It was a little more than a year back many of us got to lay our hands into the unexpected masterpiece that was Uncharted 4. Personally, it left me with conflicted feelings of wanting more but at the same time feeling satiated with what I had experienced. Fast track to now and we see that Naughty Dog has gifted us a little bit more of that Uncharted goodness in the form of a standalone DLC. This time around though we play the character of Chloe Frazer aided by the badass of an ex-mercenary, Nadine Ross, as they run into danger, all in search of the Tusk of Ganesh.
But this time around I experienced that same theme of conflicted feelings but they were more to do with – Is this DLC really worth the purchase?
If you’ve played Uncharted 4, then Lost Legacy will be very, very familiar to you. To the point that it almost feels like a rehash. I get that the game is a DLC and in some way it would reuse some of Uncharted 4’s features but it was to the point that it almost felt like Lost Legacy reused certain location and story themes from Uncharted 4. Don’t get me wrong, whatever felt rehashed was done superbly. The design of the temples and vast forestry is captivating but at the same time felt incredibly familiar. You’ll find yourself getting lost in the aesthetics of the game but simultaneously wondering if you’ve been in that section of the game before. However, the soundtrack for the game is masterfully done as ever and it adds a depth to every set piece and moment.
More times than not, I found myself focused more on the background track than the pitfalls I was traversing.
The movement and combat mechanics are good as ever with only minor complaints being towards the cover system at times being clunky. You’ll find yourself sprinting through a hail of gunfire trying to get cover behind a barrier, only to be ripped to shreds because the cover button took one too many clicks. Also, I still believe Uncharted’s best action sequences aren’t in its gun battles but when the action breaks down into fisticuffs. This is hand-to-hand combat is further exemplified by the dynamic set pieces involving Chloe and Nadine taking down a group of baddies. Honestly, if we got an Uncharted game with only hand-to-hand combat, I wouldn’t be sad about it!
The story of Lost Legacy is one that sort of flip flops all over the place. At certain moments you are engrossed in the character’s tales and their personal tribulations but at other moments the overarching story is overused that it really doesn’t do much. Even the main villain, Asav, however menacing he is, felt inconsequential in the end. And it’s sad for me to say that because he showed a lot of great potential to be a formidable antagonist if his story was expanded upon a bit more.
And that’s where Lost Legacy seems to feel half-assed the most – the characters.
In point, the character duo of Chloe and Nadine. I loved them. And the end of finishing Lost Legacy what I yearned for was not more Uncharted but more of a game involving Chloe and Nadine. It almost felt as an injustice that their characters were placed in Lost Legacy because their dynamics would have translated incredibly onto a full retail game.
So at the end of it all, is it worth paying 159 AED for a DLC that feels inconsequential? I would say no and tell you to go play Uncharted 4 instead because it is way more fulfilling. But at the same time I would tell you that the saving grace of Lost Legacy lies in the dynamics of the protagonists, Chloe and Nadine; that I would almost suggest playing this game just to experience that. If nothing, Lost Legacy has shown us one thing, that Nathan Drake isn’t the most badass adventurer in the Uncharted series but rather it’s the dangerous duo of Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross.
