At the end of this week, PlayStation will have launched Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection as a PS5-exclusive remaster for two of developer Naughty Dog’s most popular titles.

Actually scratch that. One of its most iconic titles in recent memory and Uncharted: Lost Legacy.

We’ll touch on why the latter is less beloved and does not deliver in the same way as A Thief’s End does later in this review, but first we need to talk about remasters of late, which have proved a little hit and miss.

What are we dealing with?

An example of a hit is Demon’s Souls for the PS5, which took the original and virtually reworked every single element to deliver a game that could stand on its own right as a great soulslike experience. Then there’s the GTA Remastered Collection, which choked, was full of errors and made you regret the day you ever went back to Grove Street.

As for the Legacy of Thieves Collection, it falls somewhere in the middle. There has not been a top to bottom reworking, but the visuals certainly improve upon what we saw on previous generation consoles.

In fact, the experience on A Thief’s End was so good, it’s making us long for a sequel starring Nathan Drake and co.

So is this Collection, currently available for pre-order in SA at R899 (RRP) worth getting now, or simply a placeholder remaster that you can pick up a few months down the line when the price drops?

There are a few big titles on the horizon (see what we did there), so there is an argument to be made for saving your money for another AAA title, but two recently remastered games for R900 also sounds good on paper.

Having spent a little over a week with both, here are our thoughts on the Legacy of Thieves Collection.

Hello old friend

We must admit that firing up A Thief’s End again was great. Save for the poorly executed Afrikaans accents in the game, it is nigh flawless and watching the Brothers’ Drake do their thing again made us remember why the PlayStation has and still does (for now) have the best exclusive titles around.

The visual improvements are appreciated, especially during cutscenes and sweeping shots of new vistas that come into view whenever a new chapter of the game begins.

As far as what we have seen on the PS5 to date, both of these remastered titles are up there, but we still have to give the edge to the likes of Miles Morales in terms of eye candy.

That said, Legacy of Thieves is not without its impressive set pieces and the chase scenes in particular showcase just how much exhaustive effort went into every frame of the games.

Should you have the necessary display hardware, Naughty Dog has added a couple of enhanced visual modes. To that end there’s a fidelity mode that yields 4K resolution at 30fps, as well as a performance plus mode that offers up to 120fps at 1080p.

Coincidentally we did not use either of those options, going for the performance mode that supports 4K TVs.

This kept things visually crisp and dense, adding some great elements to the larger environments you explore in-game, along with keeping action smooth during the aforementioned chase scenes, which did prove a little challenging on the previous generation console with a lesser quality display.

As for the other PS5-focused changes that Sony added to the mix, the DualSense Controller proved key, serving up different feedback depending on the weapon you were using. If we’re honest, when using assault rifles, the difference has hard to spot, but a handgun, RPG, sniper rifle and assault rifle felt distinct in their own rights.

Sony has also touted the fast-loading capabilities of the PS5’s SSD and true to form on previous titles we have played on the current gen console, titles load quickly and any long loading screens are banished.

Playing favourites

Now let’s talk about the differences between A Thief’s End and Lost Legacy. From a technical standpoint, both are quite similar, with each utilising a lot of the same mechanics.

What we enjoy on this front is the movement, particular for the respective protagonists Nathan Drake and Chloe Frazer, both of which negotiate the map, climbing and swinging from rocky perch to rocky perch in a really satisfying way.

The gun gameplay and fights are also solid and although these characters are adventurers first and soldiers second, there is a nice balance in terms of what they can and cannot do. You can opt for two methods of attack here, with stealth on offer or a more gung-ho approach also proving effective.

The latter is also quite different when playing Lost Legacy, particularly as mercenary Nadine Ross is a far better combatant than Sam Drake in A Thief’s End.

And this is where we need to talk about why one game is great and the other is just shy of greatness – the little things. Here we are talking primarily of the dialogue and interplay between characters.

To that end, Nathan and Sam in A Thief’s End have great banter and interplay, making you believe they are brothers and deepening your immersion in their dynamic. Chloe and Nadine on the other hand, do not have any of that.

Yes, we are aware that they do not start out as friends, with the writers trying to amp up the tension with sharper dialogue, but it simply is not endearing.

The aforementioned bad Afrikaans accent, also makes Nadine Ross’ character difficult to listen to at times, which may only be a problem given that we too our South Africa, which remains an accent that is routinely butchered – we’re looking at you here Leonardo DiCaprio.

Final verdict

For fans of the Uncharted series, Legacy of Thieves delivers as expected, but then again it was always going to be difficult to mess up titles that were already great to begin with. As such, it may be a case of waiting for prices to drop before venturing into the wild with Drake and Frazer again.

If you are new to the Uncharted world though, these games, A Thief’s End in particular, come highly recommended, presenting the best that the franchise has to offer, along with some of the best experiences on a PlayStation console to date.

Sure Lost Legacy cannot live up to the same level, but it is still expertly executed, albeit with less lovable protagonists.