Uncharted: Golden Abyss fashions a dull game-dynamic of kill-run-climb tedium which fails to amaze.
While the graphics are good (with environments which destruct and animate in real time), and joined by well-directed sound design, more pressing issues spring to mind. The great environments and scenery leave nothing to be admired, due to the game's unnecessary high level of pace. You'll only end up spending less than a minute amidst tremendous landscapes, causing the great architecture and level design in this game to be a mere blur.
The linearity of Drake's adventure quickly becomes a bore. Several mundane sequences of: "cover-based shooting scene; then running and climbing conveniently-placed colour-coded rocks; then a cut scene; rinse and repeat" not only diminishes the playing experience, but fragments the plot to a horrid extent. Cut scenes become your only hope for enjoyment, as they slug you along a storyline which is average at best – creating a gameplay dynamic whereby actually playing the game is a necessary evil to reward oneself with small doses of story.
The characters don't develop, have no depth and all behave in predictable manners – a topic into which I will avoid embarking for the avoidance of spoilers. With the exceptions of Drake and Sully, the voice acting is abysmal, and the ever-so-corny dialogue makes you cringe until it's painful. Cheesy one-liners which you thought had been ridden from Hollywood make their unwelcome return, such as "don't you die on me!" and "see you in hell!" The script-writers of this game should be ashamed of themselves.
The mini-games are clearly 'filler' - a means of utilising the Vita's touch-screen functionality - not conceptualised with the slightest ounce of imagination. "Swipe the screen!" is a common command which pops up in the most inconvenient places, thus disrupting gameplay. The 'tap the weapon icon to reload' system is broken, meaning you'll have to repeatedly tap your screen like a furious woodpecker just to reload your gun. The touch-screen features are so poor; you'd rather the touch-screen was redundant in this game. The side-quests (collecting worthless pieces of 'treasure' - ironically named) are equally appalling, add no material value to the plot, and are therefore insanely time-wasting.
The gameplay is actually quite good - the camera movement is relatively stable - and enemy AI behaves well, with the slight exception of stealth-based play. Snapping to cover is also occasionally cumbersome, but nothing major. Probably the only major snag to the gameplay mechanic is the heavy-handed aiming (if you choose to use the analogue stick, rather than the tilt of console), which is rather slow to respond - you may find yourself "over-aiming" and panning right past your enemy.
On too many instances, you find yourself with the recurring thought of, "Great. The objective's completed, but whatd'ya know?! Another wave of enemies to wade through. Better find cover and engage in another pointlessly long-winded gun battle...!"
This game features a gameplay structure which you will be used to, as Uncharted fans - getting used to the historical context, finding the treasure mine, breaking in, and finally escaping while the whole centuries-old architecture crumbles behind you (How can Drake still be considered a 'hero' when every historic landmark he visits ends up in smoke?). One particularly disappointing feature of this game is its lack of variety. Drake didn't get to do much besides run, climb, solve 'puzzles', and kill pretty much the same kind of enemy over and over. Perhaps the developers could have taken a page out of the Japanese' books and included proper boss-fights. The two 'bosses' in this game became mini-games, whereby to 'fight' them, you repeatedly swipe the screen in the instructed manner and watch the play ensue - something resemblant of a cheap dancing game.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss is, all in all, a disappointment. It follows a simplistic and mundane plot whilst you, the unfortunate gamer, plow through the painfully tedious gameplay sequences, only to be rewarded with little bites of a disappointingly lacklustre narrative. This game has no meaning, no substance. For those of you who aren't easily impressed, or children, be warned; the novelty of good presentation wears off very quickly.