I think what hinders a lot of the slower narrative exposition in the chapters leading up to Madagascar is that for me personally they're not telling the story in an interesting or engaging way (sans little moments like Elena and Drake playing vidya). From a design perspective a chapter like the Heist is so basic and rudimentary that it succumbs to the exact same formula and narrative exposition linear, narrative heavy video games have been telling for years. You walk towards rigid objectives with an NPC in tow and listen scenario triggered exchanges that you have no involvement in. You have limited engagement in rigid, scripted sequences and set pieces that offer little in the ways of enriching interactivity. The narrative climax is a paint-by-numbers QTE fight with an outcome already decided. Everything you do takes place in utterly insanely gorgeous, remarkable looking locations with engine and asset quality that remains some of the best in the medium. The animations are outstanding, the real time rendering is jaw dropping. But it's all smoke and mirrors fluffed up to detract from at times borderline play-itself game design that is routinely criticised in other titles. Following the narrative heavy sequences is a handful of unmemorable, unremarkable stealth and shootbang setpieces, at least one of which is just generic grunts pouring into an area from telegraphed spawn points.
The opening acts leading up to Madagascar have exceptionally well written and performed characters with chemistry that puts a lot of other games to shame. The production quality is outstanding from a technical and visual point of view, and the soundtrack is beautifully mixed in with the on-screen events. There's some simple, clever means of telling story through play (aforementioned Drake vs Elena vidya, and the opening diving sequence are good examples), but most of it is bunk that almost goes out of its way to refrain from integrating that high quality narrative into the actual play. There's no coherency or stimulation from an interactive point of view to involve the narrative. It's all so basic and scripted and handheld. At least the rudimentary NPC co-op puzzling between Joel and Ellie in The Last of Us served a narrative purpose to show a developing bond and dependancy between the two characters, but it's so fluffy and borderline non-existent in Uncharted 4 that most of the time I felt like I was just following an NPC around and listening to two disjointed characters talk at each other once I hit the appropriately contextual level mark. For me those opening acts of Uncharted 4 are a great example of solid Naughty Dog writing and production but completely uninteresting means of actually telling the story in an interactive format.
And it's something that Uncharted 2 I felt did much, much better in its own opening acts.
