It’s amazing that a game like Uncharted was squeezed down to fit the scope of a PlayStation Vita, while retaining the familiar Uncharted gameplay that you would get on a PlayStation 3. The limited power of the Vita means that you will never get anywhere close to the level of bombastic set-pieces that you’d come to expect from an Uncharted 2 or Uncharted 3, so The Golden Abyss feels would be more akin to an Uncharted 1.5.
The Uncharted formula is all here: find an artifact, chase after some warlord who took artifact, hide behind cover and shoot a bunch of dudes, exclaim “woah!” a lot, realise that the artifact is nothing compared to the power of friendship, the end. The gameplay from the PS3 game translates almost without compromise onto the Vita’s controls. Being able to use the gyro-controls to fine tune the aim of a sniper rifle is a welcome feature to have.
Unfortunately, I found the minigames that use the Vita’s touchscreen and accelerometer to be awkwardly shoehorned in. Crossing over a narrow bridge? Better stop and have the player do a tilting minigame by titling the actual console. Want to throw grenades? Use your finger to drag the grenade to where you want to throw it. Found a torn-up map in the level? Use the touch screen drag and rotate the pieces to put map back together. Want to row the boat? Drag your finger across the screen to row. I’m not against Sony wanting to use the Vita’s capabilities to the fullest, but either go all in with the touch controls (like Nintendo did with the Zelda games on the DS) or go for a similar, no-nonsense game that plays like the PS3 counterparts.
Overall, the game is fine. The Golden Abyss shows off the impressive graphical capabilities of the PlayStation Vita handheld, so it's worth checking out if you own a PlayStation Vita. However, the awkwardly implemented minigames and the weak story means that I wouldn’t say it's worth hunting down a Vita for.
The Uncharted formula is all here: find an artifact, chase after some warlord who took artifact, hide behind cover and shoot a bunch of dudes, exclaim “woah!” a lot, realise that the artifact is nothing compared to the power of friendship, the end. The gameplay from the PS3 game translates almost without compromise onto the Vita’s controls. Being able to use the gyro-controls to fine tune the aim of a sniper rifle is a welcome feature to have.
Unfortunately, I found the minigames that use the Vita’s touchscreen and accelerometer to be awkwardly shoehorned in. Crossing over a narrow bridge? Better stop and have the player do a tilting minigame by titling the actual console. Want to throw grenades? Use your finger to drag the grenade to where you want to throw it. Found a torn-up map in the level? Use the touch screen drag and rotate the pieces to put map back together. Want to row the boat? Drag your finger across the screen to row. I’m not against Sony wanting to use the Vita’s capabilities to the fullest, but either go all in with the touch controls (like Nintendo did with the Zelda games on the DS) or go for a similar, no-nonsense game that plays like the PS3 counterparts.
Overall, the game is fine. The Golden Abyss shows off the impressive graphical capabilities of the PlayStation Vita handheld, so it's worth checking out if you own a PlayStation Vita. However, the awkwardly implemented minigames and the weak story means that I wouldn’t say it's worth hunting down a Vita for.