‘There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields true glory.” Sir Francis Drake, 1587.
These are the inspiring words that open Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, the first of three groundbreaking games included in the Nathan Drake Collection. It’s with these stirring words that Sony’s most vital production team, Naughty Dog, began their gaming legacy roughly eight years ago. Up until 2007, most gamers would have known the Dogs solely as the team who brought us the hilarious mascot Crash Bandicoot on the PlayStation. How times have changed; with an award winning franchise on their hands and an unforgettable game of the year in the form of The Last of Us – Naughty Dog have become the posterboys for the next generation. Regardless of what side of the line you fall on, whether it be a PlayStation fan or not, credit must be given where its due – the Uncharted games are something very special indeed.
For as long as I’ve been reviewing games, I don’t think I’ve ever given a perfect 10/10 score to a title. My favorite games have always narrowly slipped my critical net, BioShock, Silent Hill 2, Ocarina of Time – I’ve never had an opportunity to fairly analyze these (aside from occasional rereleases or their inclusions in HD collections.) On their own individual merits, each game is worthy of my most coveted of scores – perfection. I didn’t think I’d be ever be giving my perfect score for a next-gen title so soon…
And that’s the crux of it; The Nathan Drake collection is my idea of contemporary videogaming perfection. In February 2012, I published an article entitled ‘HD Collections: Cash Cow or Console Classics?’ where I initially came to the conclusion that rereleasing old titles in a bumper pack is an immoral waste of time from greedy production companies. Three years later I have to wholeheartedly eat those words; when executed correctly I now see the value of a good HD Collection. I still don’t see the point of rereleasing average games in high-definition unless they’re in popular demand (I’m looking at you, Rayman 3 HD) and I don’t like a poorly executed hack job of a package (Silent Hill HD Collection) – but when you have three iconic titles that are worth bringing to a new audience, that’s when the business strategy makes sense.
The Nathan Drake collection has already taken a few hits for its lack of multiplayer support but I would wager: who honestly thought the multiplayer component made Uncharted 2 and Uncharted 3 better games? The online support was fun, visually stunning and was handled with the same care Naughty Dog have applied to everything they’ve ever produced – but at the end of the day we all knew there were far better online-centric games out there to enjoy. Whether it be Metal Gear Online, Left 4 Dead, FIFA – universally we all went elsewhere to get our kicks. Perhaps it was the inclusion of the multiplayer modes that initially prevented me from giving the Uncharted games a 10/10 score the first time around; I’m hardly its biggest advocate. The games stood alone as fantastic single player experiences and that’s precisely why I can relish the full collection on the PlayStation 4.
Gameplay wise, I haven’t been able to feel much of an update from last generation’s titles – although I have been told Bluepoint Games have made a significant effort to update the gunplay aspects in Drake’s Fortune. While it’s clearly the weakest offering on the disc in terms of the overall adventure, it’s a perfect opener for what’s to come – and has been lovingly enhanced by Bluepoint’s graphical polish. I appreciate Drake’s Fortune now more than ever before, looking as good as it does and feeling as fresh as it does after almost a decade-long hiatus. The real winner in the collection is Among Thieves, a game which rivals any current-gen title in terms of narrative, spectacle, story and presentation. It’s the game that compounded my love for Sony’s third generation console, and while Drake’s Deception couldn’t quite surpass that benchmark – it’s purely because it was unsurpassable. That initial feeling of surviving a trainwreck in a flashback sequence, run-and-gunning your way out of a collapsing building, playing marco polo in a pool (it stuck with me, okay?) – these weren’t just set pieces as we’ve come to know them today, these were fully interactive experience running in high definition on fantastic framerates.
I don’t quite know how Naughty Dog leapt from their whimsical Crash Bandicoot days to where they are today, but to be honest I never want to find out. It’s a secret best left kept. I’m predominantly an Xbox fan but even I know the Dogs are the company to look out for these days. It’s their presentation and innovation which pushes them miles ahead of the gaming pack. Something as simple as the interacting with your environment as you play through it – brushing a wall with your hand, grabbing individual rocks on a cliff face rather than a general ‘clump’– they pioneered that. They coded the AI of the game to respond to the nature of Drake’s surroundings and it’s small nuances like this which propel the Uncharted series into the stratosphere for me. There’s a fine line between entertainment and immersiveness – and they know exactly where on that line they lie.
If there was ever a videogame to pick up heading into this festive season, this is the one. It’s a compendium of inspiring games that need to be in your collection. If you’ve yet to experience them, I genuinely envy what you have in store…
So what do you think, is this the finest videogame collection available to date? If not, what’s yours and why? Is it something that came unexpectedly out the blue or is it a collection of classics such as Ico and Shadow of the Collosus? Let me know in the comments below, I look forward to reading them.
