Heading into well charted territory
If you already own the Uncharted games this re-release offers very little – but if you have never played, the collection is an absolute must
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (PEGI 16)
PS5
★★★★✩
WHEN it comes to churning out incredible games, developer Naughty Dog proves time and again to be a complete powerhouse.
From the ridiculously fun early Crash Bandicoot games, to the darkly beautiful Last of Us series, the studio has consistently released games that demand our attention.
But arguably the jewel in its crown is Uncharted. The treasurehunting adventures of the dashing Nathan Drake captured the imagination of gamers worldwide, spawning four main games and various spin offs.
It’s even inspired a new movie, starring Tom Holland – Spider-Man himself – that’s hitting cinemas later this month.
Now, six years since the final Uncharted game hit the market, Drake is back – and better looking than ever.
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection brings together Drake’s swansong, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, and the superb standalone Uncharted: The Lost Legacy remastered for the PS5.
Now before you start rolling your eyes, there’s some good news for gamers who already own these titles – both first released on the PS4 in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
Players who already have these titles, or the previously released bundle, on the PS4 can get an upgrade to the PS5 for just £10. What’s even better, is that you get both titles, even if you only own A Thief’s End, or The Lost Legacy.
But is the upgrade really worth it? The most noticeable upgrades are to the performance and the resolution – the graphics, while not quite 4K, are still a thing of utter beauty.
Load times now feel super speedy, running 10 times faster than on the previous console – meaning gameplay from one set piece to the next feels much more fluid.
The haptic feedback on the PlayStation controller grounds you in the action, making every punch, every jump, every shot feel vital. The characters themselves feel more responsive using the adaptive triggers, even if that’s just a figment of your imagination.
As for the games themselves... nothing new has been added here. No multiplayer modes, no sneaky extra levels – not even the odd extra trophy to hunt down and collect. But having been away from the series for so long, I was absolutely sucked back in.
While the title – A Thief’s End – heralded the fact it was the end of the line for Drake’s adventures, Naughty Dog made sure he went out with a bang.
The game saw him coaxed out of retirement by his presumed-dead brother, Sam, for one final escapade in search of pirate Henry Avery’s lost treasure.
Considered one of the best games in the series, its plot is a bit of a roller coaster, with laugh-outloud moments and surprisingly emotional ones as the Drake brothers bring their story to an end.
The Lost Legacy, however, spins the series on its head.
Originally planned to be DLC for Uncharted 4, it was fleshed out into a standalone adventure for onetime Drake love interest Chloe Frazer.
And that’s one of the first great things about this game, its central playable characters are women – and strong, multi-layered women to boot.
Chloe is joined on her treasure hunt by unlikely ally Nadine Ross, one of Uncharted 4’s chief antagonists and the former leader of mercenary band Shoreline.
It makes for an interesting partnership, one initially formed purely for financial gain, but genuinely feels like it develops into a friendship as the plot unfolds.
Both of these games are fantastic in their own right, the problem here is that performance and graphical improvements aside, if you’ve already played them, there’s nothing really new here to warrant you buying them again – even for the knock down price of £10.
Where it does become an essential purchase is if you’ve never played them before, in that instance I couldn’t recommend them enough.