Also, thinking about it, in a way UC4 is designed pretty well for a new player with how it's structured.
Like, there are 2 primarily important side characters in UC4: Sam and Elena. Again, both representing Drake's twin dividing loves of love for adventure and love for....Elena. We spend more time with these characters than any other in the game (sans drake himself, obviously).
But Sam is a totally new character to the franchise. He's as new to new players as he is to returning ones, so much of his interactions with Drake are novel and don't overly rely on past references. Or, no, they do, they reference their past all the time, but it's often to things that Sam and Drake experienced as kids. And we also have actual flashbacks that establish their back and forth. There's a lot of groundwork being made to establish Sam's history, something both new and old players benefit from for different but converging reasons, meaning they are eased into the world at somewhat even pace.
Then we switch over to Elena, but, critically, we do this at the point of Sam's betrayal. The player is meant to have some raw feelings over Sam having lied, which makes Elena coming in to the rescue a perfect point of tension relief, where they repair their relationship, and both new player and old players are falling in love with Elena because she's providing some very wholesome and heartfelt emotional beats. Also, this is halfway point in the game, and if a new player is still playing the game here, then chances are they're hooked enough that Elena's past history with Drake won't be so alienating as to turn them off.
So, yeah, I think newcomers are relatively set to enjoy UC4, even if they'd get more out of it if they have the experience of the old games.
Like, there are 2 primarily important side characters in UC4: Sam and Elena. Again, both representing Drake's twin dividing loves of love for adventure and love for....Elena. We spend more time with these characters than any other in the game (sans drake himself, obviously).
But Sam is a totally new character to the franchise. He's as new to new players as he is to returning ones, so much of his interactions with Drake are novel and don't overly rely on past references. Or, no, they do, they reference their past all the time, but it's often to things that Sam and Drake experienced as kids. And we also have actual flashbacks that establish their back and forth. There's a lot of groundwork being made to establish Sam's history, something both new and old players benefit from for different but converging reasons, meaning they are eased into the world at somewhat even pace.
Then we switch over to Elena, but, critically, we do this at the point of Sam's betrayal. The player is meant to have some raw feelings over Sam having lied, which makes Elena coming in to the rescue a perfect point of tension relief, where they repair their relationship, and both new player and old players are falling in love with Elena because she's providing some very wholesome and heartfelt emotional beats. Also, this is halfway point in the game, and if a new player is still playing the game here, then chances are they're hooked enough that Elena's past history with Drake won't be so alienating as to turn them off.
So, yeah, I think newcomers are relatively set to enjoy UC4, even if they'd get more out of it if they have the experience of the old games.
