While a marked improvement over its predecessor, this installment still struggles to maintain consistent pacing and that keeps it come achieving greatness. The haphazard structure consists of extravagantly orchestrated set pieces strung together by awkward combat/shooting sections and dull platforming/puzzles. The game is at its best when these otherwise negative attributes are tied intrinsically into the fluidity of a constantly progressing sequence of increasing stakes and ensuing chaos (the Tibetan village siege and the Nepal city portion come to mind). This is where Naughty Dog's "blockbuster" illusion is most seamless. However, the inherent instability all leads to a final act that's disappointing and only highlights the issues listed above. For every downright electrifying moment, punctuated by the game's terrific dialogue and charm of its protagonists (plot itself is nonsense but whatever), is yet another shootout and then another after that and then some yellow bricks to climb and some colors to match to some tile. It's a formula that's steadily easier to predict and subsequently stales even if it might "work" on surface level terms. I sound much more negative on this than I really feel but this gets enough praise as it is.

Side Note: I wish Chloe was better utilized as a side character but I adore her dynamic with Elena so I'll take it.

Dreams, their curators, and the dreamers that perceive them. Takes on a bit much from Portal in its opening half with the humorous quips and jabs at the player but settles into something exponentially touching as it closes. It may be obvious to say this evokes Kaufman like vibes but the influence is there and it feels deserved. Whatever the game lacks in conceptual ambition it makes up for in sheer brevity. It does enough to make the simple two-three hour experience fly by and for a game that moved me to tears that is all I could ask for.

Lacking in inspiration in almost every aspect, a game that feels perpetually on autopilot. On top of the least responsive gunplay of the series thus far this has a greater emphasis on hand-to-hand combat and somehow feels clunkier than ever. It's hard to muster anymore leeway for the mediocre design choices in these games. It's the same tired formula that the previous two games relied on but here wrapped around a pseudo-serious storyline that attempts a semblance of thematic consistency for these characters and falls flat on its face. Anything worthwhile here is a retread of what Among Thieves does better (outside of the genuinely innovative shipyard/cruise section) and anything fresh otherwise is half assed (considering only half the ND dev team worked on this it makes sense). The game, for all its surface ambitions, is a dull mess. Fleeting pleasures with the ordinarily arresting Naughty Dog presentation, but all in all, exhausting.