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Uncharted 4 vs 007 First Light Digital Foundry comparison

What game looks better?

  • Uncharted 4

    Votes: 112 65.5%
  • 007 First Light

    Votes: 48 28.1%
  • Tie

    Votes: 11 6.4%

  • Total voters
    171
I don't give a shit about Uncharted 4, which btw doesn't have anywhere near as good melee combat animations. This is an objective fact. 007 is basically a Yakuza game with it melee combat, except with higher production values and context sensitive environment interaction. You have no idea what you're talking about.

Both of those guys said the game has PS3 animations, that aren't acceptable in 2026, and they're both completely fucking wrong.
You just sold me on this game
 
God this is why Graphics comparison threads are utterly retarded on this forum.

You guys just pick and choose what is important based on vibes or time of the month.

I was under impression that the complete package was important not zooming in on single screenshots or individual features. Hence why alot of people felt RDR2 was overall the best looking game last gen because of all it's features at the scale it delivered.

Side by Side in screenshots other games like the Last of Us 2 looked significantly better but people understood the bigger picture.

Well apparently not anymore! First Light is obviously the overall better looking game. As it should be it's built on hardware with 5 times more power 10 years later . Yes Uncharted 4 does some things better and you can cherry pick screenshots to build a case.

But in motion is what counts and side by side the party scene looks significantly better in First Light.

Here's a bunch of features First Light does better or are just missing from Uncharted 4.

Bigger Levels
Way way way more Npcs
More level destruction
More interactive levels
More Physics
More NPC variety
Better lighting
Better hand to hand combat animation
More asset variety
Better collision with the environment (Remember that bullshit of Ellie get thrown across the table in the last of us 2 demo? You can do that and way more in First Light)
Better explosion and smoke effects

Not even John's prattling on about time and budget makes sense as Uncharted 4 was made in 3 years when Naughty dog was much smaller

Having said all that the boat section in First Light looks a bit shit.
 
God this is why Graphics comparison threads are utterly retarded on this forum.

You guys just pick and choose what is important based on vibes or time of the month.

I was under impression that the complete package was important not zooming in on single screenshots or individual features. Hence why alot of people felt RDR2 was overall the best looking game last gen because of all it's features at the scale it delivered.

Side by Side in screenshots other games like the Last of Us 2 looked significantly better but people understood the bigger picture.

Well apparently not anymore! First Light is obviously the overall better looking game. As it should be it's built on hardware with 5 times more power 10 years later . Yes Uncharted 4 does some things better and you can cherry pick screenshots to build a case.

But in motion is what counts and side by side the party scene looks significantly better in First Light.

Here's a bunch of features First Light does better or are just missing from Uncharted 4.

Bigger Levels
Way way way more Npcs
More level destruction
More interactive levels
More Physics
More NPC variety
Better lighting
Better hand to hand combat animation
More asset variety
Better collision with the environment (Remember that bullshit of Ellie get thrown across the table in the last of us 2 demo? You can do that and way more in First Light)
Better explosion and smoke effects

Not even John's prattling on about time and budget makes sense as Uncharted 4 was made in 3 years when Naughty dog was much smaller

Having said all that the boat section in First Light looks a bit shit.
To be fair, the DF video also bases a lot of their conclusions on vibes.
 
That image in particular is like someone just waking up and eyes are still adjusting to the light.

good-morning-wake-up.gif
The game uses blooming extensively as part of their artstyle. It's a feature, not a bug. Given how the rugs are not affected, it may even be baked into the environment light maps. Hopefully PT gets rid of the lightmaps so we get legit direct lighting that's consistent across the floorboards AND rugs.

But in all likelihood, it's going to bloom even more!
 
God this is why Graphics comparison threads are utterly retarded on this forum.

You guys just pick and choose what is important based on vibes or time of the month.

I was under impression that the complete package was important not zooming in on single screenshots or individual features. Hence why alot of people felt RDR2 was overall the best looking game last gen because of all it's features at the scale it delivered.

Side by Side in screenshots other games like the Last of Us 2 looked significantly better but people understood the bigger picture.

Well apparently not anymore! First Light is obviously the overall better looking game. As it should be it's built on hardware with 5 times more power 10 years later . Yes Uncharted 4 does some things better and you can cherry pick screenshots to build a case.

But in motion is what counts and side by side the party scene looks significantly better in First Light.

Here's a bunch of features First Light does better or are just missing from Uncharted 4.

Bigger Levels
Way way way more Npcs
More level destruction
More interactive levels
More Physics
More NPC variety
Better lighting
Better hand to hand combat animation
More asset variety
Better collision with the environment (Remember that bullshit of Ellie get thrown across the table in the last of us 2 demo? You can do that and way more in First Light)
Better explosion
and smoke effects

Not even John's prattling on about time and budget makes sense as Uncharted 4 was made in 3 years when Naughty dog was much smaller

Having said all that the boat section in First Light looks a bit shit.
First light does that on a machine 6 time more powerful than the ps4 which uncharted released on. Even then, uncharted had decent NPC density. Secondly the bold is either debatable or a flat out lie.

Uncharted has better:
  • Animations
  • Better combat animations
  • Better contextual animations
  • Better animation blending
  • Similar levels of destruction(see the market levels, etc)
  • Asset variety is not drastically different
  • Better textures while using half the ram
  • Better gun play and combat scenarios
  • Better driving mechanics
  • Better driving physics
  • Better boat physics
First light is a disappointing technical effort for a 2026 game. It should not trail a 10 year old game in any categories. Especially when that game is runs on a system using 6x weaker gpu, half the ram, 1/4 the cpu.

Is first light even a significant step up from the Hitman games? Not at all.
 
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I was under impression that the complete package was important not zooming in on single screenshots or individual features.
And people are judging the complete package. This isn't a zoom, you can see how crude the presentation is and that's something that wouldn't happen in Uncharted 4, not on such a large scale.

Screenshot-2026-05-29-005302.png


007-First-Light-In-Depth-The-Big-Digital-Foundry-Tech-Review-ezgif-com-optimize.gif


Uncharted 4 has a much more sophistacated presentation, many more layers of HDR and post-processing, and (baked) bounce light as well.

UNCHARTED-4-A-Thiefs-End-E3-2015-Sam-Pursuit-Gameplay-1-ezgif-com-optimize.gif


Hell, I'd say Uncharted 3 had better fake bounce that the 007 example above:

anthony-vaccaro-vaccaroanthony-uncharted3-09.jpg


anthony-vaccaro-vaccaroanthony-uncharted3-02.jpg


anthony-vaccaro-vaccaroanthony-uncharted3-03.jpg

First Light has some seriously impressive volumetric smoke, but you're underselling Uncharted 4 explosions.

Uncharted-4-A-Thiefs-End-Boom-County-Trophy-Guide.gif


NO-ESCAPE-UNCHARTED-4-A-THIEFS-END-PS5-4K-HDR-60FPS-ezgif-com-optimize.gif


And there's no reason to get so worked up throwing "retarded" around. It's not an unreasonable comparison afterall, and the fact John and the majority on GAF consider Uncharted 4 the most impressive game is very telling.
 
First light does that on a machine 6 time more powerful than the ps4 which uncharted released on. Even then, uncharted had decent NPC density. Secondly the bold is either debatable or a flat out lie.

Uncharted has better:
  • Animations
  • Better combat animations
  • Better contextual animations
  • Better animation blending
  • Similar levels of destruction(see the market levels, etc)
  • Asset variety is not drastically different
  • Better textures while using half the ram
  • Better gun play and combat scenarios
  • Better driving mechanics
  • Better driving physics
  • Better boat physics
First light is a disappointing technical effort for a 2026 game. It should not trail a 10 year old game in any categories. Especially when that game is runs on a system using 6x weaker gpu, half the ram, 1/4 the cpu.

Is first light even a significant step up from the Hitman games? Not at all.

I think uncharted destruction is only limited to the market level (and maybe some other place?). I remember watching trailer from that level and thinking "holy shit, this level of destruction on a Jaguar?!" and then full game released and that destruction was pretty much nowhere else.
 
I think uncharted destruction is only limited to the market level (and maybe some other place?). I remember watching trailer from that level and thinking "holy shit, this level of destruction on a Jaguar?!" and then full game released and that destruction was pretty much nowhere else.
There are other places with destruction, for example when you're getting pulled across the bridge. You end up going through some logs and then it leads to a scene where you're hopping between jeeps.

There's also destruction when the shootout starts at the auction. My point is, I cannot even begin to consider First Light as being impressive if it barely looks better and in some categories worse than a 10 year old game.

People can highlight the software rt in First light and the lighting being baked in Uncharted. However, when I look at what each team accomplished with the hardware they had, it's clear that the IO interactive team really underperformed. However, that's not surprising. The best devs from that era have been retiring and that's why this gen, we've seen very little graphically impressive games on console while having hardware that is 6x more powerful.
 
I think uncharted destruction is only limited to the market level (and maybe some other place?). I remember watching trailer from that level and thinking "holy shit, this level of destruction on a Jaguar?!" and then full game released and that destruction was pretty much nowhere else.
That level of destruction is usually reserved for big shootouts. The auction one was imo more impressive than the marketplace.
For quieter levels they usually gave priority to baked lighting, which isn't very compatibile with destruction.
But even in those quieter moments, like Libertalia for instance, there's some impressive amount of assets interactivity/pshysics.
 
They're both good. I give Uncharted 4 the edge in the animation department, but 007 is not PS2 / PS3 level like some of the folks are saying… that's absolutely not the case. It's still a tangible jump from how Hitman was animated, and I applaud IOI for that.

The combat, however, is conceptually a copy of and modernized version of Sleeping Dogs. I'm surprised that comparison hasn't been made more often from what I've seen and read.


sleepingdogs-sleepingdogsgame.gif

iv5r7b39kfr81.gif
 
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You can play the 1440p mode on Pro at an almost locked 120 when unlocking the framerate.
Has someone measured the frame rates at the different modes in the Pro? 1440p unlocked give me so much motion clarity that I can't justify the 4K unlocked mode, that is only better in some Moiré patterns.
 
Uncharted 4, The Last of Us Part II and The Order 1886 were some stunning looking games, and they still are. I just couldn't believe what my standard PS4 was doing.
 
Im a noob when it comes to the technical aspects of visuals, but it is kinda depressing how little improvement is visible between Uncharted 4 and First Light.

I somehow feel like system requirements have blown up with very little to show for.
 
Uncharted 4 obviously looks better on the whole. ND used to be the pinnacle of marrying art and tech.

Every single one of them. What's your point? I'm asking if the guy played 007 yet, also the other guy. Because what he's saying about the animations is bullshit.
It isnt bullshit. While this is an improvement over Hitman, it still kind of sucks.
 
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Having actually played both this year I'd say they are very comparable, with a slight edge to 007. Notable areas that 007 has the edge are lighting, particle effects, volumetrics, and interactivity. Uncharted 4 has the edge in presentation, animations, and a more rounded experience, with less texture issues that 007 occasionally faces.

Naturally Uncharted 4 was running on vastly weaker hardware, the PS5 being about 2.5 as powerful as the PS4 Pro. That is just because ND is probably the technically more competent studio, as well as a matter of diminishing returns, especially if you want to implement a RT GI solution like 007 does.
 
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Im playing 007 on a high end PC and the modern tech obviously pushes it ahead of Uncharted but I think if you are comparing other parts like animation etc, then UC4 takes the cake. I think comparing a new release from the hitman studio with probably the one studio with blank cheques then they have done well.

ND, were and have not been operating on the same playing field as any other studio out there. We know theyve had insane budgets etc and the pick off Hollywood talent and more as studio hires.

I personally think its fair to compare but you do need to contemplate that one studio is Sonys darling studio, probably the biggest studio in the world for its technical chops vs an excellent developer from Denmark. But, that is getting into the deeper discussion.
 
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I think they trade blows. Bond on PC with DLSS 4.5 can look quite impressive:

2dS4uVcnyxqzejXV.jpeg
4JdLahkUK9l6eWPz.jpeg
xQHAJwRdKq72Sra6.jpeg
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OpT7ls2up5BU9Z0O.jpeg
ulDhMdjL5rKP77pB.jpeg


I have yet to see low res assets posted by @Gonzito (later missions?)
Skin shading is a bit porcelain looking. The new Bond has good gameplay and story and cool tech, but you can see production values still not being as good as ND in 2016 with a much much much much weaker HW.
 
Uncharted suffered the same as Driveclub: low-resolution GIF syndrome. The actual gameplay looks ok at best.
ZXg9Ekc.jpeg

J07l0Qb.jpeg
I forgot how baked of a game uncharted 4 was. Was there really no dynamic ao? Every impressive photo looks to be a scene with baked in lighting or a gif highlighting the animation.
 
If ND engine gets Global Illumination its over.

Even Screen Space Global Illumination would help ND games look that much better, the reason their cutscenes are so good looking is because they have their lighting artists actively place lights to mimic GI, not every studio can do that.
But for gameplay GI should be default going forward.
 
Tiny details in bond:

DUlUiXXr4qpm5CZT.jpeg
r9qIz0su8arc5G1x.jpeg
ho9l3HQvElcsjRWL.jpeg
lbmZifhHsGzQySnl.jpeg


Fruit roundness test:

fQd7TNYqR85se4Wg.jpeg
lhbxWpFmIDL8D3zN.jpeg
nmJHEJ7wG0EHBn20.jpeg
QuP5qWgkg5x7XIbV.jpeg


200w.gif


Bond also has plant physics, not as good UC4 but still above 99% of games:



Game will benefit A LOT from RT shadows contained in Path Tracing.
 
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Tiny details in bond:

DUlUiXXr4qpm5CZT.jpeg
r9qIz0su8arc5G1x.jpeg
ho9l3HQvElcsjRWL.jpeg
lbmZifhHsGzQySnl.jpeg


Fruit roundness test:

fQd7TNYqR85se4Wg.jpeg
lhbxWpFmIDL8D3zN.jpeg
nmJHEJ7wG0EHBn20.jpeg
QuP5qWgkg5x7XIbV.jpeg


200w.gif


Bond also has plant physics, not as good UC4 but still above 99% of games:



Game will benefit A LOT from RT shadows contained in Path Tracing.



Yeah the Path Tracing update is gonna be amazing for this game.

I do wonder why developers launch without the max RT path?
 
I forgot how baked of a game uncharted 4 was. Was there really no dynamic ao? Every impressive photo looks to be a scene with baked in lighting or a gif highlighting the animation.
The game has dynamic GI.

Xnm-AFk4-(2).gif








W1rczKm.gif


cegz07u.gif


And you mention "dynamic AO", which is ironically present in Uncharted 4, and all ND games, in the form of capsule AO. Which is not found in 99% of games. Check the red bounce on the bricks facing downward get occluded by Drake's body:

Un-Charted4-Stealth-Hard-Mode-Trails-Tower-Fight-PC-gamepla.gif
 
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If ND engine gets Global Illumination its over.

Even Screen Space Global Illumination would help ND games look that much better, the reason their cutscenes are so good looking is because they have their lighting artists actively place lights to mimic GI, not every studio can do that.
But for gameplay GI should be default going forward.
Intergalactic looks like it has ray tracing so it's highly likely, they'll certainly be pulling out all the stops on PS6, but wouldn't surprise me if the PS5 version has ray tracing also.
 
The game has dynamic GI.

Xnm-AFk4-(2).gif








W1rczKm.gif


cegz07u.gif


And you mention "dynamic AO", which is ironically present in Uncharted 4, and all ND games, in the form of capsule AO. Which is not found in 99% of games. Check the red bounce on the bricks facing downward get occluded by Drake's body:

Un-Charted4-Stealth-Hard-Mode-Trails-Tower-Fight-PC-gamepla.gif


Those are clever tricks, they were beyond usual 7th and 8th gen console games (that's why ND was recognized as tech wizards) but not comparable in any shape or form to full real time Global Illumination.
 
Those are clever tricks, they were beyond usual 7th and 8th gen console games (that's why ND was recognized as tech wizards) but not comparable in any shape or form to full real time Global Illumination.
lol

It is absolutely comparable and even much more impacting to the overall scene than MANY ray tracing GI implementations I've seen this gen.



The only difference from a proper Path Traced flashlight GI is the absence of secondary indirect shadows. But even Requiem Path Tracing has less noticeable bounce than ND solution.
 
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lol

It is absolutely comparable and even much more impacting to the overall scene than MANY ray tracing GI implementations I've seen this gen.

The only difference from a proper Path Traced flashligh GI is the absence of secondary indirect shadows. But even Requiem Path Tracing has less noticeable bounce than ND solution.



Sorry but you are wrong. Cheap raster tricks of UC4 are not even close to SVOGI used in KCD, not to mention hardware RTGI of this generation.

UC4 "GI" is only done for flashlight and for some surfaces, many games this gen are doing GI for sunlight and even indoor lighting.
 
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Weird comparison. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to compare it to the TLOU2 remaster? First Light looks good overall, but it's the attention to detail (like animations, NPC facial expressions etc) where it's severely lacking.
 
Please post examples of such prominent bounce lighting in other games. Words are cheap.



You are only focusing on flashlight, literally the only thing UC4 does with "bounced lighting", show me mealtime sunlight GI in UC4 that isn't baked as a lightmap.

Game has baked lighting and few clever tricks to simulate GI for flashlight. Are we comparing this to global real time GI now?

obama-come-on-what-2.gif
 
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Intergalactic looks like it has ray tracing so it's highly likely, they'll certainly be pulling out all the stops on PS6, but wouldn't surprise me if the PS5 version has ray tracing also.

NDs bespoke light placements can mimic global illumination very well, I was so shocked they were manually placing and even rotating at runtime lights for basically all their cutscenes but then again it kinda makes the scenes look like they have GI but are running basically flawlessly on PS4?

RT reflections especially non-rough reflections are super cheap so i can expect that.
But GI.....im not so sure.




Yes I use a Roughness over Glossiness even though I dont use Metalness instead use nested materials, which kinda defeats the memory effecicy you gain from Matelness/Roughness workflow.
 
You are only focusing on flashlight, literally the only thing UC4 does with "bounced lighting", show me mealtime sunlight GI in UC4 that isn't baked as a lightmaps.
I am focusing on instances of dynamic lighting in the game. A game with static time of day.

Outdoor, there's baked GI but the bounce still reflects on dynamic moving objects, like characters and vehicles, at least main ones, and even gets realistically, dynamically occluded by the dynamic AO. Doing more was impossible, but when it comes to the indoor dynamic solution you can't tell it's not "comparable in any shape or form" when it's factually more impacting to the scene than countless modern implementations.
 
I am focusing on instances of dynamic lighting in the game. A game with static time of day.

Outdoor, there's baked GI but the bounce still reflects on dynamic moving objects, like characters and vehicles, at least main ones, and even gets realistically, dynamically occluded by the dynamic AO. Doing more was impossible, but when it comes to the indoor dynamic solution you can't tell it's not "comparable in any shape or form" when it's factually more impacting to the scene than countless modern implementations.

It's not comparable, this discussion doesn't make any sense if you think it is.

ND developed their AO technique for PS3 The Last of Us.

If game had real time GI (like last gen SVOGI) it wouldn't have shit like this:

skzlzZBK3H0UMnJy.jpeg
 
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yeah...this is...not how the game looked in real time lol. All colors seem "gone" here. You ain't fooling anyone with these screenshots.

You see the opposite in this thread, people thinking that it looked much better than in reality. I have this game installed on PS5.

Tiny gifs can make even PS3 games look next gen.
 
NDs bespoke light placements can mimic global illumination very well, I was so shocked they were manually placing and even rotating at runtime lights for basically all their cutscenes but then again it kinda makes the scenes look like they have GI but are running basically flawlessly on PS4?

RT reflections especially non-rough reflections are super cheap so i can expect that.
But GI.....im not so sure.




Yes I use a Roughness over Glossiness even though I dont use Metalness instead use nested materials, which kinda defeats the memory effecicy you gain from Matelness/Roughness workflow.
I think the Pro and PS6 will have realtime GI, base PS5, not sure. Sonys internal teams share lots of tech and with Yotei having a realtime ray traced GI mode it wouldn't surprise me if Intergalactic had it also.
 
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