Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection — Off the charts

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Charting new territory, Drake makes a charismatic jump to the PS4.

What more can be said about one of the greatest narrative experiences on any gaming console? With Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series, PlayStation 3 users were put in control of Nathan Drake, errant tomb raider and fortune hunter as he shot, platformed and solved puzzles in three excellent games.

The series owes much to Square Enix’s Tomb Raider franchise (which in turn was influenced by the Indiana Jones movies), but Naughty Dog carved out a niche for itself by delivering games with strong storytelling, amazing visuals and fantastic gameplay.

Breathtaking: Despite its age, some of the visuals in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune still looks very good, especially in 1080p resolution.

Now that the company has released a remastered edition with all three games – Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection – for the PlayStation 4, I took the opportunity to revisit the titles in a marathon session that lasted me well over a week.

Over the years I’ve played each title on the PlayStation 3 at least twice, but replaying all three games in a row gave me a better feel of the overall story arc and each character’s growth from one game to the next.

What’s new, what’s changed

The collection includes all three titles released on PS3, namely Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Among Thieves and Drake’s Deception.

Smooth faces: Despite the higher resoluition and tweaks, some of the character models still look less detailed and expressive compared with the later games.

The company responsible for remastering, Bluepoint Games, has taken advantage of the increased firepower of the PS4 to improve the draw distance, character models and backgrounds while ensuring that it ran at a solid 60fps (frames per second) in glorious 1080p.

The controls have also been updated to make the shooting mechanics and aiming up to the level of Uncharted 2, as Uncharted 3 actually took a step back in this area.

The multiplayer component that was a main feature of the second and third games has been removed which is not surprising ­really.

Camera issues: The wonky camera angles in the first game have been carried over into the remastered edition, along with a few of the control quirks.

However, Bluepoint decided to leave in the slightly wonky platforming mechanics of the first game which requires precise ­platforming unlike the other games in the series.

If you are not positioned just right at a ledge, for instance, you will most ­likely fall to your death when you make the jump.

The progression in ­graphics quality can be seen with each subsequent game – the first game still looks gorgeous even today especially with the upgraded graphics, but the character models look simpler and less detailed compared to Uncharted 2.

Amazing detail: You just can't get tired appreciating of the attention to detail in some of the scenes from Uncharted 2.

Similarly, Uncharted 2, which looks phenomenal especially in the Nepal sequences, pales in comparison to Uncharted 3 which has even more detailed chracter models and some of the best city backdrops.

In terms of gameplay, however, Uncharted 2 still stands as the best in the series. It has a good balance of shooting, platforming and puzzles. Even before ­replaying it, I could recall a number of major set pieces, including the impressive shooting sequence on top of a train with wonderful Tibetan-influenced design and music.

However, the first and third titles have their flaws – the first had some good puzzles but terribly long shooting sequences and, not to mention, wonky platforming.

Bang, bang: Fans of the second game often single out this moving train sequence as being the best shooting sequence in Uncharted 2.

The third title also had overly long shooting sequences and lackluster final boss battle, if you can call it that. But my biggest complaint is that the puzzles were dumbed down too much, especially if compared to the first two games.

Getting into the story

If you’re like me, chances are you’re not into the Uncharted collection for the gameplay but rather for the story. I know this sounds a bit like buying Playboy “for the interesting articles” but in this case it’s really true.

Jump to it: Drake always seems to wind up in situations much like this.

Just like Heavy Rain, the Uncharted series is one of the rare games which are as close to a movie as you can get.

I’m sure the late Roger Ebert would have finally agreed that games are “art” if he had just played one of the games instead of the punishing Dark Souls.

Once you play the games in sequence you will begin to understand the young orphan Drake and why he does what he does – by claiming to be the ­descendant of Sir Francis Drake, he’s on a quest for legitimacy and to be a part of a family he never had.

Hidden gem: Flipping through Drake's notebook, you'll come across this hilarious page on his description of friend and father figure Victor Sullivan in Uncharted 2.

What he finds on the way, however, is a real father ­figure in the roguish Victor Sullivan and true love in the equally adventurous ­journalist Elena Fisher.

Between each game we are left to fill in the gaps of their relationships, but let’s face it, we’re always rooting for Drake and Fisher to get together.

The games explore all these relationships and sprinkles them with a good dose of humour – even during intense action sequences or platforming, Drake will have a quip that will put a smile on your face.

End game

I originally bought the PS3 to play Uncharted 2 and I was only holding onto the console even though I own a PS4 so that I could still play the game. Almost immediately after the collection came out, I sold off my PS3.

The gameplay may not be for everybody, but if you’re a movie buff and you already own a PS4, you owe it to yourself to get the Uncharted Collection.

Fire, Drake: One of the most memorable set pieces in Uncharted 3 involves a shootout and a frantic escape from a burning building.

If you don’t like playing it, just hand the controller to someone who does and sit back to enjoy the story.

It’s rather sad that Naughty Dog is saying a final farewell to Drake and friends with the upcoming Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, but I suppose all good things must come to an end ­eventually.

All I can hope for is that with Uncharted 4, Naughty Dog will give a proper send off to this great series.

Pros: Excellent story; good gameplay; great characters; looks gorgeous on the PS4.

Cons: Some quirks in the first game have not been fixed.

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection
(Bluepoint Games/Naughty Dog)
Third-person action game for PS4
Price: RM179 on PSN
Rating: 5 stars