Digital Foundry has revealed its initial impressions of developer Bluepoint Games’ work on Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, and those who were planning to buy a copy will be happy to know that they’re extremely positive.
Digital Foundry notes that Bluepoint has “almost blurred the line” between a remaster and a remake by going above and beyond a mere bump in frame-rate and resolution. Apart from an excellent performance and image quality, the developer tweaked the control system, which makes the entire experience “fresh.” Drake’s Fortune seems to benefit the most from improved controls, thanks in part to reduced input latency.
All three games in the package benefit from new textures, models and effects throughout. According to Digital Foundry, “with the limitations of the original PlayStation 3 versions stripped away, Drake’s Fortune feels like a game reborn.” However, all three games look and feel fresh on the current-gen console.
As far as image quality is concerned, Digital Foundry confirms that all three games operate at full 1080p “with excellent anti-aliasing coverage and what looks like at least 8x anisotropic filtering.”
Aliasing is kept to a minimum and surface textures remain sharp even at oblique angles. Along with increased resolution, we also see LODs pushed out further along with higher resolution shadowmaps. So we’re not just looking at more detailed art here – but more objects visible further into the scene, producing a richer presentation.
Those who are particular about frame-rate will be delighted to note that majority of gameplay is at a locked 60fps, which ensures consistency. There are some rare performance dips that are apparently caused by alpha transparency effects, but the good news is that the game doesn’t really go any lower than 55fps.
In their closing comments, Digital Foundry lauded Bluepoint’s work on The Nathan Drake Collection, stating that the project was clearly a “labor of love for those involved, and it’s equally evident that Sony spared no expense in bringing this remarkable collection to life.” In fact, The Nathan Drake Collection seems to surpass The Last of Us Remastered.
If you’re interested in reading the full impressions, click here.
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection will be out on October 7. Stay tuned for our review.
[Source: Eurogamer]
