Doing a commentary on my top ten favorite video games of all time. Continues below.
Other entries in this series:
10. Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams
9. Perfect Tides
7. Chop Suey
6. Knights and Bikes
5. Super Metroid
4. Gone Home
3. Butterfly Soup
2. The Last of Us Part I
1. The Last of Us Part II
8. UNCHARTED: THE LOST LEGACY
I went to the extra effort of replaying this game yesterday to make sure I'd collected my thoughts on it just for @Machina since he asked why this is the only Uncharted that I have charted. (Naughty Dog will be hiring me as a writer any day now.) Was totally worth it!
The Lost Legacy is the pure escape game on my top 10 list. Yes, I need those too and this has emerged in recent years as my personal favorite of them. It's, of course, an Indiana Jones-inspired, Hollywood blockbuster-style game filled with lots of clever one-liners and carefully-scripted, high-intensity action sequences that are quite effective at conveying the feeling our heroines of sorts (and later someone else) are skating by as much on luck as skill, impossibly surviving countless scenarios by the skin of their teeth, with their wits intact. We know this. It is Uncharted. It works. It's fun. It's just dumb, ambient fun for when you're stressed out and need to relax your brain a little. That is a real need for me. The Myers-Briggs test has me pegged as a "logician", which means that my critical thinking mode is pretty much always on and sometimes I need help shutting it down so I can relax.
Fun fact: Speaking of Uncharted being inspired by Indiana Jones, didja know that when the first two Indiana Jones movies came out with a PG rating, parents complained that it should've been rated R instead because of intense violence and blood that they'd felt unprepared for. The explanation the Motion Picture Association of America provided in response has always amused me. They explained that their reasoning in giving these movies PG ratings was that they considered the films too juvenile and light weight to appeal to adults, and thus the target audience had to be someone else. Compromising with the concerns raised by parents, they invented a new film rating just for movies of the Indiana Jones variety: PG-13. And that is how what is now the leading movie score for Hollywood blockbusters came into existence. Will let you know when, as a mature adult, I stop enjoying Indiana Jones. And Uncharted.
Anyway, so why is this particular Uncharted entry my favorite? Well, on a technical level, I like the Indian setting and cultural education a lot, and also The Lost Legacy just feels like the most balanced game in the series to me, offering up a pretty equal variety of its trademark trifecta of exploration, puzzle-solving, and gun battles by increasing the presence of the first two elements (especially puzzles) qualitatively. I also like the frequent martial arts type emphasis of The Lost Legacy's approach to combat. It just feels quite distinctive and fun! Most importantly though, I like Chloe and Nadine as lead characters. They bring different vibes than Nathan Drake and it's simply a joy to watch their relationship evolve from a caustic, professional one into a genuine friendship over the course of their adventure in search of first the Tusk of Ganesh and then for more of a cause, with lots of bumps and bruises along the way.
The point where they reconcile is my favorite scene in the game. (The Last of Us had giraffes. The Lost Legacy has elephants. The developers have canines. Animals are inspiring. What about cats though? That's all I'm saying.)
Another positive for The Lost Legacy is the pizza factor because I'm half-turtle that way (speaking of inspiring animals). 
Another favorite moment of mine is when Chloe discovers that her father had made it to Belur. I can't quite relate to the complete absence of Chloe's father from her life, but honestly, my dad was often just a shell. He never really recovered from the Vietnam War and has long since passed away now, so there is a certain sense in which that piece of my life is missing too. And yes, I do live with legit fear of abandonment. It's among my greatest fears in life actually. Don't relate to Chloe's virtuoso-type (to again reference the Myer-Briggs test) resilience that way. Anyway, the revelation of his caring intentions in that scene is just heartwarming to me. It's arbitrary feel-good stuff, not a serious argument for more faith in humanity (this is Uncharted, after all, not The Last of Us), but you know, it works.
Yes, I feel that the action-orientation of games like this overall helps make quieter moments such as those I've highlighted here stand out and feel special; more so than they might otherwise. Speaking of the game's action orientation though, I don't think I even need to mention how amazing the elaborate train battle is as a concluding action set piece either, do I?
The PlayStation 5 remaster is the version of this game you want to play, incidentally. The general presentation IS noticeably upgraded therein.
