Uncharted: Golden Abyss (2011)

It's been a while since I had played a Uncharted game (the last one was Drake's Deception on PS3) and I was surprised with how perfectly Bend Studio incorporated the Vita's unique capabilities in the game.

The controls could use more polishing, for sure - I almost killed myself by clicking the granade button accidentally more than once and fallen to my death so many times because Drake went in the wrong direction.

It's not the best Uncharted story and we've seen more interesting characters, but I had loads of fun playing it. Definitely a must-play Vita title!

Returning to this. I'm a little over halfway through the game. It's picked up and I'm finding myself becoming somewhat invested in how the story plays out. Still not a huge fan of all the gimmicky controls! Cool the first few times but after a while it just gets in the way.

I still love gliding my fingers over ledges though to navigate Nathan tho. That's still awesome.

I jumped on the Vita late… very late. But I wanted to start from the beginning and Uncharted: Golden Abyss was one of the launch titles.

Interestingly, it was developed by Bend Game Studio but I would never blame anybody for thinking it was made by Naughty Dog given its presentation and gameplay. It´s you typical Uncharted experience but on the go, which I find remarkable.

Despite being released after Uncharted 3, it’s a prequel to the first game in the series and follows the classic Uncharted formula: engaging storyline with abundant cinematics, clearing scenarios full of bad guys, exploration and collectible hunting.

The twist this time is all the Vita's gimmicky controls, which were undoubtedly added to showcase the console features: tactile screen for QTEs, charcoal rubbings, cleaning of objects… gyro to aim and balance when crossing logs… Most of them help the immersion, whereas other put me well off, like the melee screen swiping (argh!). It would have been nice to have the option to map these to a face-button once the novelty wears.

I did my first playthrough in normal difficulty and found it fair and enjoyable. The checkpoints are generous and the hardest bits are probably the gimmicky tactile QTEs, which can feel unresponsive at times.

If you are into trophies and/or collectible hunting, there are plenty for you to find. I bought the map with all their locations from the Playstation Store and even then it was easy to miss them, with the frequent checkpoints sometimes working against you and having to restart the chapter once you realised you left a treasure behind.

Great:

• Your usual Uncharted experience on the go!
• One of the best looking games in the system despite being a launch title.
• Plenty of replayability if you are into collectibles.

Meh:

• Sometimes it tried too hard to showcase all the Vita features.
• Photo mode is cool but I could not find a way to properly manage the few slots in the photo album and choose which picture to discard to make room for a new one.
• Predictable at times: you see a plank and you know a gyro QTE is coming…

All in all, one of the games that defined the system and a must have for any Vita owner!

This entry to uncharted is bogged down by all the gyroscope and rear pad/touch screen functions added to things normal buttons do on the mainline of games. There was no need to do all this considering half of the buttons on the vita don't do anything, they've been swapped for the touch screen or other such things, which I find really bring down the game and playability. It'd have been way better if they'd ADDED to the game, I quite enjoy scratching off dirt and copying with charcoal, they really suit the Vita's touch screen. But the fighting and controling of the character turns very iffy with all the touch stuff. To the point this feels more a tech piece used to showcase all the Vita can do without thinking of how that'd impact the gameplay itself. And this rant might be powered right now by the gyroscope river section, it's annoying and unneeded very much so. To the point I'm not sure I'll finish this game because I'm stuck on it.

The story itself is interesting, uncharted always has a fun story but the gameplay of this is really rough I find I don't really like having to touch my screen constantly to catch treasure, reload my gun, fistfight, or rotate my vita for the balance mini-game and sliding stuff.

What a nice videogame BendStudio has created! It uses all Vita features in a very nice way (the camera, the rotation, the tactile screen...) (what a pity that there are not many more games like this one) I have had lots of fun taking pictures, rubbing objects and solving puzzles.

I do not give it 5 stars because at some points it has some errors (like if you climb with the help of someone and then you fall, instead of helping you from above, they descend again without even saying anything... weird)

Totally worth it. Good decision to have bought the vita and being able to play something like this with my beloved Nathan Drake. :)

Voor mijn ondertussen echt verouderde Playstation Vita kocht ik een flinke tijd geleden een reeks spellen voor een prikkie. Spellen als Killzone: Mercenary, Tearaway en Uncharted: Golden Abyss kon ik met gemak online of offline gezamenlijk binnenhengelen voor minder dan de helft van een nieuw PS4 spel. Chill, maar tegelijkertijd zorgelijk.

Voor die andere handheld van Nintendo, de New 3DS XL, heb ik nog steeds een lijst aan spellen die ik zou willen hebben. Regelmatig neem ik in gameshops een kijkje voor de 3DS game aller games: Mario Kart 7. Maar ik ga echt niet voor zo'n goed, vergrijst spel nog veertig euro neertikken, zeg.

Die prijsverschillen noem ik even omdat het gewoon heel treurig is hoe het met die mooie Vita is gegaan. Eerlijk is eerlijk: als ik het apparaat niet had gewonnen door een prijsvraag slim te spelen, had ik hem nooit in m'n bezit gehad. Toch had het apparaat potentie, die Killzone: Mercenaries en vooral Uncharted: Golden Abyss compleet waarmaakt.

De PS Vita is inderdaad niet meer dan het betere, jongere broertje van de PSP. Die was alleen al zo goed en populair, dat die Vita naast HD graphics niet meer zoveel te bieden had. In tegenstelling tot de 3DS, die met een gehypte gimmick en (vooral) genoeg games wel veel en nog lang nieuwe gamers trok.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss laat zelfs zonder Naughty Dog als ontwikkelaar zien dat de PS Vita bedoelt was als een echte console om mee te nemen. Een soort kleine Nintendo Switch, die je dan (in eerste instantie, later met een los te kopen apparaat) niet thuis aan je tv kon koppelen.

Dit is een volwaardig Uncharted spel, met een goedlopend verhaal, fijne schietactie en nog wat behendigheid dingetjes. We hebben niet alle personages terug, maar meer dan Nathan, Sully en een nieuwe meid heb je ook niet nodig.

Wat het spel wel iets te graag wil doen, is de touchscreen en andere sensoren gebruiken. Soms oké, - schoonvegen en blokken verplaatsen gaat intuïtiever - een enkele keer heel vet - wanneer je de Vita boven een lamp moet houden om een blad te ontcijferen - maar vaak frustrerend wanneer je de knoppen ineens los moet laten. Verplicht bij Quick Time Events over het scherm swipen wanneer je een melee aanval uitvoert, is frustrerend. Gelukkig is het vaak een optie: of je veegt over het scherm, of je gebruikt de dubbele sticks en je traditionele knoppies.

Het is gelukkig niet zo erg als Tearaway, die gebouwd is op al die gimmicks van de Vita. Uiteindelijk moet Uncharted de strijd aan met Killzone: Mercenaries om mijn favoriete grote game. Lumines speelt altijd heerlijk, dus mijn echte Vita-favoriet gaat het nooit worden. Killzone weet toch net wat beter het handheld principe te benadrukken door losse, herspeelbare missies.

Maar echt, wow. Nog niet zo lang geleden heb ik de oorspronkelijke Uncharted: Drake's Fortune uitgespeeld. De graphics van dit handheld spel zijn misschien wel beter dan dat eerste PS3 deel. Erg netjes :)

I thought Golden Abyss would feel like 'Uncharted: Lite Edition' or some kind of watered down adventure. How wrong I was... Uncharted: Golden Abyss is a true, fully fleshed out, canon adventure - and can only be experienced on the Vita.

It is sad to play this game now and think 'Wow, this is what the Vita could have and should have been'. UC:GA created the vision and set the bar high for well produced and developed portable games. It's just a shame so few other developers followed.

There's a bit too much touchscreen stuff and rear touch pad action - but you can forgive that being a launch title, Bend clearly just wanted to showcase all of the features on this new console. Anyway, it's fantastic - play it!