Search

Search only in certain items:

UNCHARTED 4: A Thief's End
UNCHARTED 4: A Thief's End
2016 | Action/Adventure
Visuals (1 more)
Characters
Lack of set pieces (1 more)
Nadine
One Last Time...
This game was definitely my most anticipated of the year. Production was shaky, with the lead game designers being swapped over during the early stages of the game’s development, but the fact that Neil Druckman and Bruce Strailey had just finished developing the masterpiece that was The Last Of Us when they took this project on, I had every faith that this game was going to be great and it was, for the most part. The game opens with an aged Nathan who has left the treasure hunting life to settle down with his wife Elena. He now works as a diver for a salvaging company, but it is clear that he misses the more adventurous life. Then, long story short, Nate’s brother Sam is introduced into the fold and we get a fairly generic reason why Nate has never mentioned him in the past. Essentially Sam is in trouble and needs to pay off some dangerous people, which is why he needs Nate’s help in tracking down the pirate treasure that they began chasing a good number of years ago. Nate then lies to Elena about having to go to Malaysia for work reasons and their adventure begins.

The first thing that I want to praise this game for is its insanely impressive visuals. This is probably the best looking game that I have ever played through. Throughout the duration of the story, the player is granted with several outright beautiful landscapes and vistas. During the first half of Sam and Nate’s adventure, we see them go to Scotland, (which is actually where I’m from,) but that is probably the most boring location that they visit, everywhere else is warm and exotic and truly stunning. The incredible visuals caused me several times to get confused when I was given control of the player character, often times thinking that I was still watching a cutscene before realising, “wait, I can play this?!” The animations are also smooth for the majority of the game, for example early on in the game there is a mass brawl scene that takes place in a prison and although I was playing and controlling the punches that Nate was throwing, it looked like a choreographed fight from a movie like the Raid, which really did impress me in a big way. Although there are some animations that are a little more janky looking, especially when climbing and using the rope, but I’ll get back to that later.

As a character study, this is by far the best Uncharted game. The script is the best it’s been, the majority of the actors are brilliant in their roles and the relationships and emotions that are explored in this game are complex and compelling. However Uncharted is as much known for its characters and their relationships as it is for its epic, insane set pieces and that is sorely lacking here. There a few rinse and repeat building collapse and escape set pieces, which is nothing new to the Uncharted series and other than that, the big set piece of the game is the jeep chase that we saw at E3. Yeah, the biggest set piece in this game is a glorified car chase, as in pretty much the exact same jeep chase as we played though in Uncharted 2, but in Uncharted 2 it led to an epic train battle, which then led to the escape of the collapsed train. So basically, the biggest set piece in this game is only a portion of the awesome set piece that we already played through seven years ago. That is where this game sorely misses Amy Hennig’s influence, she really is a genius when it comes to epic action set pieces, whereas because Neil and Bruce are better are character, this is the main focus of Uncharted 4, but that’s never been the main selling point of the Uncharted series for me, but hey, it’s what we got, so let’s go through the characters that appear in Uncharted 4.

First of all, I do like this version of Nate, he is older more restrained and more reluctant to get himself into danger than he was before. His brother Sam is an okay character, if a bit of an arse at times, although he clearly knows his way around a treasure map and his relationship with Nate is quite an interesting one. It’s also nice to see Sully again even though his role in this game is fairly reserved, he is getting pretty old after all. The villains in this game aren’t great, which is pretty par for the course in the Uncharted series. The main antagonist is a wealthy man called Raef, he is about ages with Nate and he is a spoiled brat. He is a serviceable villain, but fairly generic and nothing to write home about. His sidekick, Nadine is the most unnecessary character I have seen in a game in a long time. There is literally no reason for her to be there other than for them to say, “look at us, we have a strong female character that can kick the male character’s ass, we aren’t sexist at all!” She brings absolutely nothing to the plot and if she didn’t exist the game would literally be no different to what it is now.

As I played through the game I marvelled at how well made everything was and up until about halfway through the game, my experience was totally smooth and seamless, but as I started making my way towards the end of the game, Nate started to randomly jut around as the animations felt more stiff and less free flowing. His hand was going through rocks, rather than leaning on them, his feet would either sink below the ground under him or hover above it slightly and then during one of the last chapters in the game, during yet another collapsing building escape sequence, while Nate was sliding, because I didn’t quite slide into the spot that I was supposed to, he got caught on a piece of debris and the game glitched out indefinitely. Eventually I had to restart the game from the last checkpoint to proceed. This was the only major glitch that I experienced during my playthrough, but when the rest of the game is so smooth, and that smooth standard is what you expect from all Naughty Dog games, this moment stands out like a sore thumb.

I feel like I have been quite critical of the game so far, but I really did enjoy my time with it. I was working full time while playing the game at nights, so it served as a nice respite from work and I savoured every moment of it, I had no intention to rush my way through to the end of the game, I think I beat it over 10 nights or so and that to me was a nice rate to play through the game at, because after you beat this one, that’s it, no more Uncharted, ever, so yeah, enjoy it. The game was a suitable send off for the epic series and as of now, it is my second favourite Uncharted game, behind Among Thieves. Unfortunately the glitches that I experienced towards the end of the game and the disturbing lack of set pieces throughout did detract from my experience, but if you are a long time Uncharted fan this is a must play and the standard of storytelling is truly astonishing.
  
40x40

Nicola Jane (6 KP) created a post

May 7, 2019 (Updated May 7, 2019)  
https://thegossipingmumsite.wordpress.com
        
4DX Cinema Experience Return of Zander Cage.

According to my 6-year old son our first ever 4DX Cinema experience was epic, and he loved the water and that is simply the end of the blog…. Of course I couldn’t really write about the best ever cinema experience we both have had in one simple line; but in the eyes of a six-year old it really is that simple.

I have taken my child to the cinema on numerous occasions and each time we have visited we have barely watched any of the films. I have tried many genres from animation, comedy and action but each film has been a wasted expense, and we have spent most of the time going back and forth to the lobby or for a toilet break, and using the theatre as a gymnasium has been more entertaining than actually watching the film or sitting still for any length of time. Needless to say when I became aware of 4DX cinema I hoped that this might offer my family a new way of being able to watch a film in the cinema from start to finish; and to actually enjoy it.

So what is 4DX Cinema?

The best way I can explain this new and exciting episode of cinema is to take you through my experience, and how it proved without fail to make my fidgety 6-year old enjoy; no let me get this right; ABSOLUTELY fall in love with cinema!

Cineword in Cardiff is the host to the first ever 4DX experience in Wales after its release in England and Scotland. Originating in South Korea it has now been integrated into cinemas across the world.

Screen 7 at Cineworld in Cardiff has been specially adapted for a 4DX cinema experience and features all the multi-sensory equipment from hydraulic chairs, wind turbines, smoke machines, water, smell machines and strobes. You are greeted by a massive 4DX neon sign with a list of special precautions and warnings; it almost fools you into believing you are about to step onto the Oblivion Roller Coaster at Alton Towers; its time to ride….

We grabbed our Popcorn and made our way to the auditorium settling ourself into the special seats. I had done a little research before our visit and I began our experience by pointing out all the special adjustments to the theatre and what might happen and I could feel his excitement starting to grow. The seats in the theatre felt almost akin to a fairground attraction with special platforms for your feet, and were very wide and comfortable; much better than your average seat. As the previews began you were reminded on two occasions of some rules and guidelines that needed to be followed from not standing on the lower platform and remaining seated unless the rest room was required; was I about to watch a film in its entirety without trying to keep my child in his seat?

I had decided that we were going to get our first experience of 4DX cinema by watching the film ‘XXX Return of Xander Cage’ which is probably not everyone’s go to film but for my action mad son it seemed the perfect choice. As the starting credits began you could feel a hydraulic brake release in the chair and it began to lean ever so slightly left, right, back and forward as it followed the opening credits which were stylised in the form of a long lit bomb fuse waiting to explode. One lean-to the left ‘BANG’ a title appeared, a lean-to the right navigated by a lean back ‘BANG’ a title appeared; 4DX in 3D was definitely an experience we should have tried earlier.

As the film begins ‘Vin Diesel’ appears strangely on top of a Satellite Ariel on Ski’s which he jumps from and free falls through the air and as he lands he continues to ski down through a forest on loose ground. This is where 4DX begins to kick in as your seat begins to lean and arch following his movements. Every crash to the floor you can feel a force inside of your seat that gravitates its way into your back (It does not hurt by the way), a rumbling vibration in the seat pad heightens your senses as he goes over stones on the ground, and the wind turbines make you feel the speed as he is skiing downhill. 4DX is one of the most immersive cinema experiences I have ever had, and it gets you starting to feel like you have just been given the magic ticket from the ‘Last Action Hero’ when the young Austin O’Brien who played Danny in the film actually became part of the film in real life; was my Cineworld Cardiff ticket starting to shine….?


REPORT THIS AD

I am not going to make this a review of ‘XXX Return of Xander Cage’ as this is not my intention and well there will be no spoilers here! The truth is I am going to jump to some key points where 4DX really did get our Adrenalin flowing, and for us the fight scenes really did work especially for my 6-year old son as 4DX really did feel like you were involved in the fight. Every kick you could feel a force inside your chair towards your back, every punch you could feel in the seat pad towards your legs, every shot bursts of air came flying through your hair as if the bullets were shooting passed your head. We were that immersed into the film that at one point my boy got carried away and had a mini fight with his seat as if it were one of the bad guys from XXX. Onwards into the film Xander Cage takes on a Jet Ski and as he lands onto the water bursts of water spray you in the face, and as he jumps and crashes back onto the waves a squirt of water is directed upwards and it lands onto you from above as if you had been splashed by the landing. Now I am not saying you are going to need a rain mac at this point because we are only talking water droplets and mist but it really does get you into the action of the film, and my boy absolutely loved it. Light strobes then go off as someone is crashed into a computer screen which pushes you further into the film followed by a speeding van driving across a gravel road. At this point in the film we almost jump out of our seats as something hits the back of our legs. It felt like the gravel hitting our ankles and you could feel a rumble through your seat pad as if you were experiencing every bump of the tarmac and each pot hole.

The one thing that I was left wanting more of was the ‘Smell-O-Vision’ as I wanted to smell the Chicken cooking in the kitchen at one point in the film, and well maybe that is one customer recommendation a bit too far. 4DX lives up to all expectations in both mine and my fidgety 6-year old sons books for not only was this the first film he sat through but he experienced so much more.

His words were as we came out of the film when I asked him to rate his experience out of 10 he said “No mum its 100 out of 100….”!

4DX has to be experienced and is worth every penny; your immersive experience is waiting for you don’t make it wait too long.