Playing A Game Uncharted: The Lost Legacy PS4

It'd be reductive to call Uncharted: The Lost Legacy the "girl version" of a Nathan Drake game, just as it'd be reductive to call it a bite-sized Uncharted. Chloe and Nadine are strongly-written characters with engrossing personalities; their adventure's parkour-ing and puzzle-solving easily measure up to Drake's best; and this installment's experiments (chiefly the free-roam Western Ghats chapter) are overall successful.

... but the fact remains that Lost Legacy is a short installment of Uncharted. Chloe and Nadine get a little character development, but not as much as you'd expect in a longer tale. The villain doesn't get built up enough to be truly intimidating. The sandbox experiment is held back by the lack of narrative value in its optional content.

And while there are some great set-pieces - wide-open vistas in the Western Ghats, climbing a huge Shiva statue, ... a remaster of Uncharted 2's train chase - it still feels like about half-a-game's worth of memorable moments, because this is about half of a full game's running length.

Lost Legacy is well-polished enough to be very enjoyable on its own; don't dismiss it as a side-story or tech demo. But Naughty Dog itself has proven that a full-length adventure can be even more fulfilling.

Better than: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Not as good as: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone
And not as good as its other full-length siblings: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves or Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, let alone Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Progress: Finished on Explorer, with none of the optional collectibles.

Rating: Good