We talk about Uncharted alot on Reality Breached, almost a nauseating amount, but I have never officially reviewed any of the games. With my recent purchase of a Vita, I grabbed Golden Abyss and dove head first in Nate Drake’s first portable adventure. I have a very defined opinion of Golden Abyss, and it greatly differs from my opinion on the Vita hardware. Physical limitations be damned, Uncharted Golden Abyss is pretty awesome.
Like any good side story, everything Drake does in Golden Abyss is completely inconsequential to the rest of the story. Does it fit into the continuity? Sure. Does it contain the same lighthearted banter between characters? Definitely! Does it bring anything new to the Uncharted formula? Yes, but that something new might just piss you off. The same traversal, shooting and light puzzle solving that has always been part of the series is alive and well in Golden Abyss. The environments, while smaller than their big console counterparts, look great and have set a great bar for the Vita to live up to. Golden Abyss’ ability to replicate the console experience is really its strongest trait. Not everyone wants a console experience in a handheld game, but Uncharted Golden Abyss pulls it off.
The new things that they have added are very much Vita specific. Much like when the Six-axis debuted and Sony shoehorned motion features into its games, the Vita’s many bell and whistles each get their turn in the spotlight, with very mixed results. Throughout the game, it asks the player to rub the screen for a variety of actions. Cleaning off artifacts, charcoal rubbing, block puzzles, and quick-time event style swiping are a few of the oddball things it has you perform with the touchscreen.
I enjoyed the novelty of the front touchscreen, and the rubbing didn’t bother me at all. The touching wasn’t game breaking and didn’t have to be very precise. It was light, easy, and non-invasive so I found it nice. That kind of tomfoolery can really turn someone off. Having to perform precise movements was one of the main problems with the Wii, and Golden Abyss doesn’t suffer from this in the least. One thing that bothered me was the games insistence on you touching everything. The home menu cannot be navigated with the buttons, and d-pad. All the menus have to be touched and swiped through. I don’t mind swiping through menus but at least give me the option to do it either way.
Nolan North’s portrayal of Nathan Drake again is spot on and Richard McGonagle returns as everyone’s favorite white Danny Glover in Sully. The script isn’t as strong as the big console counterparts, but who was really expecting it to be? I was not a fan of the female character Marisa Chase at all, and was rooting for Nate to not hook up with her the entire game. On the other hand the weaselly character of Dante was great.
As for my impressions of the Vita. Two games in, I can safely say that I officially dislike the form factor of the Vita and wish the thumbsticks were higher. I know the placement of the thumbsticks isn’t really something they can change, and I’m sure internally they make sense where they are. What it comes down to is that holding the Vita with my hands and playing shooters kinda hurts. I like to use the tips of my thumbs on the sticks and this makes controlling the games very uncomfortable on the Vita. Also, the back touch panel is pretty dumb. Multiple times I was touching it without even realizing it. I can’t wait till games stop incorporating it.
If you like Uncharted you will probably like Golden Abyss. The controls take some time to get used to with the new weird thumbsticks, but enough of the core Uncharted experience is there to justify adding the goofy Vita features. I can see teens really liking the touch stuff and if you are one of the few that own a Vita, you owe it to yourself to play it.
Verdict: Its Uncharted, so why not.
