Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and its standalone DLC adventure The Lost Legacy were standout PlayStation 4 titles back in their respective days. The pair stand as just two reasons why the blue corner dominated that generation. 2022’s PlayStation 5 update served as a reminder of Naughty Dog’s technical prowess and now Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection brings the final two entries in the series to PC.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is still a grand visual spectacle and a blueprint of cinematic storytelling. The direction is still unmatched, coaxing a player to drink in its vistas or imbibe the puzzle’s clue.
The climax of Nathan Drake’s treasure hunting tale was a hit upon release. It provided a natural progression in scale and ambition from the initial trilogy and added a definitive final chapter to a series that the producers had felt coming to an end.
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The evolution to a more mature, serious tone was also handled perfectly. Side characters are generally as fleshed out as the Hollywood movies that the series emulates.
Other characters effectively up the ante or reflect some of the game’s more emotional moments. And this leaves Drake himself as the same wise-cracking, acrobatic, pugilist with a heart of gold that you all know and love.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is also a mechanical upgrade to its parent trilogy. There is a weightiness to the combat and the game’s balance of agency and cinema are improved. These just add to the technical and visual polish that drew players to PlayStation 4 back in the day.
While the game introduces some non-linear, more open sections, the general pace of the game’s globetrotting adventure works these moments in well. They also add to the sense of exploration at well-chosen moments.
The Lost Legacy
Playing Uncharted: The Lost Legacy immediately after tucking into Drake’s final lap only bolstered the favourable view of the title I had at release in 2017. While it’s carved from the same engine as, and reuses many assets from, UC4, it’s remarkably refined.
The lesser scale of the adventure grants a closer look at the spectacular and detailed locales. The Lost Legacy also focuses more on the relationship between the two characters, playing their conflicting natures and goals off each other constantly.
While Nathan Drake has encountered some limited open sections in Uncharted 4, Chloe and Nadine’s outing expands upon this freedom. Players are given a relatively large area to explore with a jeep and multiple objectives. There’s a few micro side-quests, some collectibles and a few battles to be had by exploring the open area.
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The linear sections do the heavy lifting in terms of narrative gameplay and drive the pace when necessary. The Lost Legacy‘s pace only benefits from the mix in playstyles, rather than feeling like compromises were made to accommodate them.
A Spectacle
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection‘s rendition of a still-technically impressive game is laudable. Image quality improvements and a 60fps Performance Mode did a lot to enhance the game for PS5 and do the same for moderately capable PCs. Similarly, more advanced lighting and bump mapping added a lot of depth to scenes.
Some shortcuts were taken in the transition from PS4 to PS5 and PC. While textures, particles, fire and lighting mostly look 9th gen., some secondary characters look dated. The ground and some of the other expansive natural look similarly last-gen in places, while in others they can look cutting-edge.
Uncharted on PC
The PC port of Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection runs well on an array of hardware but demands a powerful CPU for some of its best-looking effects and most visually arresting scenes.
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection also features both Nvidia DLSS and AMD Fidelity FX Super Resolution 2.0 (FFSR). These allow for substantial improvements to framerates by aggressively scaling elements on a spatial and temporal basis.
With a 1080Ti (12GB RAM), i7-6700k and 16GB RAM, the game can run 60-90 frames per second on Ultra at 1440p settings. There is some noticeable scaling in places in some of our screenshots but in play, it’s barely noticeable.
Playing on the lowest settings, we tested the game on a far more modest Huawei MateBook D16 with 16GB RAM, a 12th Gen. Intel Core i7 and an IrisXE integrated GPU. That it ran at all was impressive. And more so, it ran at a comfortable 30-40 frames per second.
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Neat tricks from Naughty Dog sees the software compile custom driver settings for the game as you play. Depending on your machine, this may take 10-15 minutes. During this phase, the game will be a little uglier and a little choppier. Progress is shown in the bottom-right corner as it goes.
For southpaws, keyboard and mouse settings are almost entirely remappable. DualSense PS5 controllers are pre-configured so you can simply connect via Bluetooth and play like on console.
The DualSense Adaptive Triggers and fancy force feedback are also available on Windows. However, this requires a wired connection via USB.
Missing In Action
The multiplayer sections of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and The Lost Legacy have been cut from the games on their way to the Legacy of Thieves Collection.
While most don’t miss the days when multiplayer modes were shoehorned into every primarily single-player game, Uncharted‘s online multiplayer was undoubtedly one of the very best. And there remains a substantial fanbase for the completely unnecessary PvP mode.
I think that buyers should beware of the missing content but that the package doesn’t miss the mode.
As a Last Legacy
Sony’s dip into the Windows PC market is an honest effort. The work done to port Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection earns its €49.99/$49.99 price tag.
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The game is well optimised for a wide range of machines but still allows for high-end rigs to blossom. It supports DualSense’s bells and whistles, and features novel software to speed up installation.
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection is based on two of the finest action experiences of the last generation and Iron Galaxy need only have done the bare minimum for PC. Yet they gave it that extra polish to round off a neat package.
