Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection Review (PlayStation 4)

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is the best way to experience one of the most important series launched on PlayStation devices on the newest member of the family, offering both fans and newcomers access to a set of three experiences that deliver solid gameplay, interesting plot twists, engaging characters, and some impressive environments to explore.

Nostalgia is a powerful force in the world of video games, but playing the three titles, I was surprised by how fresh they feel, with well-mixed gameplay and story that manage to keep players on the edge of their seats as they see how Drake and his fellow adventurers triumph even when the odds are stacked against them.

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is created by Bluepoint Games with input from the original developers at Naughty Dog and is published by Sony, with the company using the title as a way to keep fans of the series engaged while they wait for the final installment in the franchise.

Story

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is a modern take on Indiana Jones that delivers more humor, some interesting villains, and allows players to visit some of the most remote places on Earth in search of lost cities and the treasures associated with them.

Drake's Fortune kicks things off with a search for El Dorado that features Sully, the mentor of the protagonist, and romantic interest Elena Fischer.

The game is the most linear of the bunch, but the narrative has its share of twists and turns, some of them very improbable, with the final quarter of the adventure flirting with some supernatural elements that feel a little forced.

The complexity of the story increases in Among Thieves, the game in the series that I like best, and Chloe Frazer and Harry Flynn, old friends of Drake, complicate the relationships between the initial trio as they seek to follow in Marco Polo's tracks and find Shambhala before a Russian warlord who wants to become invincible in order to rule the world.

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection jungle look

Drake's Fortune is a little too convoluted for its own good, but the search for the Iram of the Pillars means a nice change of location when compared to the previous games, and Katherine Marlowe is the most nuanced and threatening villain that the gang has to tackle.

Golden Abyss, the Uncharted title offered only on the PlayStation Vita, is not part of the PlayStation 4 package, which will be a disappointment to some core fans.

Playing through the three included titles once again, what really stands out is how much attention Naughty Dog has paid to the characters and the world of the series, carefully creating a balance between humor, straight-up adventure and emotional moments.

Gameplay

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection delivers three distinct titles that chart the evolution of the third-person action-adventure genre over the lifetime of the PlayStation 3, giving gamers puzzles to solve, hordes of enemies to battle, and a lot of cutscenes to experience.

Drake's Fortune is clearly a prototype, a game that can often feel ruthless during platforming but also introduces the freedom of movement that Naughty Dog will then refine almost to perfection.

The environments sometimes feel small and repetitive, and combat can become a grind, but the developers know how important pace is to the game and make sure that Drake does not spend too much time in a single-player.

In Among Thieves, the platforming is more polished and varied, and the quiet trek through a Himalayan village remains a highlight, while the combat sequences become a bigger part of the experience, and there are moments when gamers will certainly grow bored of facing off against the increasingly armored enemies (I replayed the game on Easy to avoid any massive frustration).

This is also the game where Naughty Dog creates some impressive moments, starting with the initial train sequence and moving to the impressive helicopter battle that might be the best in the entire franchise.

Drake's Deception is the most accomplished of the series when it comes to mechanics, but the development team adds even more combat to a game that does not need it, and sometimes the cinematic quality of every little sequence can become a little tiring.

“The free running and puzzle solving on the Uncharted series have aged much better than the battles sequences that Naughty Dog has created, and we can only hope that the coming A Thief's End will focus more on the lost treasure elements of the series rather than the destruction of henchmen via cover-based shooting.”

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection unfortunately does not include the multiplayer side of the series, which is an oversight that many gamers will be unhappy with, but the development team at Bluepoint is adding some extra single-player experiences to make up for that.

The Explorer mode is designed to allow players to get through the story in order to remember the narrative of the series, with combat almost an afterthought, but more dedicated fans looking for a challenge can fire up Brutal to see how quickly the AI can crush them in the setpieces.

Photo Mode is clearly designed to get gamers to share screenshots and show off the improved graphics of the series, and players can also fire up.

Gamers who know the three games inside out also have access to a special speedrunning mode that allows them to show how quickly they can move through the levels, taking advantage of every possible glitch and shortcut.

Graphics and audio

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection takes older video games, launched over the span of four years and on the older PlayStation 3, and aims to make them look the best they can on the most recent home console launched by Sony.

All the content included runs at 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second, with no artifacts, screen tearing or slowdowns.

For Drake's Fortune, the move to new hardware is both a blessing and a curse because there's no amount of work that can make an 8-year-old title look perfect for modern gamers.

The development team has managed to add a lot to the first Uncharted, with much improved models for the characters and textures that do justice to the complex environments that Naughty Dog originally envisioned for the game.

There are also tweaks to the way light is used and the shadows the various objects cast and to the amount of details the player can see.

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For Among Thieves, the changes are a little more subtle, mainly because the game was already so good looking, a solid blend of style and PS3-powered textures and animations, but once again, there's a lot for fans to appreciate, from extra details to the world and smoother movement for the characters, although there are still some moments when combat seems a little sluggish.

Drake's Deception is the most recent title in the Uncharted series, and that means there are smaller tweaks for it, although the 1080p resolution and the 60 FPS prove that the overall experience is improved.

One of the revelations of the Nathan Drake Collection is how good the voice acting and the soundtrack of the three titles are, with Nolan North managing to make the protagonist both loveable and amoral, a perfect blend of humor, concern and, during the actual gameplay, violence.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion