Just when I thought the Uncharted series was finished, Naughty Dog released Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. While this isn’t set on the same scale or budget as the previous titles, that doesn’t mean that this Nathan Drake-less Uncharted isn’t worth your time. If anything, Lost Legacy proves that the Uncharted formula works with or without Drake as the lead and, hopefully, opens the door to Naughty Dog revisiting the franchise in the future.
For those of your who don’t know, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy came out in 2017 after Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End as a sort of standalone expansion. However, it can be viewed almost as an epilogue or side story to the main franchise as it follows Chloe Frazer (Uncharted 2 & 3) and Nadine Ross (Uncharted 4) as they search for the legendary tusk of Ganesh. Along the way, you have everything you’d expect from Uncharted but shrunk down to fit a 7-hour game.
And it works excellently. I’ve always enjoyed Chloe’s character with her snark and daring but felt she wasn’t well represented in Uncharted 3. So it was nice to revisit her character and see her back to how I remembered her from her Among Thieves days. Nadine on the other hand was one of the highlights of Uncharted 4, as she regularly punched the Drake brothers and played the role of secondary antagonist. Meaning, that it’s interesting to see her from the other perspective. In Uncharted 4, Nadine was your enemy by circumstance rather than ideology, which meant that she was doing her job and that job just happened to be to try and kill Nathan Drake. Whereas in The Lost Legacy, her job is out the window and she’s instead tagging along with Chloe to find some treasure. It makes for an interesting twist and let’s dig a little deeper into her character.
And it works excellently. I’ve always enjoyed Chloe’s character with her snark and daring but felt she wasn’t well represented in Uncharted 3. So it was nice to revisit her character and see her back to how I remembered her from her Among Thieves days. Nadine on the other hand was one of the highlights of Uncharted 4, as she regularly punched the Drake brothers and played the role of secondary antagonist. Meaning, that it’s interesting to see her from the other perspective. In Uncharted 4, Nadine was your enemy by circumstance rather than ideology, which meant that she was doing her job and that job just happened to be to try and kill Nathan Drake. Whereas in The Lost Legacy, her job is out the window and she’s instead tagging along with Chloe to find some treasure. It makes for an interesting twist and let’s dig a little deeper into her character.
And as expected from an Uncharted game, the characters are excellent. With the same high-quality voice acting, motion capture and dialogue that we’ve come to expect, Lost Legacy doesn’t lose anything by not including Nathan Drake in the action. While you notice his absence, Chloe and Nadine are a compelling double act that will have you chuckling along as they argue and bounce off each other. On top of that, there are cameos from other series regulars like Sully and the other Drake brother, Sam. So even though, Nathan isn’t around, Uncharted still gets to stay in the family.
This is especially true for Chloe. The game gives Chloe is an interesting character arc. If you remember her from previous games, then you’ll know that she is single minded when it comes to treasure and will do anything for a big score. So the development in this game mirror the change in Drake throughout his adventures. And while it isn’t on that level and hasn’t had the same build up, it’s a nice addition and direction for her character. As you can probably tell, I’m struggling to explain this without spoilers, but suffice to say Naughty Dog’s character work is compelling.
Lost Legacy runs on the Uncharted 4 engine, so keeps all the improvements in visuals, combat and everything else. Meaning that it’s just as smooth a ride as Uncharted 4, and while the shooting isn’t perfect, it is more than enough for what the game wants you to do. In this way, Lost Legacy feels like a natural addition to Uncharted 4 and you can easily move from finishing one to starting the other. However, this is a noticeably smaller game and that does show in a few areas. Whereas A Thief’s End had lots of diverse areas throughout its story, the majority of Lost Legacy takes in similar areas. And by its nature of being a shorter game, there are fewer exciting set-piece moments to get the blood pumping. However, it still looks amazing, the areas make sense within the context of the story, and the climax at the end is some of the best Uncharted around. So rather than letting these limitations hold it back, Lost Legacy uses this to focus the game and deliver a more compact experience.
My only issue with Lost Legacy, is its legacy. I wish there was more. It’s been nearly four years since its release and it doesn’t feel like Naughty Dog are going to give us more Chloe and Nadine. Lost Legacy whet my appetite for more Uncharted with a different protagonist focus, but has since left me hanging. This means that Lost Legacy sort of fades into the background as it’s overshadowed by its Nathan Drake-starring predecessors. It’s unfortunate we haven’t seen more and maybe Naughty Dog will surprise me with something now that The Last of Us II has released.
Thanks for reading. If you’ve not done so already, go check out my other retrospectives reviews of Uncharted 1-4. And if you have, then why not check out George’s Best Bits article on Hitman 3 – a game about making your own set piece moments.
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