Uncharted 4 is a strange game revealing genius

Spoilers about locations / level types but not to do with characters (I might have the orders slightly out).

Don't you think it's odd that Nadine pops up now and again merely to knock seven bells out of the characters and then disappears again? Like some guilty secret Chloe device where the boys can have a bit of rough and tumble?
It's this kind of thing that starts to hint at the unusual structure of Uncharted 4, all aimed, it seems to me, at in a way reimagining Drake's Fortune and then building aspects of Uncharted 2, 3 and The Last of Us around it and very subtly building in to putting a cap on it all. Interestingly, Uncharted 2, so unanimously popular, arguably has the least explicit mark upon Uncharted 2 unless you count the ice cave level which seems to inform so much of Uncharted 4 that it has lead to some regarding the sheer amount of climbing, falling, sliding in parts as a negative. Uncharted 2's other influences seem more implicit- to do with just 2 people being together, rather than 3, for most of the game and in the brilliant, crumbly environments set piece execution. But even then, it is kind of lip service to Uncharted 2 rather than trying to replicate it. Uncharted 2 was a game in which I felt that a helicopter or tank could circle at any point. Uncharted 4, a little oddly, doesn't go for that approach. Vehicle sections, even the totally SUPERB 4x4 and motorbike chase sequence, adopt a relatively predicted approach. You'll never find yourself edging across something on Uncharted 4 and then, all of a sudden, a vehicle comes up to try to destroy you. I wonder whether it was a deliberate decision. If so, perhaps it's part of the toning down of the Uncharted 3 approach where planes and boats took up notable parts of the game. Sully's plane pops up in Uncharted 4 but we don't even get a setpiece from it. Perhaps it's stuff that will be incorporated in to the Uncharted 4 episode DLC. But Uncharted 4 as it is is more about natural use of vehicles rather than a huge vessel being used as setpiece as they were in Uncharted 3.

It starts off on a boat, just like Drake's Fortune did.
It then has a flashback, just like Uncharted 3 did.
You then brawl, just like you did in UC3 and The Last of Us.
You then explore forts by the sea, like Drake's Fortune.
You then have an inside plot with outside areas very reminiscent of Uncharted 3's architecture.
You then explore granitey places (new aspect) - and then caves, like Uncharted 2 did.
You then visit a deserty-like location like Uncharted 3.
You then go through a market place, just like in Uncharted 3.
You then get in a 4x4 and shoot at people, as Drake's Fortune allowed (even though you didn't steer it in DF).
You then explore some islands, which is treat as something of a holiday compared to the tense levels before it and most after it.
You find a lost city , as every Uncharted game does, but Libertalia feels most closely connected to Drake's Fortune in theme, mixed with Last of Us-like moss covered splendour.
The final few chapters are very Drake's Fortune like yet crossed with that tantalisingly all too brief river crossing section in UC2. It's like The Goonies meets Romancing the Stone. It's brilliant stuff.

Despite what I've mentioned, Uncharted 4 tonally feels a different game from Uncharted 2 and 3 (Uncharted 4 doesn't massively go in for parkour chase sequences for instance) but it has the effect of finally fulfilling what was missing from Drake's Fortune. Despite its gritty (and frankly a little too derivative) opening chapters, the game frequently, and thankfully, mellows.
Despite first appearances, this is not a game that actually relies on larger than life villains at all. The settings and 'hero' relationships do the talking in this game as it progresses.

Many of the scenes happen by coastlines and riverbeds- this is a game often true to the first game's Prince of Persia-like piratey, green and lush, kind of stylings. Regard it as a kind of very best, superb, reimagining or building upon Drake's Fortune (despite some locations that are not like that game) with absolutely gorgeous details (which can be endlessly enjoyed and played about with in Photo Mode) and you won't be disappointed because on those terms it is worth the very high marks people have given it. It's only if you start trying to compare with UC2 and UC3 as if UC4 was trying to be the same kind of thing as them that you can start to feel that UC4 had too much of some things and not enough of others.
UC2's status as a shooter and as a brilliantly paced romantic story is not changed- it remains brilliant. UC3's status as featuring some quirky characters, the largest feeling setpiece locations, and the best Sully interactions of all is unchanged. UC4 is a more complex, brilliant, thing than just trying to outdo Naughty Dog's already un-outdoable work. And yet it's also the most simple, good natured, schoolboy, fun of all. It makes you work through the first few chapters to get to the true gaming gold but it slowly turns in to pretty much Romancing the Stone meets The Goonies for goodness sake- what more can you want? Apart from more Sully and Nadine.