POSTED 9/10/15


UNCHARTED: THE NATHAN DRAKE COLLECTION

Bluepoint Games/Sony

From brown coat in Firefly to brown undies in Castle, we’ve always liked Nathan Fillion.

But that’s not important right now, for we’re talking Nathan Drake, descendent of Sir Francis, here.

He may not be blue, spiky and speedy, or coolly rock a cap ‘n’ dungarees, but ever since his first Indiana Jones-like adventure Drake’s Fortune hit the PS3 exclusively back in 2007 he’s become the closest thing to a mascot that Sony has. Now he’s back in not one, not two, but four adventures. Well, it’ll be four when A Thief’s End hits next year...

Now that the PS3’s ancient history and the PS4’s the go, Drake’s Fortune, 2009’s Among Thieves and 2011’s Drake’s Deception have been given the shiny HD treatment before being shoehorned onto one ace value disc.

As with most older games – remember, game years are basically double dog years, which are seven to our one - there are signs of their times, however we’re also talking three of the greatest games to have graced any console.

More’s been done than simply prettifying the graphics to 1080p/60fps. Characters have been gussied up, textures have been bolstered and lighting’s been improved. Even the sound’s been bumped up to 7.1 for the handful of people with that sort of equipment. More critically, a certain amount of equalisation has been instigated which makes Drake’s Fortune like its successors weapons-wise.

The hellish ‘Crushing’ mode’s now available from start-up, with an even more hellish ‘Brutal’ difficulty added for dedicated masochists. You can also speed run the games if you’re feeling cocky, with your friends’ times shown to let you know your relative craptitude. This makes up a little for the removal of multiplayer.

If you played them originally you’ll still get a blast revisiting the trilogy. But if you’ve never had the pleasure, the name’s Drake, Nathan Drake, and he’s well worth getting to know.

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