This game is absolutely magnificent, I will start this review off by saying it's not better than Uncharted 4 but it holds up well for being its own game instead of an expansion title. Given that it probably would've worked better as an expansion game, it's pretty impressive it can stand up on its own. That being mentioned though, one of the main faults in this game (to me) is that its wayyy too short. It could've stood to be just a little longer in my opinion, though I can appreciate how it doesn't overstay its welcome like Uncharted 4 kind of did, playing 4 I often found myself thinking "Okay, we're definitely near the end now" and nope, no we were not, but I don't think that knocks off any points for me though, I do like a long video game. Moving on to my next critique, the pacing in this game just seems so slow and off at times to fall under the action category, nonetheless an Uncharted title. The open world chunk of the game is really where you'll spend most of your time, especially because they send you on a fetch quest for the Hoysala tokens needed to get the Queen's Ruby bracelet that assists in finding treasures near by glowing red and vibrating your controller, if you don't care to do this side quest, you'll spend a lot less time in that section than me and many others and the pacing will probably march along to the beat of a normal Uncharted game. Speaking of the Queen's Ruby side quest, I'd like to say I did thoroughly enjoy doing it even though it can be simplified into just driving a ton of places, killing some bad guys and maybe doing some parkour or puzzles (I can't really remember each token's requirement to achieve) and then going onto the next one, I found most of the puzzles quite enjoyable and I will say it did add a nice texture to the world. This brings me to my next point, the Uncharted franchise is consistently breathtaking in the views and world building, Naughty Dog knows how to make a game regardless of what people say about some of their more "scandalous" story telling decisions, which I'm sure we all know what I'm talking about (cough, cough Joel's death) Naughty Dog's games are never anything short of some of the closest games to perfection we'll ever get, every cutscene has something beautiful to appreciate, each view significantly more gorgeous and grandeur than the last. Not even to mention how amazing the views are when Chloe has a photo taking opportunity, just so damn close to perfection it makes you wish it was real and if there are actually places in this world that exist that are so perfect like that. Continuing on, the landscapes in the open world are so cleverly placed and mapped out and fun to explore and traverse, nothing to write home about but they're better than a lot of other "levels" or areas made for combat or puzzles. I will mention, for the first couple hours in the open world portion, I found it so hard to traverse and drive through, I was looking at my map literally every other couple second to make sure I was going the right way because it was so easy to drive in one direction to get to one area and somehow end up in another because of the map connects different corners of the map, this is MOSTLY player error though because I am a tad directionally challenged at times in video games, I am not too mad at this part and it doesn't really matter to me because I feel it fits the thick jungle environment you have going on in the game to get lost or confused. One thing that SEVERELY annoys me about the Uncharted franchise is no dedicated run or stealth button, I absolutely hate that and there isn't too much to say about that in this review because it's self-explanatory, but I feel like in an action game not being able to run especially when you're doing a timed puzzle such as the water fountain jumping puzzle is utterly asinine. However, the combat aspect of the game is, in my humble opinion, superior to the Uncharted 4 combat, I mentioned in my Uncharted 4 review that the hand-to-hand combat feels heavy most of the time and I still 110% stand by that, but the only other game I've personally ever played with melee combat that silky smooth is The Last of Us 2, which TLOU2's is miles better but I digress to say they're somewhat comparable. I really enjoyed Chloe and Nadine's dynamic, they're both such softies for each other, when Nadine was mad at Chloe for working with Sam behind her back and they were fighting was one of the best parts of the game and I sincerely hope their story together gets expanded on in the future and we get to see more of them being little softies for each other, I hope we see more of Nadine, Chloe and Sam together as a trio way more though, I loved that little glimpse we got of them right at the end. I will say the character dynamics and the views are really the backbone for this game for me because the story and Asav, who is supposed to be the "villain", are both just so bland... Maybe it's my attention span, but I really couldn't even tell you Asav's motives for wanting the Tusk or the story of the game, I just found this game substantially harder to follow than 4 which is really disappointing and let me down because the potential of this game was ample, I found a lot of areas of the story to lack creativity and the gameplay to be predictable which is why I say if you've played one Uncharted game, you've played them all. All in all, I think for the amount of time this game takes up (for me, around 12 hours over the span of multiple days), it wouldn't hurt to play it, it's all good exploration and action fun and you can't really go wrong with that. Would I say it's a must play for every gamer? Absolutely not, but if you're someone who likes Naughty Dog or games like Uncharted, I'd totally bring it up as a suggestion. My only genuine advice would be to play Lost Legacy before Uncharted 4 because there's no way you can play 4 before LL and still appreciate LL for all of its good qualities without constant comparison between the two and that's what really put a notch in my experience with this game, knowing how much better it could've been and that the potential of this title was not even close to even a quarter of being maximized for player experience and enjoyment.

Timeless and beautiful graphics & gameplay. My favorite part was chapter 12 "At Sea" I loved being able to drive the boat around and search for new areas to explore and find trinkets. The puzzles are hard but fun! This game is never not a recommendation. The environments are big and beautiful. El Dorado, once you find it anyway, doesn't disappoint. Most of the game impressed me and hardly disappoints all around. Combat can be frustrating and feel heavy sometimes but I played this a couple years since then and my gaming ability has gotten better, so don't take my word for that. Definitely justice for how they did Nathan in that Uncharted movie though, bro deserved better lol.

Even if you're not somebody who is into Star Wars, there are quite a few reasons I'd recommend this game. It's immersive as heck, seriously, this is one of those games where you pick up the controller and don't put it down until late at night, this game will literally have you waking up earlier to play it more lol. The combat is fun, not the smoothest in existence but still feels good and isn't clunky or hard to memorize. The navigation and traversal can be a bit confusing (I'm looking at you Zeffo...) a quick tutorial online can help you through that, some of the bosses are ridiculously hard, for me that was the Second Sister, it's a pretty good balance of fun and frustrating though, so when I finally beat her it was probably amongst the most rewarding feelings I've gotten from finally beating a boss in a game. The graphics are pretty nice but nothing to write home about. Honestly, my biggest problem with this game is the fact they give you the Kyber crystal way too late in the game, I would've loved to change the color of my lightsaber a lot earlier. I also would've liked a bit more customization to your lightsaber, possibly being able to upgrade the attack or other things about it other than the color and the handle. Overall, MORE than worth a play for some good, immersive fun and an absolutely lovely game, doesn't drag on for too long and doesn't tell a lackluster story.

I have a lot to say about this game. The graphics and cutscenes are gorgeous, the combat is somewhat fun at first but those are about the only redeeming qualities of this game. I appreciate the hard work and effort put into this game by the people who helped make it but at what point does the overwhelming inspiration this game takes from God of War become direct plagiarism? Some of the few things I clocked less than an hour into the game at the time were the dodging animations, how the enemies will appear fatigued and glow when there is a finisher ready to be performed, how Jesse kills enemies using the finishers, the jumping/climbing traversal using chains, the brush you have to set on fire using the scorcher (which is further along in the game), the running animation and the puzzles. When I play a new game, I'm not looking for a reskinned version of the God of War games, I'm looking for originality and substance and its own unique mechanisms, animations and story, this game is obviously not that. The second issue I have with this game are the bosses, instead of providing a real challenging experience with a boss, they throw an excess of different vampire variants and environmental threats like falling rocks at you whilst also trying to fight a boss, not only do they do that but they don't really provide a big enough arena to avoid at the very least some of these things. The greatest example of this fatal flaw that severely impaired my enjoyment playing this was the Parasiter, the area you have to fight this boss, plus Wasters, plus falling rocks is extremely small. Not only does the boss generate Wasters from a pod it can generate and regenerate at will as fast as you get a second to destroy it, I find the time in-between releasing the rocks is too short so you inevitably get hit by rocks which do too much damage combined with the relentless hydra-like parasites along the big parasite slamming down at you and spitting venom and the Wasters exploding next to you, it's all too overwhelming, whoever's idea that was needs to realize an overwhelming boss fight doesn't equal a good OR hard one which brings me to my next point. Most of the bosses were incredibly easy, there was no first, second or third phases like a lot of games like to do, in my opinion I think they knew their bosses were too easy, which is why they implement so many other enemies to fight you along with the boss. My third bone to pick would probably be the story, I honestly couldn't tell you a single thing about this games plot except Felicity was abused as a child and she hates humanity now because of it and wants to turn everyone into a vampire because she believes they're like a "gentler" lifeform than humans or something???? I remember seeing a gameplay preview of this game and was hyped, I love western themes and supernatural stuff and it looked really fun, unfortunately I was sorely mistaken, after a certain point of doing the same fights over and over and over again it not only gets predictable (which is normal for a lot of games), it gets to feeling like a chore and that's not something I personally want in a game. The characters also don't have a lot of personality or substance in my opinion, my favorite was probably Jesse (naturally because as the player you spend the most time with him) or Vergil. One thing I did really appreciate about this game as a whole were the cool variants of Sanguisuge, I really liked the designs and explanations for the purpose they hold in the "pyramid" of vampires. Overall, I wish I could've liked this game and I'm disappointed I didn't, this game held a lot of potential that was sadly thrown away by a lack or excess of something.

Fun and entertaining at first but it quickly becomes boring because its basically the same couple levels being repeated over and over again. Worth a play for the experience but this is definitely one of the "turn your brain off and play for a couple hours" kind of games. The combat is fun and the story and characters are just okay, the arena was my favorite part of the game. The animations and graphics are pretty awesome, definitely a very colorful, snappy game but lacks diversity in combat and levels.