Easily the best in the series. The gunplay has finally been improved and you no longer feel like you're shooing sheets of metal instead of an organic being. The story gets a MUCH needed boost too with the writing team of The Last of Us coming aboard. I actually felt involved and invested in a way the first three games never did. Rafe, Nadine and Sam aren't the one note characters we saw in the past games and really helped with the aforementioned immersion. A Thief's End even takes the piss out of some of the past games' writing too which I thought was kind of an own.

Platforming is given new depth and the combat arenas are much better, with enemies actually going down in a feasible amount of hits, and you no longer have to empty a full clip to kill someone. Better weapon variety and stealth helps here as well. Honestly being able to clear through a section entirely in stealth or being able to sneak past on your own terms was great. You also get complimentary commentary from whichever ally(s) you have with you on whatever route you DECIDE to go down, which is nice. Yeah, there's still lots of this game on rails but it succeeds in immersing you in these sections way better than any of the past three games. If all the games were of this quality it'd be arguably the best IP Sony have imo. I can honestly say that the shipwreck section from Drake's Deception and the jet ski section from Drake's Fortune were worth enduring for the story of this game to have more weight.