Path To Platinum: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (Remastered)

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Remastered

Difficulty: 5/10

Fun: 8/10

Online Trophies: 0

Time: 10-20 hours

Originally released back in November 2007 for the PlayStation 3, Naughty Dog's excellent Uncharted: Drake's Fortune game went on to become part of trophy hunting history when it became the first PlayStation game to receive a Platinum trophy through an update that was rolled out in August of 2008.

All three of Nathan Drake's PlayStation 3 adventures are superb action titles, each with its own rewarding platinum trophy. The three games only improved when, in 2015, Bluepoint Games remastered the trilogy for PlayStation 4 with quality-of-life improvements, including a smooth 60fps and new trophies.

Despite being a huge Uncharted fan, I struggled to gel with Drake's Fortune back in the day (Mostly due to the hand-to-hand combat), but after falling in love with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, I revisited the title and enjoyed it a lot more. Since then, I have found myself liking the game more and more with each subsequent playthrough. Having already achieved the platinum trophies for Among Thieves and Drake's Deception last year, I decided to complete the Collection and get a full sweep on the remastered original trilogy. Here's how I found it.

Tackle a Crushing Story on Collectable Duty

One thing Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Remastered does to help trophy hunters is make the Crushing difficulty available from the get-go. Previously, the original version of the game required you to beat the game on Hard before unlocking Crushing and then venture through the story again.

The Crushing difficulty in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is challenging but very conquerable. It does have a handful of difficulty spikes like the blue room, but familiarising yourself with cover and enemy locations/movement tips the balance of these skirmishes in your favour. I found managing my ammo, aiming for headshots, and patience helped me through most of the game's firefights.

Alongside my Crushing playthrough, I followed a collectable guide to locate all 61 treasures (60 treasures plus the strange relic). Although a good amount of treasures are discoverable just by the usual searching, some are a bit more sneaky, and to avoid doubling back, the guide proved invaluable. Even if I did miss any, it wouldn't have been the end of the world, as I could simply go back via chapter select to find the missed treasures by replaying those sections.

Speedrun Chapters and Kill Specific Trophies

Some of the new trophies added to the remastered collection are chapter-specific speedruns. Thankfully, there are only three chapters per title, with Drake's Fortune asking you to beat Chapter 5 in less than 10 Minutes, Chapter 12 in less than 5 Minutes and Chapter 16 in less than 7 Minutes. None of these proved too challenging, as you can play through them on easy, but for Chapter 16, it's essential to know the exact level route to avoid losing time following false paths and doubling back.

Outside the speedrun trophies, there are the usual 'kill X number of enemies with a certain weapon'. Most of these were unlocked through my Crushing playthrough as I tended to swap weapons to any I hadn't popped the trophy along the story, knocking as many of them out of the way to avoid extra clean up. Still, by the credits, a few guns needed extra kills, but dipping back into chapter select and getting the necessary kills sorted that out fairly quickly.

The more tedious trophies I found came in the hand-to-hand realm, with 'Steel Fist Expert' and 'Brutal Expert' proving to be the most challenging. Both trophies are best earned in Chapter 1, when pirates try to board your boat. Not breaking the chain proved the biggest issue, as sometimes my aim would leave enemies with two hits instead of one, or start a different combo by pushing them against the railings. I did manage to achieve them both, but it felt like a longer quest than it should have been.

One trophy to be aware of on your playthrough is 'Master Ninja'(Kill 50 enemies by melee-attacking from behind). It's not because it's difficult, but because there are so few chances to perform stealth attacks in the game. To get it out of the way in Chapter 11, I found myself at a checkpoint with a stealth option at the start, so putting the story on hold, I decided to get the kill, die and restart the checkpoint until the trophy eventually popped. I know it's a little tedious, but I knew I'd ultimately have to do it at some point anyway, so I thought I'd knock it out once I found a spot instead of coming back to it later on.

Clean Up On 75 (Kills)

Wrapping up the trophies was 'Survivor' (Kill 75 enemies in a row without dying). This was a lot easier to achieve than you may expect. After beating the game, I headed over to Chapter 17: The heart of the Vault and put on the tweaks, one-shot kill and unlimited ammo. The level sees you in a small arena where you are set upon by Descendants, who will continue to respawn until you progress out of the pit. So, I just made my way around the room, killing them, reloading until I hit 75. I also managed to get some of the bonus trophies like 'Cheater Cheater' for activating a tweak and 'Cosplay' for doing it as Elena, they aren't needed for the platinum, but I'm not going to turn down extra trophies so easily earned.

Although an early PlayStation 3 title, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune holds up incredibly well. The remastered version is 100% the best way to play the title, and given its role in platinum history, it's hard not to want it in your trophy cabinet.

The game does have a few tedious trophies, and the difficulty spikes may put some trophy hunters off, but they aren't deal breakers and can be overcome with patience and practice. For any trophy hunter who fancies a bit of PlayStation Nostalgia or wants to enjoy a classic Treasure hunting adventure before Indiana Jones makes his way to PlayStation 5 later this month, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is a stellar option.