When comparing Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End vs Rise of the Tomb Raider, the Slant community recommends Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End for most people. In the question“What are the best story-driven games on PS4?” Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is ranked 5th while Rise of the Tomb Raider is ranked 15th. The most important reason people chose Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is:
Uncharted 4 features some of the best character development in a game. The motivations, actions, and growth of your character is believable. This is achieved thanks to amazing voice acting and excellent writing. The conclusion to your character's story arc is especially satisfying.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Excellent character development
Uncharted 4 features some of the best character development in a game. The motivations, actions, and growth of your character is believable. This is achieved thanks to amazing voice acting and excellent writing. The conclusion to your character's story arc is especially satisfying.
Pro Exciting exploration
Uncharted 4 brings you to many locations and each one is very beautiful and filled with mystery. A calming beach, a vast Savannah, a snowy mountain, ancient ruins, and lost temples among many others. It's really exhilarating to see where you'll be going next in search of treasures.
Pro Decent stealth gameplay
Uncharted 4 stealth mechanics feel very good, even though you can't lure enemies or drag their bodies. If you're patient enough you can avoid an open confrontation in most levels. This is a really refreshing change of pace in the Uncharted series, which is known for its non-stop action.
Pro Great multiplayer
The shooting feels great, the movements feel really fluid, but most importantly – the multiplayer is well-balanced. When you win, you know it's because you/your team played well. When you lose you'll understand that the enemy was better. It doesn't devolve into players constantly spamming overpowered setups or abilities, making it a fair, action-packed, and fun experience.
Pro Multiplayer plays at 60fps
The multiplayer has had the resolution dropped to 900p in order to get a smooth 60fps for competitive play. While it would be nice to have a full HD resolution, smooth gameplay is important when playing competitively.
Pro Challenging but fair optional puzzles
In Rise of the Tomb Raider there are 9 optional tombs that serve as large scale environmental puzzles. They all rely on you reading the environment carefully.
For example, one of them is a wooden ship frozen vertically on the wall of an ice cavern. The puzzle is reaching the treasure at the top of the ship.
It might seem really hard at first, but if you carefully look at the environment you'll find a path. Solving one of these puzzles is really fun, especially because you get an upgrade from them.
Pro Jaw dropping graphics
Rise of the Tomb Raider has phenomenal graphics and a very great attention to detail. Simple things like the snow moving as you step into it or how Lara's hair moves in the wind. This gives it a feeling a of polish most games don't have.
The character models and animations are also phenomenal. Each of their movements and facial expressions look real, creating a movie like experience.
Pro Rewarding exploration
Each level is large, so there is quite a lot to see and do in each one. You'll be rewarded for exploring as there are many hidden items, weapons, and beautiful views to be found. This gives you an incentive to fully explore each location.
Pro A variety of weapons to keep the gameplay fun
There are over 20 weapons to choose from, including handguns, shotguns, assault rifles, and bows. You can also craft special ammo or explosives such as nail bombs. This keeps the gunfights interesting since you can switch to a new weapon whenever it gets dull.
Pro Replayability through unlockables
Once a level is competed, you can to complete unfinished or new objectives. These will unlock new outfits or other items. This gives you plenty of goals to strive for outside the main story. Trying to complete all the optional objectives can be quite addictive.
Cons
Con troublesome driving controls
The camera would spend in different directions. It would sometime go all the way around in a circle. I felt like I had to stop and go. So I could fix the camera to where I could see where I was going.
Con Troublesome controls at times
The cover system is a bit wonky at times, causing you to take cover at the wrong places. There are also some issue with platforming, causing your character to grab the wrong ledges occasionally. While both of these don't happen too often, it can cause some frustration during hectic moments.
Con Last act feels drawn out
The last third of the game can be quite repetitive, tasking the player with the same objectives over and over again. The feeling that this was done to extend the gameplay is difficult to ignore.
Con Overused and overly familiar plot
The gist of the plot is that Lara is searching for the key to eternal life. This plot has been used in other franchises such as Indiana Jones and Uncharted. It seems kinda lazy, especially because both of these franchises are also about treasure hunters. You won't be able to shake the feeling that you already know the story, which somewhat ruins the enjoyment.
Con Very linear
Most of the time you'll be forced to move along a single path. There are occasional quick-time events and simple puzzles, but every situation only has a single solution. This makes it feel more like an interactive movie than a game since you're never really given any freedom of choice.
Con Focuses on action too much
Rise of the Tomb Raider doesn't have many puzzles or slow-paced sections, so you never really feel like a treasure hunter looking for artifacts. There are just way too many gunfights and high intensity moments one after another. It would have been nice to see more puzzles to balance out the action.
Con Stealth seems pointless
While there are stealth takedowns and you can be stealthy in many areas, there is no real incentive to be stealthy. You can easily take out most enemies in an open confrontation and you won't ever feel like you're truly in danger.
Con Difficulty spikes late game
During the latter half of the game the gunfights will suddenly become a lot harder. While they're not impossible to beat, the sudden difficulty spike will take time to get used to. This may cause some frustration and worsen your overall experience.