Introduction
I went into Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection without having played any of the previous Uncharted games. I picked it up on sale because I've heard nothing but praise for the series over the years, and I figured it was finally time to see what all the hype was about. ** Review w/o 100% or playing DLC**
To put it simply, I came away disappointed. I understand this is a PC port that is roughly 10 years old, so I'm not expecting modern mechanics across the board. Even with that in mind, though, I found myself constantly frustrated by certain aspects of the gameplay. I played entirely on keyboard and mouse, so some of my complaints may be specific, but after roughly 30 hours, the negatives outweighed the positives for me. There were definitely some highlights, but overall I don't think the game lived up to its reputation.
Graphics
This is easily the strongest aspect of the game.The PC port itself is solid. Performance was generally good, although there were a handful of areas where my frame rate dropped unexpectedly. I also ran into a few visual bugs, textures not loading correctly or small environmental glitches, but nothing game-breaking or severe enough to make me stop playing.
Where the game truly shines is its environments. The mountains, deserts, jungles, ruins, coastlines, beaches, and overall scenery look fantastic. Even by today's standards, many of the locations are genuinely beautiful and do a great job making each chapter feel unique. As you can tell, lots of screenshots were taken lol.
Considering the game's age, Naughty Dog did an excellent job with the visuals, and the PC version preserves that very well.
Level Design
I'm splitting this into two parts because my feelings are mixed.Overall, I found the level design inconsistent. Some combat arenas were genuinely enjoyable because they allowed for player creativity. You could approach encounters from multiple angles, throw enemies off ledges, use explosives creatively, flank opponents, or simply go in guns blazing. Those sections felt dynamic and rewarded experimentation.
Unfortunately, just as many encounters boiled down to the exact same formula:
Walk into room.
Kill enemies.
Move forward.
Another room.
Kill more enemies.
Repeat until the cutscene
Parkour
This was probably my least favorite mechanic in the entire game. Again, maybe keyboard and mouse isn't the intended way to play, but I constantly fought the controls instead of feeling immersed in the parkour.
There were countless moments where Nate would jump about five centimeters instead of making the obvious leap to the next ledge. Other times he'd make the exact same jump perfectly. There never seemed to be any consistency. Don't even get me started on the ropes...
The climbing sections using the piton (knife) were even worse. There were multiple occasions where I'd be spamming Ctrl to stab into the wall, yet Nate simply wouldn't react and would fall to his death. I genuinely couldn't tell whether it was input delay, weird timing windows, or something else entirely.
The sliding sequences near the end of the game were another source of frustration. For whatever reason, Nate would sometimes steer himself in a direction I wasn't even moving my mouse toward, resulting in unnecessary deaths that felt completely outside my control.
Compared to modern platforming games or even modern Assassin's Creed titles the movement felt surprisingly clunky. I'd mash jump and nothing would happen. I'd try to move quickly and Nate would hesitate. Instead of making traversal feel fluid, it constantly reminded me I was fighting the game's mechanics.Rather than enhancing immersion, the parkour repeatedly broke it.
Puzzles
The puzzles were... fine. Most of them weren't particularly difficult and could be solved after thinking for a minute or two. That's perfectly okay, I wasn't expecting Portal-level puzzle design.
My biggest issue was that some solutions felt completely unintuitive. I generally refuse to look up puzzle solutions because I like solving what the developers intended. However, there were several moments where I simply couldn't understand what the game wanted me to do, not because the puzzle itself was difficult, but because the logic behind the solution felt disconnected from everything the game had taught me previously.
One example near the end involves diving underwater while the boat is collapsing around you. I spent far longer than I'd like to admit trying to figure out where I was supposed to go. Looking back, I wouldn't even call it hard, it just wasn't communicated very well. Overall, this isn't a major complaint since most puzzles were enjoyable enough, but a handful definitely felt more frustrating than satisfying.
Audio & Music
The audio quality throughout the game is excellent. Environmental sounds, weapon effects, ambient noises, and dialogue all sounded great and fit the situations well. I never encountered any audio issues worth mentioning.
The soundtrack, however, was simply good, not amazing. It always fit the scenes it accompanied and never felt out of place or overly dramatic, but there weren't many tracks that stuck with me after finishing the game. It did its job well without ever becoming particularly memorable.
Voice Acting
One area where I really have nothing negative to say. Every major character was voiced extremely well. Nathan, Sully, Elena, Chloe, Nadine, Sam, everyone felt believable and natural. Conversations flowed smoothly, emotional moments landed well, and the performances carried many scenes that otherwise would've been forgettable. This is easily one of the game's biggest strengths.
Movement
As you've probably guessed by now, I wasn't a fan. Even basic movement felt oddly sluggish. Nate's running animation always looked and felt strange to me, almost like he never committed to actually sprinting. He always seemed caught somewhere between jogging and fast-walking.
Vehicle sections were another annoyance. Driving felt overly sensitive in the worst possible way. Tapping A or D barely turned the vehicle at all, yet holding the key for what felt like half a second suddenly caused a massive 90-degree turn. It never felt precise, which made driving sequences more frustrating than enjoyable. Nothing about movement ever felt smooth enough for me to forget I was controlling a character.
Combat
Combat is probably my second biggest criticism after the movement. Gunplay simply didn't click with me. The aiming reticles felt awkward, weapons lacked satisfying feedback, and shooting enemies never became particularly enjoyable. Every firefight felt serviceable at best. Melee combat wasn't much better.
Ironically, my favorite combat mechanic was the sword fighting. I genuinely wish there had been more of it because it required timing, felt satisfying when executed correctly, and stood out from the rest of the combat system. It was one of the few mechanics that I actually wanted to engage with. Grenades worked fine and did exactly what they were supposed to, but they weren't enough to elevate the overall combat experience.
Conclusion
I can absolutely understand why Uncharted became such a beloved PlayStation franchise back when it originally released. The cinematic presentation, gorgeous environments, excellent voice acting, and blockbuster-style set pieces still hold up remarkably well.
That said, actually playing it in 2026, especially on keyboard and mouse, was a far less enjoyable experience than I expected. Between inconsistent parkour, awkward movement, combat that never felt satisfying, and level design that became repetitive over time, I found myself pushing through the game more out of a desire to finish it than because I was genuinely excited to see what came next.
Final Score
5.8/10 – Cosmas Approved
