Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection

I got my PS4 waaaay back in September when the revamped, slimmer version came out. Bundled with that console came Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. Despite me wanting to so desperately jump and start play that game -- a game many critics were saying was among the best of 2016 -- I committed to working through the backlog of Uncharted titles, luckily all of them were nicely bound in Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection. Let's take a gander, shall we?

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

This is a very simple action-adventure game about treasure hunter who's chasing down the secrets of his ancestor, which presumably will lead to great wealth or some shit. This game was incredibly bland. It never got all the challenging. All the characters were one-dimensional. All-in-all, I could have taken a pass on this. I mean, despite this game coming out in 2007, Drake looks like what I thought "cool" was back in 1999 -- the only thing he was missing were the frosted tips and a puka necklace.

I try to keep in mind that maybe the game was good for its time. Perhaps my expectations are too high 10 years later. Then I remember that in the same year we also had BioShock, Assassin's Creed, and Mario Galaxy. So, no excuses. This game sucked. 

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

When I was first looking up the Uncharted games, the second installment unanimously came up as the best in the series (not including the 4th title). And, yeah, it's definitely light years better than the first title. 

The game starts with a bang. You wake up in a train nursing a nasty wound to the gut only to discover the train you're in is dangling off a cliff about to plummet into the crevasse below. Exciting! And while the game did do a much better job and keeping me engaged both with the action and the characters, it still felt a little repetitive in the gameplay section. Pick up a gun, shoot people, climb a wall, shoot people. Over and over again. Then what few puzzles I came across were so easy they could be solved by a blind dog gnawing on the controller. But, hey, at least I was having some fun. Right?

Yes. But I will say that in this title I actually tried to collect all of the secrets hidden in each level. And guess what? I found them all. I 100% this fucker. And what do you think I got for being a devote completionist. Maybe a hidden movie? A secret level? New character? SOMETHING?! Well, I got two things: more Playstation trophies and jacks shit. Seriously, you get nothing for all that hard work. What a gip! With that realization, I no longer gave two shits about picking up any secrets in the upcoming games. 

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

You would think that with the dramatic improvement from the first game to the second, the third would be amazing-balls! Sadly, no. In terms of ranking, it sits just slightly lower than Uncharted 2. Yes the graphics and gaming environments are slightly more impressive, but -- if I remember right -- the game felt very glitchy. Camera bouncing around to frustrating angles. Drake fucking up jumps outside of my control. Minor inconveniences, but they add up.

However, the biggest letdown can be found in a few of the gameplay moments. What I mean is that the game has these moments that look to allow for something amazing challenges, but what actually occurs is basically a cutscene I move my joystick through. For example, you're in a plane crash in the middle of the desert. You wake in the wreckage with no idea where you are or where you have to go. Now, this could be a great moment where I have to scavenge the wreckage and build something that will save me, or use the stars at nigh for navigating, I don't know... SOMETHING that allows me to rise to a challenge and overcome the odds. All that ends up happening is you hold the joystick forward for 10 minutes as Drake stumbles through the sand before miraculous ending up at a campsite. How fortunate! Just a major missed opportunity to really pull the player into some fun, innovative challenges.

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With that the Drake Collection comes to a conclusion. It was... barely OK. The second installment is by far the best of these three games, but I wouldn't say right now, in the far off year of 2017, that these games are a must play. But, perhaps when it first came out I could see it blowing peoples' minds. 

I do appreciate the fact that I have grounding with the characters now. Drake has definitely evolved a bit from the stale, one-dimensional character he was back in the first game to at least a treasure hunter with some depth and heart. Let's see where the developers want to go with this in the 4th installment.