With Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End set to release on March 2016, Naughty Dog released a remastered collection of the Uncharted trilogy for the PlayStation 4. Gamers who never had a chance to play any of the three Uncharted games, now is the time to do so as everything from the game has been enhanced to make it play wonderfully on the PlayStation 4. Since 2007, the Uncharted trilogy is one of the most highly praised series last generation and with the release of the Nathan Drake Collection, playing through all three titles will show why it’s simply the “best”.
The Uncharted series follows the story of Nathan Drake and his mentor Victor “Sully” Sullivan in their quest to search for long lost treasures in various ruins around the world. Each of the three games included in the collection offers different themes that shows how Nathan Drake got the fame and glory he wanted. He’ll go through different places around the world with bandits and other groups of people chasing after him. Expect an amazing story told in all three games and see how Nathan Drake improves as a person over the course of his adventure leading up to the upcoming Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. If you love movies like Indiana Jones, you’ll love Nathan Drake even more.
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is the first game in the series where we find Nathan Drake, Sully and Elena, searching for the lost treasures of Sir Francis Drake. Since this game has been released over eight years ago, one of the things that is noticeable is that the game has aged quite a bit. Nathan Drake doesn’t look that good compared to the ones we see in the Uncharted 4 trailer. However, BluePoint Games did some touch up on the character models to make it somewhat look a little more modern. As for the movements, the stiffness that we found in the PS3 version still exist, though it’s not a big deal-breaker. If there’s one thing that looks good in the game, it’s the bump of resolution to 1080p from 720p and gamers will see the difference. I’m sad to report that there are textures that remains muddy, though it won’t be that noticeable once gamers get hooked with the game’s story and the adventures ahead of Nathan Drake.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the second title in the series. Compared to the first game, Among Thieves have improved a lot in terms of visuals and controls. Revamping the resolution to 1080p once again, the improvement this time is evident as the increase of frame rate is noticeable. Storywise, it’s the best in the series and playing through it once again is quite enjoyable and it never gets old as the characters get more depth and the story is much deeper compared to the first game. In terms of the gameplay, nothing has changed.
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is the third game in the Uncharted series and I must say that it has the best graphics among the two games. With the game only being about four years old, the game is on par with today’s standards of third person action games in terms of controls and the quality of visuals. Just like the other two games, the visuals have improved by bumping up the resolution to full 1080p and with an increase of frame rate. The game plays very smoothly compared to the other two games and the story is as good as the second game, though not the best in my book. The character models looks ten times better than the ones in Drake’s Fortune and that’s are a good thing as the visuals in this game can compete with other PS4 games released recently.
Since this game is supposed to be a “Nathan Drake Collection”, there’s one game that is missing and it’s the Golden Abyss that was released on the PlayStation Vita. While it’s more of a side story that takes place around Drake’s Fortune, I was hoping BluePoint Games will somehow put it in the collection as the adventures told in the game is on par with the quality of Drake’s Fortune and it’s a shame that newcomers of the series will not be able to experience it.
While the content of all three games remain intact, BluePoint Games omitted one thing and it’s the multiplayer portion. Newcomers wanting to try out and get a taste on how the multiplayer portion works in the Uncharted games won’t be able to experience it as it’s been taken out. So pretty much, what this collection offers are the single-player adventures of Nathan Drake in preparation of Uncharted 4 next year. I guess gamers can try out the beta instead of Uncharted 4 multiplayer beta later this year. In addition, Behind the Scenes videos across all three games are omitted as well. It means that after doing certain things in the campaign, the behind the scenes videos will no longer be unlocked.
In the end, Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is a must buy title for anyone who wants to relive the adventures of Nathan Drake before the fourth game releases next year. If you are one of those people who never played any of the three games in the series, now is the good time to do so as we guarantee that you will not be disappointed, despite the multiplayer content being omitted from this collection. From the impressive and improved visuals found in this collection plus the impressive story content, the Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is a way to prepare yourselves for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.
[Editor’s Note: Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection was reviewed on the PS4 platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]