I've played the previous games in the serious and this excels in only a few categories and is not near as good in most others. The graphics are prettier, the cut scenes more movie-like and the acting superior, however in anything to do with game play it is far simpler, more linear, and less challenging. I believe they decided to open this up to a larger addressable audience by popularizing it for the masses.
The time actually playing the game is shorted than the cut scenes, many of which cannot be skipped. Although the cut scenes are graphically nice, and the acting is well done the story is very simple and one dimensional - basically follow the obvious clues from location to location hunting a large treasure. There are some simple puzzles to solve alone the way, but the clues are simply presented to you on a platter in cut scenes to give you a reason to go to the next chapter. This is more of an interactive movie than a game.
Game play consists mostly of climbing and enemy encounters. There is one chapter where you drive though the back country. The climbing is very linear, all pathways are illustrated for you and you cannot deviate from them. There are also invisible barriers that keep you on the rails of this platform style game. If you played Assassins Creed or Infamous you will find the progression and climbing in this game very dumbed down and simplistic. There are very few side paths to explore and progression is extremely linear. I could not play this more than a couple of times without getting seriously bored.
The enemy encounters are only challenging because of the numbers of enemies. In Crushing, the most challenging mode, you are overwhelmed by numbers and stuck in a linear progression. Not a lot of room for strategy, just brute force and quickness to survive. Check points are numerous in most places and annoying in a few others so the progression is not well balanced. On any difficulty setting some chapters are far easier than others.
There are some quick time encounters where you are told to press certain buttons, which I always find annoying, but tolerable in low doses. So I usually don't care. The final boss encounter is the most annoying quick time encounter I have played. Press triangle for a left parry, circle for a right, however the enemy occasionally makes a center stab. WTF? Now matter how many times you play this it always ends up in the same cut scenes and result. You cannot really defeat him by good game play, you just get though the scene with more or less tries.
Finally there is a serious software error that ND has not fixed. Many people have reported that the stats do not count all the treasures collected. I found mine counts 107 of the 109 treasures. I deleted everything and started again as ND suggested, but the counter was off soon after I started. When a trophy does not unlock, or game freezes occasionally, it can be considered a glitch since these are complicated feats of engineering. When two registers in the same game show different numbers it is a well defined software error, and ND's attitude toward people having this issue is disturbing. It takes a lot of time to collect the treasures and doing it again is not acceptable when the error is so well defined. Just look at the registers and find out why they differ and patch it.
This game does nothing new so I do not see it being a 10. I give the graphics a 10 and the movies a 10, but they are not important to me for playing a game. The game play is so much simpler than the previous games so I have to give it a 5 as being basic and simplistic. The story line is good and better than most games, but not near as good as the Last of Us so I gave it a 7.
Multiplayer is great like the last game in the serious and a fine third person shooter, which I would give an 8. It is enjoyable for a while, but I do not see playing it as much as the premier shooters, or the Last of Us multiplayer, which was far more interesting.
In summary focusing on the gameplay, the progression, and the software errors I could only see rating this as a 6. It is a dumbed-down, movie centered game designed for the widest possible audience, making it simple and entertaining for almost anyone. As a result I found it the least desirable of all the games in the series and a disappointment as a sequel. If you want to play this through and enjoy a simple story with your kids this is great. If you want to PLAY a game this is just OK and you will soon put it in your game archives.