Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, available this Friday, brings two highly acclaimed Uncharted games to the PS5. This collection contains Uncharted: A Thief’s End, first released in May of 2016, and Uncharted: A Lost Legacy from August 2017. These two titles are back and better than ever thanks to the power of the PS5 and the passionate effort of Naughty Dog.
Eric Layman reviewed Uncharted 4 back in 2016, and I recommend checking out his point of view in addition to mine. I actually never played Uncharted 4 until this past week, even though I have a sealed PS4 copy in my collection. I had previously played through the other Uncharted games, including Golden Abyss on the Vita. Having played through Uncharted 4 now, I believe it’s the best in the series, which is saying a lot as each entry into the franchise is excellent. The story has series protagonist Nathan Drake globe-trotting once again, this time in search of a legendary pirate treasure. Players will control Nathan throughout the seventeen-ish hour adventure, but you will often have an AI friendly or three alongside you. The story takes place both before and after the events of the first three main games (Naughty Dog was not the developer for the Vita title). There are a few references that come up in conversation whereby some acknowledgement is paid to those events that occurred in those three games, which I thought was a nice touch. With Uncharted 4, the vast majority of the game is set after the first three games, but, there are a few chapters that have you controlling Nathan as a young boy, getting into mischief with your older brother Sam. The crux of the main story sees to the two brothers adventuring again as they try to find the massive lost treasure of famous pirate Captain Avery.
As anyone who has previously played an Uncharted game or The Last of Us knows, the story and characters are a massive part of the experience. With respect to that, and for anyone (like myself, up until last week) who hasn’t played these games yet, I hesitate to say anything further about these with Uncharted 4. That said, part of what makes Uncharted 4 the best in the franchise is the story and the development of the characters as it unfolds across twenty-two chapters. The plot takes many fascinating turns, and sure, while there are some story elements that are predictable, the majority of the story and character developments are genuinely interesting and outright enjoyable.
Excellent story and characters are two tenants of every Uncharted game, and two more would be the third person action and platforming. Few games make the base of my spine tingle like Uncharted, due to the absolutely harrowing climbing situations that Nathan gets into. The sense of height and peril that Nathan literally jumps right into to navigate the environment is simultaneously awe-inspiring and semi-chill inducing. A lot of these jumps and climbing bits are pretty believable, but many are of course of the tongue-in-cheek variety. Nevertheless, it all makes for exhilarating gameplay for the most part, and most of the breathtaking views that you’ll find happen during or at the summit of a climbing sequence. If you’re into the Photo Mode, you will find a ton of opportunity to capture the most picturesque, life-like scenes in gaming.
Playing Uncharted 4 felt like the best of James Bond and Indiana Jones combined; you have the rough and tumble treasure hunting of Indiana Jones combined with the heavy gun action and some espionage of some of the Bond films (like No Time To Die). The pacing of Uncharted 4 showcases a lot of stellar moments of gameplay elements involving exploring, sneaking, guns-blazing action, and platforming, all tied to some of the most incredible set pieces you will find in any game ever made. These sequences are memorable and amazing, though sometimes they feel a little too on-rails, but I’m not sure there is much that can be done to avoid that vague sensation. Still, even when things feel just a little too contrived or linear, the little surprises along the way distract from that, making the overall experience a thrill.
Uncharted 4 was one of those games that I didn’t want to put down, and in just a few sessions totaling about seventeen hours I completed the game on normal difficulty. Having done so, I reviewed my game stats and saw that I found only about half of the hidden Treasures, though I had nearly all of the Journal Entries, Journal Notes, and Optional Conversations. Nathan’s Journal is something you can view from the main menu, too, and it shows you a lot of the story details and so forth that you discovered along the way. The Optional Conversations are just that — extra bits of character and story development that you can choose to have with the NPCs that you’re adventuring with. Besides looking at your stats that cover everything from your total distance traveled to number of enemies killed (a whooping 681 for me), you can also re-play the game with a surprising variety of Bonus material. Throughout your playthrough, you unlock points that can be spent on a variety of bonus goodies. These goodies include concept art and alternate character skins, weapons (so that you can start a new game with your favorite gun (mine was the ARX-160), a bunch of cool render modes (including a wild retro eight bit mode), voiceover mods (like the helium one that makes all voiced dialog sound funny), and even cool gameplay mods like no gravity, or infinite ammo.
I was surprised to see so much post-game content available, but one thing that would have been quite nice to have would have been a treasure map and a language filter. I only found about half of the 109 Treasures available, but without any kind of map or way to zero in on where the missing ones are, I’m not really compelled to go blindly hunting. Plus, I have to say that even though the number of Treasures is higher than previous Uncharted games, the amount of less interesting things — like vases, or bowls — seemed higher than the ratio I recall from other titles. Secondly, the language in this game is often cringe-worthy and embarrassing. By this I mean the amount of foul language works against the game’s charm and appeal. I wish the developers would consider an option to mute or replace curse words. The amount of times Nathan or other characters say “gd” and “sh*t,” not to mention taking the Lord’s name in vain in other ways doesn’t sit well with me, personally. I get that I’m in the minority on that, and so be it, but I still would like to make this known in case Sony or Naughty Dog read this review.
Moving on to Lost Legacy, we see the first Uncharted game to not feature Nathan Drake or Victor Sullivan (Sully) at all. This was an intentional design choice to instead focus on Chole Frazer, a thief who was first introduced during Uncharted 2. Players take the role of Chloe, but will have NPC assistance and interaction with Nadine Ross, the leader of the Shoreline mercs from Uncharted 4. Sam Drake is also a major part of the story that sees Chloe trying to track down a jeweled tusk that was said to belong to the son of Shiva. Chloe proves to be every bit as capable as Nathan as players will engage in melee, stealth (with silenced weapons as well, which is new to the series), and heavy action combat, as well as wild platforming/climbing sequences. While a shorter overall experience, Lost Legacy has basically the same quality of story, characters, action, and general intrigue that the series is known for.
Both of these excellent games get several benefits from being updated for the PS5. First of all, there is a boost to the presentation quality. A Performance+ mode allows players to target 120fps and play in 1080p, while Performance Mode aims for 60fps. I chose the default Fidelity Mode, which offers 4K resolution (upscaled from 1440p) with HDR and a framerate of 30fps. I played on this mode and the games were perfectly smooth and enjoyable for me, while looking absolutely stunning throughout. 3D Audio support and of course rapid, near-instant load times thanks to the power of the PS5 also makes for a more immersive experience. These enhancements are all well and good to be sure, but, my favorite feature for these two games on the PS5 is the haptic feedback of the DualSense controller. The adaptive feedback on R2, especially, for both gunplay (tension for triggers) and the driving sequences is excellent. I forget which country Nathan is in when you first get to go off-roading, I think it’s Madagascar, but man, driving around was so much more fun thanks to how the DualSense was utilized. I really liked how R2 would stiffen up as I accelerated, it added more to the sense of immersion and fun than I anticipated it would.
In sum, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection is a must-have for anyone that has yet to play these two games or simply wants to revisit them. Oh, if you have savegames from either of these titles on your PS4, Sony provides an easy way to migrate those onto your PS5, by the way. But whether you’re revisiting these games or just playing them for the first time, you’re in for a treat. Naughty Dog have proven themselves as one of the best studios in the business, and these two games do not disappoint. Add this release to the ever-growing list of superb PlayStation-exclusive titles that you can’t miss.
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