Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection is lush on PC

Posted on October 19, 2022

Uncharted has long been locked away on PlayStation consoles as one of Sony’s most closely held exclusives. This month, that all changes with Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection making its debut on PC. Containing two of the series’ best games (Uncharted 4: A Thieve’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy) together in one tight package, PC players everywhere are in for a real treat, especially if this is their first dive into the series. Earlier this year, I reviewed the same collection when it dropped on PS5, and while this PC version is essentially the exact same version, there are a few points of difference worth mentioning.

Uncharted, as a series, truly is a visual feast; the character models are beautifully rendered and the environments are drop dead gorgeous. There are several graphical features just for the PC version which, when combined with a powerful rig, makes Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection absolutely shine. Some of these new features include reimagined UI, scale sliders, GPU and VRAM detection, Variable Load Speed, Ultra-Wide Monitor support, adjustable Texture and Model Quality, Anisotropic Filtering, Shadows, Reflections, and Ambient Occlusion.

“With such a rich and diverse swathe of locations, set pieces, characters, and objects on display, the visuals are simply dancing off the screen…”

When I reviewed the game on PS5, I said “…the visual quality, smoothness of action, and overall polish across both titles has been stepped up for the new PS5 iteration. With such a rich and diverse swathe of locations, set pieces, characters, and objects on display in both games the visuals are simply dancing off the screen in stunning 4K.” It is safe to say that with the move to PC, these graphical successes have only improved even more with the slew of unique PC features. I only wish I had an ultra-wide monitor to really soak in the breadth of the quality.

The minute-to-minute gameplay is, as always, smooth as hell, frantic, and the top-tier Uncharted action fans have come to expect. On the PC, everything runs top-notch, with the aforementioned graphical wins doing the hard yards in making Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection feels like a double-feature of film-level-quality action. The set pieces are depicted beautifully on the PC, and engaging in tense gunplay across lush jungles, decrepit ruins, and lost tombs is a truly rich experience.

Originally, I went into the PC version of Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection adamant I wouldn’t enjoy playing the game on keyboard and mouse. I don’t know how they did it, but somehow Naughty Dog and Iron Galaxy have translated the game brilliantly from controller to keyboard and mouse. Is it the ideal way to play? No, it isn’t, but it does work and I gave it a few hours before switching over to my trusty wired controller.

Regrettably, my wired controller was unable to convey all the features that would ordinarily be present in Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection. That said, in my original review of the collection, I said “I feel Sony failed to properly utilise the magic that is the DualSense controlled… did not notice any particular implementation of the adaptive triggers or creative use of the haptic feedback.” In the grand scheme of things, it did not sway my opinion strongly, and as I spent the majority of the time using keyboard and mouse anyway, it’s water under the bridge for me.

As always, returning to Naughty Dog’s masterpieces that are Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is a real treat. The games are vibrant, dynamic, engaging, and just plain fun, and it’s a great thing to see them migrate over to PC for players to enjoy for the first time on a new platform. While I think the games are truly at home on the PlayStation, having a bat through them on PC was a fun use of time and with the new graphical options available, those gamers out there that love to push visual fidelity to its limit will have a blast with Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection.