Uncharted 4 dropped onto PlayStation consoles almost six years ago, and practically every aspect of the game still holds up today. With open-ended environments that mark a nice change of pace for the series, a new grappling hook mechanics, and one of the tightest action video game plots around, Uncharted 4 is still a must-play today.
With the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection being met with universal acclaim, it seems only fitting to revisit what was the series' most anticipated entry, delving into one particular aspect that makes it such a memorable experience all these years later: the game's enemy AI. It may not be the most sophisticated AI in the world, and more recent games have certainly done a better job, but Uncharted 4's enemy AI is an integral element of the game that truly elevates the blockbuster action experience - forming a product that does a pretty great job of capturing the essence of its cinematic inspirations.
Uncharted 4's Enemy AI Knows How To Ramp Up The Tension
The enemy AI in Uncharted 4, at least on the more difficult settings, is relentless. As players engage in a combat encounter, enemies will start to take up covered positions in front of the player. Within mere moments, some enemies will start to move closer, darting between cover to avoid the player's fire. Eventually, if a player isn't focusing, the enemy AI can easily overwhelm them, taking them head-on in greater numbers.
To make the situation even more tense, Uncharted 4's enemy AI will start to flank the player's position, eventually leading to a few enemy soldiers appearing in front of, behind, and at the sides of a player. Combine this with the later game's armored enemies, which take quite a few shots to put down, and Uncharted 4's combat encounters can be extremely intense.
To combat the game's relentless AI, players will need to frequently change up their position, dashing between different forms of cover to ensure that enemies can't surround them. Pairing this with the game's limited ammo system, forcing players to constantly switch weapons on the fly and use whatever they can to survive, the game manages to capture the intensity of the action movies it's often trying to imitate.
This frenetic style of gameplay also does a great - and fairly subtle - job of cementing Nathan Drake's personality. The more Uncharted players are encouraged to swap weapons and move around the environment at a lightning-quick pace, the more Nathan Drake's scrappy and resourceful nature is cemented, which is further enforced by the constant grunts and one-liners Drake utters throughout a combat encounter.
Uncharted 4's Enemy AI Goes Hand-In-Hand With The Game's Traversal Mechanics
As players continue through Uncharted 4, they're quickly given more traversal options. While the grappling hook is mainly used for the game's great platforming sections and environmental puzzles, quite a few combat arenas in the game offer a few grappling hook points, allowing the player to swing wildly in the middle of a firefight.
On a surface level, swinging frantically in the air while blasting enemies below is an undeniably cool thing, and is absolutely baked in the action blockbuster genre that the Uncharted series takes a great deal inspiration from. Giving the player the ability to choose when to throw their grappling hook, and giving them the ability to control Drake as he swings, is very empowering for the player - especially with how satisfying it feels to pull off due to the game's decent physics.
When the game's enemy AI forces the player to move around, and the game offers some grappling hook opportunities, the combat encounter gets a lot more unique and fun. Rather than just zipping around the environment, jumping into a range of waist-high cover, players can also choose to use the grappling hook, either to get in close to an enemy behind cover or to get some distance between a mob of enemies that are about to flank the player. The gameplay options aren't endless, but will likely keep the player engaged for the game's run-time.
Uncharted 4's Friendly AI Doesn't Quite Reach The Same Heights
For all the good that Uncharted 4's enemy AI does, it only goes to shine a light on how weak the game's friendly AI turns out to be. The Uncharted series has toyed with friendly AI since its first entry, and has never really gotten it right. During the puzzle-platforming sections, the games often grind to a halt whenever a companion has to give the player a boost onto a ledge or help them push a box.
Uncharted 4's companion AI is a marked improvement over past games in the series, but it wasn't great for its time, and it certainly isn't great today. Sam Drake still has all the same trappings as Elena or Chloe in the past games, with him often taking quite a bit of time to reach his destination, push down boxes for the player, or give the player a hand to reach a high ledge.
In combat encounters, Sam's AI really starts to show its cracks, with his character model having a tendency to glitch through walls and zoom around unnaturally to initiate takedown moves. While these co-op takedown moves do help to further the relationships of the characters, and can add a bit of variation to the standard hand-to-hand combat, the clumsiness of the friendly AI can break the immersion more than enhance it.
In normal gunfights, the friendly AI is fine, and can usually be seen taking down one or two enemies on their own, which does help to make the game feel a little more realistic and cinematic. It's just a shame that the game's friendly AI seems to constantly be at odds with the otherwise great enemy AI.
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves is currently available on PS5. A PC version is set to release in 2022.