Graphics
The Uncharted
franchise is known for its visual appeal on the consoles, and Golden
Abyss for the PS Vita is no exception. The game looks
absolutely stunning, and it really shines as a benchmark for what the
Vita can do. The overall graphics of Golden Abyss can be compared
to the original Uncharted, which is an impressive feat for a handheld
device. Character animations look a little different, particularly
facial animations, but it does little to hinder the overall look of
the game. At times while playing, I found myself stopping
and taking in all of the beautiful jungle environments on the OLED screen.
It truly is something to show off to other gamers.
Story
Story for the
Uncharted series has always been a selling point for the franchise.
The first three games all have good plots, if not a little over the
top sometimes. This time around Drake finds himself with a young
female companion named Marisa Chase. Chase is similar to Drake
in that she knows her stuff when it comes to history, and like Drake she gets her thrills through
tracking down ancient artifacts. Another key member to the story
is Jason Dante. Dante is a far cry from the fan favorite Victor
Sullivan (Who is also apart of the character cast). While Dante
isn’t as memorable as some of Drake’s other companions, he is serviceable
to the plot, playing a character who is more opposite of
Nathan Drake. Overall the story this time isn’t as solid as
others. The game seems to focus on shooting and bite sized gaming
sessions that make the story take more of a back seat to gameplay.
This is fine for the first installment on the Vita, but the plot this
time around is just uninspiring and mostly hard to follow. Still,
the story is there and serves as a means to move the player along, just
don’t expect any really interesting tie-ins to history such as finding
a lost city of gold.
Gameplay
The gameplay
in Uncharted: Golden Abyss focused more on implementing some of the Vita's
features, as opposed to the standard Uncharted gameplay. The game
relies heavily on touch screen controls that, while implemented well
within the game, feel a little bit forced at times. During combat
sections I found myself annoyed at having to swipe awkwardly across
the screen to complete melee combos. While this isn’t a huge
problem to have, I still wish that the touch controls would have been
kept to a minimum. Touch controls were apart of the whole game,
but as an option most of the time, so it was a shame to see a few sections
were it was the only option in regards to playing the game. That
being said there were a few sections were the Vita features worked well.
Specifically there was one moment in the game where there was a blank
piece of paper that when held up to an actual light revealed a clue
for Drake and Chase. It was neat for me to physically get up and
hold my Vita up to a lamp to make out the lettering on the paper, and
thankfully this was not overdone during the game. It served its
purpose and was a unique experience but was not shoehorned into other
aspects of the game making it rewarding to the player.
Overall
Golden Abyss
is a truly unique experience for handheld gaming. Personally I
have never played a better looking game on a handheld, and also have
never played a game that closely resembles its PS3 counterparts as well
as Golden Abyss does. For $49.99 it was one of the more expensive
Vita games to launch with, but it packs in a full 8-10 hour campaign
that is close to a full out console experience. That being said,
I wish that more time had been put into the story. Clearly it
was the goal of Sony Bend to utilize the Vita’s new hardware capabilities,
but I just wish that story and set pieces had been more of a focus.
Overall the game feels like an Uncharted experience, which is a great
compliment to it. Packing in a game of this scale onto a handheld
gaming device is an impressive feat. However, there is room left
for improvement on the Vita. Sequel anyone?
Overall Score: 8/10
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