Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection - Review

 A thief's journey. 

Console: PlayStation 4 game played on a PlayStation 5.

It can be argued that the Uncharted series was the face of PlayStation 3. At a time in which many Sony 'mascots' became multiplatform like Crash or simply didn't get any new games anymore Nathan Drake naturally slotted into that 'unofficial mascot' role. Its first three games released throughout the console´s life with two of the five best-selling PS3 games being Uncharted titles.

Mascot or not, the critical and commercial success of Uncharted made the 3 initial titles a prime candidate for a PS4 remaster like many games during that time. That wasn´t all that surprising. What was surprising is that it was released as a collection. All three games are remastered and well, in one package. 

Now that I´ve played through Uncharted Drake's Fortune, Among Thieves and Drake's Deception (reviews in the links) through this collection the time has come to look at the package as a whole. What ´The Nathan Drake Collection´ does to change things up and what extra content it offers.

With all of that said, let´s dive in. 

The main point of ´The Nathan Drake Collection´ is to make these games playable on the PS4 and give them a face-lift while they're at it. A nice face lift these games were given indeed. Load times have been reduced, all games now run at 60 FPS at 1080p and with motion blur. There's much better lighting, and more detailed textures in both the fore- and backgrounds and the character models were polished up. 

These visual touch-ups are not homogeneous throughout the 3 games though. What I mean by this is that the Nathan Drake model used in Drake's Deception is not the same as in Among Thieves and Drake's Deception. The way I see/understand it, developer Bluepoint Games took the already existing assets and polished them up. Drake's Fortune did not look as good as Drake's Deception, to begin with so the polish-up job didn't have the same result. Because of this, there are still graphical differences between each version. Noticeable, yes, but not a big deal really. 

Que the obligatory graphical comparison.

Whatever game you play, the basic control scheme is now the same. The first game had a different control scheme than 2 and 3 due to being designed for the original Sixaxis controller instead of the updated Dualshock 3 the PS3 rocked from 2008 onwards. The original PS3 version had some unique Sixaxis control features like balancing on logs. Stuff like that has been changed for the DualShock.  

The gunplay has also been improved across all titles. Bluepoint Games took the best aspects of each game´s controls, the best animations and input etc., and applied it to all three titles. I did still feel differences in gunplay specifically between 2 and 3 but from what I´ve read the original was even more slow and sluggish. 

The Nathan Drake Collection comes with some extra modes and content, though I'd say that in the grand scheme of things it's not as much as I would've liked. Especially so considering this package doesn't have the multiplayer modes. 

Let's start with the omission of those multiplayer modes. Both Uncharted 2 and 3 had multiplayer modes. From unique maps, plenty of modes such as the standard of Death Match and even unique story modes throwing in the enemies from all 3 games. Not really my thing but the multiplayer modes were quite fun to many. Their omission was thus scrutinized quite a bit back in the day. Even so, for the price tag this collection went, and still, goes for the value is still here. Plus: people could just move on to the Uncharted 4 multiplayer that was right around the corner. 

This collection throws in a bunch of new difficulty modes. Explorer mode is the 'super easy' mode. The equivalent to those 'story only' modes we see in many first-party Sony games these days which are meant for the players that just want to enjoy the story and not be challenged by anything. Good for the beginner. Brutal mode is the exact opposite. A tough-as-nails affair meant for the expert Uncharted players who seek an even greater challenge. 

Speed run mode is what is advertised: a mode meant for people who like to beat a game as fast as possible and beat their own records. It slaps a time at the top of the screen so you can see exactly how fast you've been going. There are/were also online leaderboards in which you can/could compare statistics such as stealth takedowns, headshots etc. Both of these give the package something of an online component and a competitive edge in the absence of that multiplayer. 

There's also a dedicated photo mode and I don't like how it works. The mode itself is fine, with lots of filters and angles and such, but it overwrites the PS5's built-in photo mode. You have to take pictures using this mode. You can't make any quick captures during gameplay and you can't make any during cutscenes at all. I used to not care about this stuff, and I still don't share it on Socials or stuff like that, but I do now make tons and tons of captures for these reviews. This photo mode made making quick captures a lot more work than it should've been. A small frustration that won't matter to many but that I felt the need to vent. 

The Photo Mode.

That's mostly it for the package. A sentence that pulls double duty as both the herald for the end of this review but also my final point. The collection does a wonderful job of polishing up these already great games. In terms of extra content though, it's a bit lacking. Beyond the new modes and Uncharted 3 getting the extras that were missing from the PS3 release (time constraints, we're all sure) there's nothing more. No concept art or a music mode or anything like that. Those were not the point of this collection, that's the games of course, but it still would've been nice to have had stuff like that here. 

Conclusion

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is the definitive way to play the original PS3 trilogy. It polishes each game up with better performance, improved visuals and standardised controls. The additions of a bunch of new modes open the games up to more people of a variety of skill levels, from the inexperienced beginner to the seasoned player looking for more challenge. The speed run mode and online leaderboards provide some extra challenges and competitive elements for players looking for it. The lack of any dedicated multiplayer mode was disappointing, as is the lack of fun bonus content but its absence is at the very least reflected in the game's pricing.

For those looking to play these great single-player adventures, this is the package to do it.