A wonderful ending to a wonderful game with a wonderful LP. I’m looking forward to the bonus vid.
I’m sad that Avery didn’t turn himself into a dragon in order to guard his treasure but I think that the game works as it is.
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Well, an Uncharted game finally made me cry
[spoiler]The first 45 minutes were really good, the whole set piece with the exploding ship and the swashbucklin’ duel as it burnt down around them was excellent, and for the first time in the story I actually cared about Rafe as a villain! Honestly I don’t really think Uncharted has ever really had interesting main-antagonists, but that moment with Rafe talking about his life been handed to him and “earning” his victory over Drake really contextualized him in a way I felt was really cool, and I dunno if that was a clear running theme in the game I’d simply missed, but it made me appreciate him a lot. Nadine too, it’s really cool to have a villain just throw up their hands and say “yeah this ain’t worth it” and step out, and it’s also pretty cool how thinking about it she thrashed Nate twice, once with Sam buddying up with him and only really ‘lost’ the second fight overall because Sam got the gun. She actually beat the Drakes in fights and lived to tell the tale??
And then that whole scene in the boat with Sam was so painful like, the story had set him up to die so hard and I was convinced it was going to happen, but we actually got the happy ending and I’m glad we did because honestly, I feel this sort of a story honestly needed it. And then the scenes that followed were wonderful and lovely and I was just gushing over everyone and as the first 45 mins came to a close I was so at a loss as to what could possibly be next and then the Epilogue happened and just, oh my gosh???
Cassie & Vicky, the crash callback, the house, the treasures, that last scene it was all so heartwarming and such a perfect ending and I spent the entire time in tears[/spoiler]
I’ve only experienced this series properly through these Let’s Plays since I never found the gameplay too compelling, but I really, really like UC4 - the series has always had such compelling characters but the stories tend to be kinda eeeh and although I’ve enjoyed each of the prior LPs I was never super invested in the plot bar the Sully fakeouts continually giving me heart attacks (I’m surprised there wasn’t one in 4 actually!) but this game was just wonderful from start to finish, and I was so invested in it. Between The Last of Us and Uncharted 4 NaughtyDog really deserve their due for far and away creating such great narrative experiences, I know a lot of people get at TLoU for straddling a line of being “too cinematic” and I assume UC4 recieves the same critique, but personally I think they do a great job of actually telling their story meaningfully through player-controlled pacing in ways that really deserve more praise
And you guys deserve credit too, thank you for this lp and for the lps of the whole series, Chip, Ironicus, they’re labours of love and you’ve done such a good job presenting these games
[spoiler]I’m really glad Sam survives, because I hate it when characters are trapped like that and people just stop at trying to lift it. It’s nice to see someone actually use their head and go “if you’re gonna die anyways, might as well try something insane and see if it works.” Also because with the lengths Nate goes to in order to save Sam, it would have felt really cheap to just kill him off and invalidate the efforts of the last few chapters.
Also I feel like the Metal Gear equivalent to the epilogue would probably be Snake training under Master Miller, and Miller prepping Snake to take on Big Boss. The irony of using his own son as a weapon against him. Which was basically the plot of a really cool and abstract Metal Gear fancomic.[/spoiler]
Anyways, thanks for the LP, C&I!
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I wish we could see Elena’s show just so we could have a special Sully and Sam segment where they show off the seedy underworld of whatever place they’re at.
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Ahhh, that ending was perfect! I’ve never played any of the Uncharted games myself, but I can’t say the LPs haven’t endeared me to them.
The first thing I thought when seeing the treasure room, other than how cool it looked as a setpiece, was that it might be a good comparison to Nathan’s attic at the start of the game. I didn’t notice much other than maybe the lighting between the two being comparable, but I do love the lack of any gravitas in actually finding the treasure you’ve been looking for the entire game. There’s no cutscene when you enter, just the line, “There’s your treasure,” and then you move on. You’re supposed to linger in the attic, but the treasure’s just a non-issue at the point.
Also, that last battle is amazing. Definitely the best in the series. Three comes in second because the setpiece is pretty good, but I don’t even remember who you fight in that one.
Does Nate’s picture with Tenzin appear in the cupboard at the end? I hope it’s there, but I don’t think I spotted it.
That ending was really lovely. Thanks for doing this whole series, C&I.
Now here’s hoping for a spinoff game with Nadine and Charlie Cutter.
Neat ending. Thanks for the LP.
May the Party Geese live on forever.
I really enjoyed this LP, I played the first 3 but never got to play this one, so thank you Chip and Ironicus for this!
Golden Abyss’ final boss fight was just a fist fight you controlled with the touch screen and the Rafe fight reminds me a lot of it. I do get the idea that Sam should have died, but I feel like Nate getting to save him feeds into the notion that he can be happier if he stops chasing legends and fantasies and I think that’s a more powerful message.
This was a great LP, thank you guys, I teared up as much as I did playing it. the Epilogue really makes it.
Thanks for all the awesome high quality LPs you guys. It means a lot.
Sam being killed off for the sake of drama would have been jarring. The series has repeatedly made it clear that it’s not really interested in that sort of exchange. I do wish one of the cannons had fired off in front of you on the way in or something, though.
I don’t think Sam dying would’ve been jarring because it would’ve made complete thematic sense.[/spoiler] That said, as Ironicus points out in the video, [spoiler]he does sort-of reject the treasure in the end, meaning his survival didn’t screw up the game’s themes as much as it could’ve.
In a vacuum, maybe, but when has Uncharted ever gone after that kind of thing? Especially when 3 went out of its way to mock the idea.
It probably doesn’t help that I noticed people going “oh man he’s gonna die” when they first announced the game and rolled my eyes out of my head. People have ended up developing expectations over when characters should die in this kind of fiction that I find…cheap? Maybe tedious is a better word.
[spoiler]I mean one could argue he’s rejected the treasure from the outset. The Alcazar story was just a lie to get his brother to help him. He only teamed up with Rafe because he had the resources. If he REALLY wanted JUST the treasure…wouldn’t he of just stayed teamed up with Rafe? That would of made everything else so much easier.
But no, he got Nate in. Because it was never about “the treasure”. It was about finding it “with his brother”. Sam’s obsession did start to get the better of him near the end, I feel, because hey being stupidly fabulously wealthy is pretty cool. But in the end that got him trapped under a giant structure support in a burning pirate ship. And even then, he managed to snatch enough coins to be set for life…and he gave it to his brother.
So yeah, while I do think the game PRESENTS a tale that could easily make Sam get killed, “a thief’s end” as it where, I think it’s stronger this way. Sam resisted the lure of the treasure to get his brother in on things, because finding it with him was important, and in the end when he did give in to that lure, it took his brother destroying the treasure to save him.[/spoiler]
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I almost wonder how much Naughty Dog themselves thought it over, because the actual epilogue doesn’t change a whole lot if Sam lived or died. I think it’s better that he did, since the game clearly didn’t want to end on a depressing note.
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I mean it kinda does. They couldn’t of done any of the stuff they did if not for the treasure that Sam planted on Elena. So in that sense he has to live.
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Just to clarify, I wasn’t suggesting the story would’ve been better if Sam had died. Y’know, just in case it seemed like I was.
I know, don’t worry. I think it’s really fascinating how we can look at this story and imagine ways it could of gone.
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As someone who has watched a lot of UC Gundam, I’m kinda at the point where character death in that manner just always feels sorta pointless and cheap, especially if highly signposted. You can only watch people sacrifice themselves or get blown up in combat so many times before it all just starts feeling like cheap pathos. So I was glad to see Sam survive.
Also didn’t mention it initially but I’m glad Nadine survived and just said “fuck it.” She always seemed a lot more logical, so I would have been annoyed if she’d continued on to the last in spite of it all.