They should've killed Sully. I would have enjoyed this game more if Sully died. His death was teased and built up but Naughty Dog couldn't pull the trigger (lol). Sully living to the end of the game is the perfect symbol for my disappointment with the story. It was a story that was full of ideas and teases for bigger things down the line, but none of it came to fruition.
We see Nathan and Sully's first meeting where Sully decides to exploit a homeless orphan because he can jump high. And this places Sully at the centre of Nathan's entire life story. And there's a moment during the burning chateau escape where old Sully almost falls and Nathan's all like "SULLY!" and in Syria, Sully questions whether or not this quest is really worth it but Carter wants to continue. Then at the end of that chapter Carter gives up and Sully decides to keep going which don't really make no sense but whatever. And Chloe is standing there asking Nathan why he wants to keep hunting for the treasure, basically saying to him "You are selfish and stupid for leading everyone into this nonsense." And Nathan completely ignores her and drags Sully to Arabia where he will surely die. And then in Arabia Elena holds up a sign to Nathan and the player which says "Sully will die because Nathan has pushed this thing too far." We are repeatedly warned of the consequences of this quest, and Sully becomes the symbol for that.
So Sully is kidnapped and Nathan is stranded at sea and then in the desert. And that's what should happen, Nathan should have to do endure this suffering because HE WAS ASKING FOR IT. Then the cast of Lawrence of Arabia shows up and Sully is rescued and he agrees again to go along with Nathan because he is loyal or something, and Nathan has no remorse for dragging Sully along in the first place and makes no attempt have Sully turn back to prevent his death. Nathan seems completely oblivious to the idea that Sully is too old and will probably die. Despite the fact that the two hot women have all but said these exact words to him.
Then it finally happens. Sully gets gloriously shot in the back and dies in Nathan's arms, and Nathan finally learns his lesson. Like Teri to Jack Bauer or Jason Todd to Batman, the escalation of events has led to fatal consequences. And Nathan was warned over and over again about something like this happening and he repeatedly ignored those warnings. So Nathan gets mad and fights demon men.
Or not. It was all a hallucination. The moment that the entire game was building too happened but was then taken back. I wonder if the writers just lost their nerve and decided to keep Sully alive because they wanted a happy ending, and they needed Sully alive so he could give Nathan and Elena the plane from the first game. So then throughout the finale Sully almost gets killed three more times by drowning or head crushing but there's no more tension because they aren't going to kill him a second time.
The game kept upping the ante and when the ending came it didn't match up the biblically epic buildup that came before. The payoff for the whole story was either demons taking over the desert or Sully dying, or both. And we got neither. I guess Naughty Dog were going for an ending that had more to do with characters and their relationships than action and giant demon boss fights. But delivering the big emotional punch (Sully's death) and then taking it back is a cop-out. Nathan and Elena getting back together was cool, but isn't that what happened in the second game? Didn't she fake die too?
tl;dr Sully should have died to teach Nathan a life lesson. The game's buildup led to nothing. And there was some shooting and some jumping.
