And yet, its characters – groundbreaking at the time – are still thoroughly inviting, while its action sequences are generally well designed. That's not to say that Drake's Fortune has magically become modern: the 2007 title feels like its evolved immediately out of the PlayStation 2 era, as its simplistic mix of platforming and gunplay makes for quite an old-school experience by today's standards. The melee mechanics still go through three rounds of iteration over the course of the collection, and the combat encounters certainly grow in complexity if you compare the rudimentary jungle arenas of the first game to, say, the ship graveyard of the third instalment – but as a collection spanning escapades released across four or so years, it's extraordinary how cohesive it all feels.
The developer's even gone back to the first game to incorporate mechanics that were added later in the series – the way that grenades are employed, for instance – which results in a more consistent experience across the board.Īnd that's a good thing because existing fans of the franchise will likely find themselves hopping between the different titles at will. The improvements aren't restricted to its presentation, though: the swimmy aiming of Drake's Deception has been replaced by an amalgamation of the best input algorithms from the previous two games, while the silly SIXAXIS aspects have been ripped out of Drake's Fortune. We could go on, but there's Digital Foundry for that – just know that this is about as stellar a conversion as you're likely to see. All three titles here – Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception complement the standout second game – run at 60 frames-per-second in crystal clear 1080p, with the textures buffed and the audio remixed and the lighting improved. Part of this is due to the outrageous restoration work by Bluepoint Games – a company that's quickly making a name for itself courtesy of its ridiculously good remasters. And in that regard, Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection holds up remarkably well. But that's perhaps the point: the game's not perfect and it never was, but it succeeds in areas where contemporary blockbusters still struggle today. If you haven't played it for a few years, then returning to Among Thieves will feel like a fever dream of the previous generation's most memorable moments: the heist, the train ride, the tank chase, the bridge, the boss fight – alright, maybe that last one's etched into your brain for all of the wrong reasons. It's a sign of things to come, as Drake is dragged from one dazzling encounter to the next. You must navigate the decrepit carriage, dancing from ledge to ledge in order to cheat sudden death. The introductory sequence is evidence of that: our wisecracking protagonist finds himself wounded, seated in a freight train overhanging a Nepalese mountain range. Other franchises have tried to mirror the sequel's set-pieces, but few can pull off playable spectacle quite like developer Naughty Dog.
Nathan Drake's search for Shambhala was a game changer in every sense of the word – and it's still pretty darn impressive over half a decade later. The critically acclaimed adventure not only went on to win copious awards following its October 2009 launch, but it also kickstarted a chain of PlayStation 3 exclusives, which – alongside a much needed hardware revision – steered Sony's flagging brand back towards commercial relevance. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves changed everything.
Republished on Wednesday 1st January, 2020: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of January 2020's PlayStation Plus lineup.