neith and Sam find another clue that points to Kingsbey, Madagascar . At the same time, Nathan began to suspect that Avery was recruiting other pirates for some purpose.

In Madagascar, it turns out that Henry Avery, Thomas Tew and ten other pirates have combined their treasures into one common treasure. Having solved one of the puzzles, Nathan understands where to look for him. Looking up once again from the pursuit of Rafe and his people, Neith and Sam tell Sally the legend of Libertalia , a mythical pirate colony founded by Avery and other captains, and judging by the evidence found, Libertalia is their treasure. In the hotel, the heroes unexpectedly meet Elena. She is angry with Nathan because he was deceiving her about her work in Malaysia and never told her about his brother. Justifying himself, Neith assures Elena that this time he is not driven by a thirst for adventure, but by the need to save Sam’s life. After a quarrel, Elena leaves, and Neith decides to continue the search for Libertalia.

According to the calculated coordinates, Neith and Sam are sent to the island, where, supposedly, is Libertadalia, but they are overtaken by the mercenaries Nadine Ross. During the chase, the boat of the heroes falls into a shipwreck, and Nate himself is thrown ashore. After meeting Sam, the brothers look for Libertalia, where they find traces of fighting between the founders and the colonists. It turns out that the pirates lured the colonists to the island with stories about Libertalia and took all the gold from them. In the Treasury building, Drakes learn that the founders brought it to the city of New Devon on the other side of the island to protect gold. On the way to the city, the heroes are captured. Rafe tells Nathan that it was Sam who rescued Sam from prison to help him find the gold Avery, and Hector Alcazar was shot six months ago in Argentina . Considering that he no longer needs Nathan Drake, Rafe shoots him, but Sam gets up on the way of the shot and gets wounded in the shoulder, and Nathan falls off the cliff. Downstairs, he is found by Elena, who arrived on the island with Sally.

Nate tells Elena the whole truth about himself: as a child, he escaped from the orphanage, and together with his brother they tried to steal property that once belonged to their mother from one mansion, but were caught by Evelyn, the mistress of the house. After finding out who they were, Evelyn told that their mother, Cassandra Morgan, was a historian who worked for her and specialized in stories about famous pirates, Henry Avery and Francis Drake . She gives away the diaries of Cassandra and suddenly dies from an attack. Frightened, the brothers escaped from the mansion, as Evelyn had previously managed to call the police. Sam invites Nate to continue his mother’s work and change his real names Morgan to Drake in order to avoid problems with the law. So Sam and Nate became treasure hunters.

Helen and Nathan are sent to New Devon to rescue Sam from captivity. It reveals that Tew and Avery poisoned the other founders of Libertalia and tried to take away all the gold from the island on the ship Avery. The heroes find Sam and persuade him to leave the island, however, taking advantage of the right moment, Sam escapes and goes for the treasure. Nate decides to save him again.

Nathan enters the cave where Avery’s ship is located. At this time there is a conflict between Nadine and Rafe. Having lost most of her people from the traps of Avery, she is going to leave the island with several boxes of gold, but Rafe does not want to be content with little. On the ship, filled with gold, the traps set by Avery work, and the fire begins. Nate discovers his brother, crushed by a beam in the ship's hold, and Rafe and Nadine are also there. She disarms Nathan first, and then Rafe. Pointing to the corpses lying next to each other that killed Avery and Tew, who were also obsessed with treasure, Nadine locks the heroes in the hold and escapes. In the final battle, Neith defeats Rafe, frees his brother, and together they leave the crumbling cave. Nate and Elena return home, and Sam and Sally decide to work together.

A few days later, Jameson announces to Nate that he has sold his company and Nate is its new owner. Elena explains to him that Sam managed to grab a few jewels from Libertalia and, thanks to this purchase, Neith will be able to run a legitimate business, and Elena will revive his TV show. The first project will be the same work in Malaysia, which Jameson talked about.

A few years later, Nathan Drake was really tied up with a treasure hunt and, along with Elena and daughter Cassie, lives in a house on the ocean. When Cassie finds artifacts from Nate's past adventures, he decides to tell her about his past, starting with a retelling of the events of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune .

On November 14, 2013, the teaser of the new part of Uncharted , developed exclusively for PS4, was shown, while the teaser did not have the subtitle “ A Thief's End ” and the number “4” ^[11] .

At the end of March 2014, Naughty Dog was left by Amy Hennig ^[12] , who served as creative director and lead scriptwriter for the Uncharted series of games, and Justin Richmond ^[13] , who was the technical director of the series. ^[14]

In the second half of April 2014, Uncharted 4 creative director, Neith Wells, leaves the studio. ^[15]

On June 2, 2014, during a Game Informer interview, co-president of Naughty Dog Evan Wells said that Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and The Last of Us are Neil Drakmann and Bruce Straley ^[16] .

On June 10, 2014, during a Sony press conference at E3 2014 , a game trailer was shown, where the prefix “ A Thief's End ” was added to the main title. At the beginning of the video says that what was happening was recorded directly from the PlayStation 4 ^[17] .

December 6, 2014 at the PlayStation Experience conference, the gameplay video was first demonstrated ^[18] .

June 16, 2015 at the E3 2015 conference, a new gameplay video was demonstrated.

On August 31, 2015, Sony announced the game’s editions and set a release date for March 18, 2016. ^[19] It also became known that for the first time in the series, the game will receive a storyline addition. ^[20] In December 2015, it was announced that the release of the game was postponed to April 26, 2016.

From December 4 to December 13, 2015, the studio conducted an open beta testing of the multiplayer game among owners of the Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection collection . ^[21]

On February 24, 2016, Naughty Dog studio released a new trailer for the game. Among other things, in the trailer there is a picture which depicts a rocky seashore with a broken boat lying on it. This image is a copy of the concept art for the game Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag . Studio Ubisoft accused developers Uncharted 4 of plagiarism . Naughty Dog recognized the mistake and made changes to the trailer. ^[22]

March 1, 2016, the studio again moved the release date, from April 26 to May 10, 2016. ^[1]

From March 4 to March 7, 2016, Naughty Dog conducted another open beta test of the multiplayer mode. This time, all PS4 owners have access to the beta. For testing, players had one “ Team Fight ” mode and three cards. ^[23]

March 19, 2016 the studio Naughty Dog announced the completion of the development of the game and sending it "for gold". ^[24]

December 4, 2016 at the event PlayStation Experience 2016 was the announcement of the spin-off of the game, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy , where the main characters are Chloe Fraser and Nadine Ross. ^[25]

The soundtrack to Uncharted 4: A Thief's End was written by British composer Henry Jackman , best known for his work on films such as X-Men: First Class , Captain Phillips , First Avenger: Another War , Kingsman: Secret Service , etc. Uncharted 4 became the second for Jackman a project in the computer games industry , after working on Just Cause 3 . The soundtrack was released on May 10, 2016 on the day of the game's release. ^[26]

The game was released on May 10, 2016, simultaneously around the world. The game is available in three editions in addition to the standard. Special Edition , Libertalia Collector's Edition and Digital Digital Standard Edition . ^[27]

In just one week from the release, the game sold around the world in the amount of 2.7 million copies and became the fastest-selling game in the history of the series . ^{[28] [29]} In May, Uncharted 4 topped the video game sales chart in the United States ^[30] and the UK . ^[31] On December 21, 2016, the game was sold worldwide in more than 8.7 million copies, making it the best-selling game in the history of the studio. ^[32]

According to the results of the E3 2015 exhibition, Uncharted 4 was recognized as the best console game, the best adventure game, and also received a special prize for graphics ^[56] .

May 5, 2016, Sony lifted the embargo on the publication of reviews. The game received high marks and rave reviews from the media covering the gaming industry. ^{[57] [58]} On the aggregator website Metacritic.com , the game has an average score of 93 out of 100, based on 112 reviews, 110 of which are positive, 1 mixed and 1 negative. The only negative review was written by The Washington Post, putting the game 4 points out of 10. This review displeased Uncharted fans who created a petition on change.org ^[59] requiring Metacritic not to take this review into account. ^[60]

In 2016, Uncharted 4 won the first place in the Metacritic rating, gaining 93 points out of 100 ^[61] .

Russian-language media also left positive feedback about the game. Such publications as 3D News , PlayGround.ru , “ Gambling ” and others gave the game maximum ratings. At the choice of the editorial board of the “Igromania” magazine, Uncharted 4 became the winner in the nomination “Game of the Year” ^[62] . The editors of PlayGround.ru also recognized Uncharted 4: A Thief's End as the best game of 2016. ^[63]

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Sources

• Official site