Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection [Review]

The Nathan Drake Collection consists of three games:

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Remastered

Uncharted 1 was for me the video game form of the I mean it is allright meme. I've started it on hard, then after about 2 hours lowered the difficulty to normal for then, about 4 hours later to lower it again to easy. In all of these, the enemies were equally dumb, but at least they weren't as bullet spongy on the lowest one.

It is pretty, yes, and Nate and Elena are somewhat memorable, but not much. I find it impressive that this was a franchise starter, and I was expecting a little more from it. All in all, it is a short, forgettable, repetitive but a bit charming game, and that's it.

It is really accessible, and runs pretty well under the Nathan Drake Collection, but that's basically everything I have to say about it. I was expecting to like it a bit more, but I'm still excited to play the next ones.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Remastered

An improvement over the first game, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves isn't one of those sequels that really try to “fix” what was “broken”, but add new stuff that, together with what was already implemented, makes for a better game overall. Still, the foundations of the game still stumble a bit to deliver what it is aiming. These foundations being, for me, both the movement and climbing.

The movement stays very stilted. Nate often feels tanky and the sudden camera angle movements outside actual input often forces pivoting towards unpredictable directions, and that's a major flaw for any game that tries to do some platforming or 3D movement overall. Everything feels very “sectiony” because of moments where the many systems and their boundaries shouldn't be that noticeable within themselves. The gameplay feels fragmented and granular in a bad way.

A common misconception when playing these old games is having this aspect of them – being old – as an excuse for a somewhat clunky movement, but these problems basically aren't present in games that were much older than Uncharted 2, like Zelda Ocarina of Time, Super Mario Sunshine and Metal Gear Solid 3. These are games that once you get used to their control schemes, every system “disappear” and the movement simply flows. It is not the case for Among Thieves.

The movement plagues both the exploration and combat, unfortunately. While not as repetitive and 'punishing' as the first one, since the battle sequences have more checkpoints on them, a weird camera turn or dubious surface “stickyness” makes the game feel unfair. Added here is an overhauled stealth system that is often a good battle starter, but the enemies don't even try to react properly to the way that I actually played the scenarios, feels like everyone switches to focusing on me on unexpected moments. So it is pretty shallow, with clunky controls and unpredictable deaths. Oof.

The climbing is basically the second foundation of the game that is problematic, fortunately, way less so than the ground movement, and it is one of the strongest parts of the game. The much-needed verticality adds to the overall tone of the game and makes climbing extra nice. I was surprised to see that Uncharted was, indeed, free of the “yellow paint” plague, the art direction of Among Thieves nails down the little textures and colors that pop out to be the next little jump while climbing, and it was the moments where I had the most fun, but undeniably, it is flawed: there's no real choice, every path is fixed, and the game doesn't present multiple solutions to the climbing segments, it is still very, very scripted, and this makes the game feel somewhat fake.

What returns to this game is the pretty visuals (but nothing groundbreaking), the story is better with more memorable characters and needed chemistry between the leads, but it is really predictable and nothing much, to be honest. There are more bombastic scenes and one that stands out is the whole train segment that almost encapsulates what is best of the series when everything sings a good harmony. So there are plenty of moments to have fun and be engaged, again, it is a better experience when compared to the first. Still, a bit less than what I was expecting, but a solid improvement that keeps me interested for the next installments. I'm happy to say that, unlike the first, I started and finished the game on normal difficulty, and the enemies weren't that bullet spongy, with some rare exceptions, and they finally can aim their grenades.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Remastered

At this point, finishing up the Nathan Drake collection, I am a bit impressed that the game that I'd liked the most was actually Drake's Deception. While 1 and 2 played about the same, in a tanky and stilted way, now there's actual good movement! Nate reacts as expected when he hits a wall or something, and he pivots in a polished way, it finally feels that he is listening to my inputs.

This alone already made me like Drake's Deception more than the other two that came before. These three games were way more iterative than I'd ever assumed, and all of them could be the last one because they have basically the same story, with the same payoffs. New to this game is water mechanics and… well… one or another small tweak and that's it.

Uncharted 3 sometimes feels like a big, stretched water level. It is fun that the movement is finally good, but the more cramped set pieces and underwater sections sometimes obfuscate the flow of gameplay, but most of the time the sections are decently built and fun enough. Still, there are plenty of moments to have fun, and while not having anything as bombastic as the train sequence on 2, the plane sequence is almost as iconic.

The story finally takes more time to explore some of Nate's past, and it gives some characters much needed depth. It is nothing groundbreaking though, and as I've said, it is basically the same overall story as the previous two, so by this point I pretty much expected what is to come next. The battle sequences are as… standard as they were on 2, but the better movement makes them less boring, but easier, overall. The free camera is better implemented and there are less fixed camera angles, so the game is easier to control and have less unexpected mechanical twists and turns.

Climbing is still the high point of the gameplay, but the paths are pretty much fixed and linear, sadly. The battle sequences that had climbing in between were great, though, and really memorable. Uncharted 3 was the first game of this franchise that everything started to sing a nice song, and there's a level of polish to most of the things that happen.

There aren't bad games on the Nathan Drake collection. There aren't amazing games too. It is a fun collection, better than average action-adventure games, and sometimes that's enough. It was for me, at least.

All in all, I'd say that the Nathan Drake Collection scores a

7.5/10

(6 for Drake's Fortune, 7.5 for Among Thieves and 8 for Drake's Deception.)