This franchise is probably my favorite. I've spent hundreds of hours and dollars on this series. Take my word as gospel.
I didn't buy the Vita just to get this game. Sure, it's a chapter, in what I believe is going to surpass the Metal Gear Solid saga as number one gaming franchise for me, but that's besides the point.
After everything was said and done, I kind of got what I expected.
See, usually when a system is launched, that system has some technological capabilities that the manufacturers are very proud of. In the Vita's case: front touch screen, rear touch panel, gyroscope (SIXAXIS motion essentially), dual cameras and all of it's awesome graphical features, which has never been used in a handheld before, more or less.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss on Vita is what Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was to the Playstation 3: a showcase for what the system offers, with high points and low points. There are also issues non-tech related, but we'll get to those later.
As we saw with Uncharted 2, Uncharted on Vita has the potential to soar.
Also, this game was NOT developed by Naughty Dog Studios. They had a small part in overseeing the project, which hurt a little.
Graphics: -1 (19/20)
I never would have believed you if you told me that twenty years ago, graphics for a handheld device would look this good.
From the luscious jungles, to rundown Panamanian shanty-towns, this little guy can stand up tall and proud beside its PS3 brothers.
The animations also seem to come from Naughty Dog's data vault, because they are indistinguishable.
Only noticeable thing is that the facial animations are slightly dumbed down at times, but that's a small nit pick of an otherwise graphic powerhouse.
Sound: -0 (20/20)
I've never held any reserve towards giving these games a perfectly sound score and Golden Abyss continues the tradition.
Veterans Nolan North (Drake) and Richard McGonagle (Sully) return (the latter a little late in the game, but nevertheless more than welcome) delivering their usual fun, wily banter and dialogue that they are known and loved for. The newcomers also do a fine job, with Christine Larkin (Marisa Chase, the new (or old, depending on how you look at it) fling, who shares some decent chemistry with Drake.
All do a fantastic job at bringing their characters to life.
The explosions, gunshots and other miscellaneous sound effects also work, so no complaints.
Control: -9 (11/20)
This is gonna be the section where a majority of the deductions bring down the game.
As I stated previously, this game is what Drake's Fortune was for PS3, meaning it showcased a lot of the new features for it's system. Some of those worked, while others were complete failures, hindering the game throughout its entirety.
There is the standard control setup, meaning using all of the regular buttons to jump, climb, aim, fire, run, etc. With the inclusion of a second analog stick, this game really does feel like a true third person shooter where you are in complete control, without having to resort to crude control schemes and layouts. Sad thing is, the aiming feels off and using just the analog sticks themselves doesn't feel right at times, especially in a heavy firefight. It feels very...slippery, I guess is the right word. Turning the sensitivity all the way up will help you.
However, using the gyroscope function (which was panned by most as the worst feature) for me was the best, and I think I figured out why:
After figuring out the balance of the analog sticks and the gyroscope, I've pulled off as many headshots in this as I have the console games. What I found to be the best use of the aiming is to use the analog sticks to get your aiming reticule centered over the enemy's body and then fine tune it with the gyroscope. It took awhile to get used to it, but after a couple hours, I was pulling off some fantastic kills like clockwork.
For platforming, you can now trace your finger along the path you need to go (still as linear as ever, and every time Drake climbs on something, you can expect it to break like usual) which greatly increases the platforming speed, which is good in situations where you only have one direction to go. If you're searching for treasures or trying to be precise though, the normal method works best.
Now to the flaws (slight or otherwise).
Basically, all of the other Vita features pertaining to the game are tacked on, gimmicky.
The worst by far is using the touchscreen in combat and chopping up obstacles with your machete.
This detracts from the game's pacing and hinders it the most.
During stealth kills and sequences, it's not so bad. Just tap the enemy and he's taken care of lickety-split. However, during hand to hand fist fights, on-screen prompts make you swipe the touchscreen in the direction it indicates, which allows you counter an attack and finish off your assailant. Not only does it not work all the time, but its awkward during frantic firefights. The worst offense though: you can't back out of it once it starts. You're locked in. Awful game design because if you go to close to an enemy trying to get to cover before death, you're screwed.
You'll find bamboo, tall grass and the like blocking your path in the game. Like a true explorer, you use your trusty machete to remove it.
An on screen prompt tells you to swipe the screen three separate times. Finally, after you do all three, Drake mimics your swipes and cuts his way through.
I've never been more annoyed trying to get treasure or progressing in a game. The fact that you have to swipe the screen three times (about five seconds) and then wait for Drake to do it (about six seconds), it not only grows tedious but slows the games pace to a crawl. Not cool.
Tilting the Vita to balance yourself while walking across something is just as clumsy as it was using the SIXAXIS in Drake's Fortune. Fortunately, it has the good sense to have Drake stop to regain his balance, opposed to having to walk AND try to balance him.
The rest of the features like swiping the rear touch panel to climb and pushing or pulling the Vita to swing on the rope are essentially useless.
Style: -5 (15/20)
I need to give brownie points for actually having this feel more like a straight up adventure game, compared to an high-octane action adventure game.
This game has over two hundred and fifty treasures and other collectables for you to find, which is almost as much as all three of the other Uncharted games. That's not including the bounty cards you can get from certain enemies. They aren't as varied in their design and origin (mostly turquoise and jade) but who cares? That means if you are a fiend for collectables, you have a lot of exploration to do. You can do charcoal rubbings using the touchscreen. While it's
amusing for a bit, it slowly becomes pointless.
The game's story is fun. Drake hooks up with an old pal to scale old ruins in search of gold. Then, along comes an evil warlord who wants to get the gold to re-jumpstart his revolution. Expect backstabs and shifting loyalties. More of the same, which means its a good time to be sure but it didn't invoke any emotional response from me like the others did. Maybe because I knew the gang would live to see three multi-million dollar sequels...I don't know. Maybe it was just because the writers at Sony Bend didn't seem to have a good feel for the universe. Sully is known for famous lines like "I'll-be-go-to-hell" and "Abra-god****-cadabra." So who's bright idea was it to have a "that's what she said" gag between him and Nate? That stopped being funny after the first million times. It's not clever anymore.
Now, because of hardware constraints and such, the game's setting doesn't involve the globetrotting it's known for. The entire length of the game takes place in different areas of Panama. You'll be seeing a lot of jungle, crypts and caves, which isn't a necessarily a bad thing, but it's overwhelmingly underwhelming. There aren't any epic firefights taking place in an exploding skyscraper or making your way up a slowly decaying bridge, dangling thousands of feet above solid ground. The only really two good moments that seemed to have any meat to them were the two boss battles (even though it uses the touch screen, temporarily obscuring the action, are still dynamic and thrilling) near the end of the game and even those didn't have the weight to them that most games are known for. It's a very straight forward "climb here, shoot some dudes, cutscene, lather, rinse, repeat" affair.
The pacing for the story is ok but the gameplay's pacing (as mentioned earlier) is awful. I started to get annoyed at Drake losing his balance everytime he had to walk across something and having to balance him. For a guy who scales temples, buildings and mountains for a living, he seems to lose his footing from a breath of wind. Add in the touchpad swipes during gameplay and the roller coaster crashes, burns and needs time to fix itself.
The enemy A.I is kind of like that one guy you went to school with, who just does the bare minimum to scrape by. Sure, they attempt to flank you if you stay in cover for too long but they also run right out in the middle of the fight and stop too.
This both feels like an Uncharted game and yet foreign at the same time. It enhances the lesser explored elements of the franchise, but dumbs down some of the stuff that put it on the map as one of the greats.
Fun -5 (15/20)
I'll always find fun in this series and I'll play them all a couple times a year for the rest of my natural life. But this game is a struggle to get through at time. It's still fun wondering how Drake is going to get out of his predicament and the like, but it lacks vision.
Final Score: 80/100 B-
It's solid and just above average. I had fun, although as a lover of the series, I was kind of disappointed at the lacklustre approach and the excuse that Sony Bend made about not trying to make it like the console games. "We have to showcase the Vita's hardware and if we attempt to make a game on par with the console versions, it'll ultimately fail."
I disagree with that statement, but I digress.
Now that they've shown what the Vita can do with Uncharted, it's time to show what Uncharted can do with Vita. With a better integration of the tech at hand, a stronger writing team, better balance and tighter controls, this has the promise of being a great handheld franchise.
It's a decent foundation that can easily be expanded monumentally.