Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection PC Review

The Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection PC version is finally here, taking everything that made the collection so great on PS5 and making it even better with PC-exclusive features like ultra-wide monitor support, high frame rate output, advanced and tunable graphics settings, and both AMD and Nvidia’s smart upscaling. There’s also fantastic keyboard and mouse support, making Nathan Drake and Chloe Frazer even more accurate and deadly.

Buy one treasure hunter get one free

Bundling both Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End with Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, this collection of content includes the latest installment in the series alongside a spin-off. The mainline game focuses on Nathan Drake, a veteran globetrotting treasure hunter whose latest adventure sees him tracking down an ancient pirate captain.

The spin-off puts players in the shoes of Chloe Frazer, a key Uncharted character who matches Nathan’s penchant for hunting down treasure. Chloe and her partner must explore the Western Ghats of India.

Of course, treasure hunting isn’t without its risks, especially when there are other hunters willing to kill mercilessly for the spoils, as both Nathan and Chloe find out.

The thrill of adventure

As for what exactly “treasure hunting” entails, gameplay in both Uncharted 4 and The Lost Legacy has the protagonists doing a lot of climbing, puzzle-solving, sneaking, and shooting. It’s a wonderful combo that uses exotic environments to their full potential. Players are tasked with scaling large structures, working out puzzles to uncover ancient secrets, employing stealth when the odds are stacked against them, and then pulling out a gun when it inevitably all hits the fan.

One of the big ways that Naughty Dog evolved Uncharted for the next generation was by introducing larger semi-open areas. These are navigated around using a vehicle and so are fairly expansive. This gives the illusion of an open-world setting and a larger scale without losing control of pacing and risking players going too far off track.

While out adventuring, both Nate and Chloe are regularly joined by a partner. This has its advantages in gameplay, as one person can help the other, but the main highlight of the partnerships is the dialogue. There are many lines said between the characters, steadily revealing more information about their relationship with one another. It’s potentially a lesson Naughty Dog learned from creating The Last of Us, where Joel and Ellie’s interactions are a key part of the experience. Whatever the case, this helps the latest Uncharted games master both the epic and intimate.

You can have it all

When playing on PS5, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection players have to choose between Performance or Quality as a priority. On PC, you can have it all. PC players can crank up all of the settings to the maximum, all the while enjoying a triple-digit frame rate, at standard or ultra-wide resolutions, provided they have a beefy enough system.

Just how beefy a system do PC users need? Well, the recommended specs feature an i7-4770/Ryzen 5 1500X paired with a 1060 (6 GB)/RX 570 (4 GB) and 16 GB RAM for 30 FPS at 1080p High settings. As for 60 FPS at 4K Ultra settings, it’ll take an i9-9900K/Ryzen 9 3950X, 3080 (10 GB)/RX 6800 (16 GB), and 16 GB RAM.

My test system falls somewhere in the middle, with a Ryzen 7 3700X, 3070, and 32 GB RAM. Without any upscaling techniques, those specs achieved 60 FPS at 1440p High Settings. However, with Nvidia DLSS, I was able to use the Quality preset to max the game out at 1440p and get 60 FPS, or the Balanced preset to push things past 80 FPS. AMD Fidelity FX Super Resolution 2 is also available, making it easier for lower-end systems to achieve both high resolutions and frame rates.

PC users can also enjoy the DualSense’s haptic feedback and trigger effects, Just connect the controller to the PC and the features kick in immediately.

Load times are the only area where the PS5 could win a round. The SSD in Sony’s current-gen console is super fast and more than likely trumps the storage whirring away in most PC gamers’ systems. With that said, the loading times are still very quick when the game is running on my cheap and cheerful Crucial CT1000P1SSD8.

What’s the catch?

It’s surprising to see Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves launching on PC when the Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is still a PS4 console exclusive. While PC players will be able to dive into the latest and greatest games, they won’t have the context that comes through playing the original Uncharted trilogy.

What’s more, the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection might include Uncharted 4, but it omits the game’s multiplayer. This is a shame, particularly for PC players who have never had the chance to try Uncharted MP. With the great keyboard and mouse controls, multiplayer on PC would have been brilliant.

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection PC was reviewed on PC with code provided by the publisher. Test system: 3700X, 32 GB RAM, 3070.