| Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | Bluepoint Games[a] |
| Publisher | Sony Computer Entertainment |
| Series | Uncharted |
| Platform | PlayStation 4 |
| Release | |
| Genres | Action-adventure,third-person shooter |
| Mode | Single-player |
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is a 2015video game compilation developed byBluepoint Games and published bySony Computer Entertainment. It includesremastered versions of the first three main games inNaughty Dog'sUncharted series:Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (2007),Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009) andUncharted 3: Drake's Deception (2011).The Nathan Drake Collection was released in October 2015 exclusively forPlayStation 4. Players controlNathan Drake, atreasure hunter who travels the world to uncover various historical mysteries.
Development ofThe Nathan Drake Collection began in 2014, and required the largest team ever assembled by Bluepoint. To take advantage of the greater capabilities of the console, Bluepoint were able to remodel elements of the gameplay, including the shooting and grenade mechanics, some controls, and the camera schemes. In-gamecutscenes were overhauled to improve lighting, visuals, and character models, while online leaderboards andmotion blur were introduced.The Nathan Drake Collection only contains thesingle-player story modes, with all multiplayer content absent.
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection received generally favorable reviews from critics, with praise for its updates and improvements to the games, namely the graphics, controls, and visuals, and was deemed a worthy remaster of the original trilogy. There was some criticism for its aforementioned omission of multiplayer and lack of additional features.
The Nathan Drake Collection includes the single player campaigns of the first three mainline titles in theUncharted series:Uncharted: Drake's Fortune,Uncharted 2: Among Thieves andUncharted 3: Drake's Deception. Played from athird-person perspective, they areaction-adventure video games withplatforming elements. In these games, the player assumes control of treasure hunterNathan Drake, and must explore dangerous ruins, defeat enemies using various firearms and solve various puzzles.[1] All three remastered games run in1080p resolution at 60frames per second,[2] while the music was enhanced to supportsurround sound systems.[3]
Bluepoint attempted to unify the gameplay across all three games. To achieve this, it overhauled theaim assist system and grenade gameplay fromDrake's Fortune to match that of the other games, and alteredUncharted 3's camera movement. The team also remapped buttons to ensure that the control schemes across the three games are consistent. The aiming mechanics across all three games were improved. The game also features graphical improvements, with Bluepointre-rendering thecutscenes, enhancing the lighting and the visual effects, making the models and textures more detailed, and incorporatingambient occlusion andmotion blur, both of which were not supported in the original games.[3] The team added friends leaderboards, new difficulty settings, trophies and a photo mode into the game, though the multiplayer components in bothUncharted 2 andUncharted 3 were not included in the package.[4][5]
While the three original games were produced byNaughty Dog, the remaster games were developed byBluepoint Games, who had previously worked with Sony onGod of War Collection andThe Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection. Naughty Dog wanted to bring theUncharted games, which were originally developed for thePlayStation 3, to its successor, thePlayStation 4, following the success ofThe Last of Us Remastered (2014). According to the studio, about 80% of the PS4 owners at that time had never played anUncharted game before.[6] The team originally considered remasteringUncharted: Golden Abyss, a spin-off of the franchise developed byBend Studio, but the plan was scrapped as the team felt that the story fromGolden Abyss was too tangential and strayed too far from the narrative arc established by the trilogy.[7] The multiplayer modes fromUncharted 2 andUncharted 3 were not remastered because Naughty Dog felt that its inclusion in the collection could potentially divide the PS3 community who were still playing the game at that time.[8]
According to Bluepoint'sCTO Marco Thrush, the studio began working onThe Nathan Drake Collection in June 2014 whenThe Last of Us Remastered shipped. Development for the collection took 15 months, and became one of Bluepoint's largest projects since its establishment. During the peak of the game's development, the team had 48 people, including 13 engineers and 17 artists. Bluepoint designed the gameplay adjustments, and met with design leads from Sony and Naughty Dog for feedback and guidance. The team first portedUncharted 2 to the PS4, and thenUncharted 1 andUncharted 3 in succession. During the improvement phase of development, the team likewise started with bothUncharted 2 and then switched toUncharted 1 once work on the second game was finished, while the production ofUncharted 3's remaster ran parallel to its predecessors. The team adjusted the gameplay forUncharted 1 andUncharted 3 in order to align withUncharted 2's. The firstUncharted required the most work as it was the oldest game in the series. According to Thrush, "almost every system inU1 was touched" and that it "needed the most love to get it to the state of "how you remember it" from the PS3 days".[9]
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection was announced by Sony on June 4, 2015. It was released for the PlayStation 4 on October 7 in the same year in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and October 9 in Ireland, the UK, the US.[10] Players who purchasedThe Nathan Drake Collection would gain access to the multiplayer beta forUncharted 4: A Thief's End.[11] Sony released the three games individually in Europe on November 16, 2016.[12] The collection was released as a free title forPlayStation Plus subscribers for the month of January 2020.[13] Sony later announced that as a part of its Play at Home initiative thatUncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection would be free for all users to purchase from April 15 - May 5, 2020.[14][15]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | 86/100[16] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| GameSpot | 8/10[20] |
| GamesRadar+ |   [19] |
| IGN | 9/10[17] |
| VentureBeat | 88/100[21] |
| VideoGamer.com | 7/10[18] |
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection received "generally favorable reviews" upon release, according toreview aggregator websiteMetacritic.[16]
Critics believed that the compilation was a worthy remaster of the three games and praised Bluepoint for introducing the graphical updates. Sam Byford fromThe Verge described the collection as a "perfect primer" and an excellent entry point for players who have not played anyUncharted games in the past, and the "perfect way to get yourself up to speed beforeUncharted 4: A Thief’s End drops next year".[22]Uncharted 2 remained the highlight game in the trilogy, with critics praising its pacing and attention to detail, whileUncharted 3 was lauded for its spectacle and cinematography.[17][19] However,Uncharted 1's remaster received a mixed reception as many critics wrote that despite the graphical enhancements, the design of the base game did not live up to modern industry standards.[18][20] Many critics considered the omission of multiplayer andbehind-the-scenes videos as well as the lack of extra content as missed opportunities.[17][21][19]
The Nathan Drake Collection was the ninth best-selling retail game in the United States in October 2015.[23] It was the second best-selling retail game in the United Kingdom during its release week, only behindFIFA 16. It was the eighth largest launch for a PS4 game at that time.[24] As of March 21, 2019 the game has sold 5.7 million copies[25]
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