Review: Uncharted: Golden Abyss

It might seem surprising, but of all the launch games for the PlayStation Vita, the one I was most certain would not disappoint was its most ambitious: Uncharted: Golden Abyss. While Sony fans on the Internet had a collective freak-out (‘Naughty Dog isn’t making this one.’ ‘It’ll be Uncharted: Lite.’ ‘Can a portable device really handle the adventures of Nathan Drake?’), I sat back and twiddled my joystick thumbs until release date. In my mind, the freak-out wasn’t warranted. Why? Well, for one, imagine the flack Sony and its new handheld would get if the game was rubbish, they’d never let it happen, let alone at launch, and two, I’d had my little freak-out before and proven wrong.

It was 2006 and Naughty Dog had palmed off my beloved Jak & Daxter to a little-know studio (Ready at Dawn… Yeah, there was once a time when people doubted the quality of their output) for a portable incarnation, and I feared the worst. I’d always been disappointed by portable versions of console games. Perfect Dark on the Game Boy Colour transformed a kick-ass console first-person shooter into a terrible overhead third-person action game, and Metal Gear Ac!d transformed the most iconic stealth action series into a turn-based collectible card game. But all my fears were allayed when I got my hands on Daxter, a well-crafted game that captured the essence of the console counterparts, despite the technical limitations of an inferior portable device (and the fact that Naughty Dog only ‘oversaw’ it).

From the moment the game booted up, I knew my faith in it had been warranted. Uncharted: Golden Abyss is by and large one of the finest portable games ever crafted. Is it perfect? No. Is it better than the console Uncharteds? No. But the thing is, it’s about on-par with the first Uncharted. It’s startling that the PlayStation Vita is capable of producing a game that can be compared to its current-gen console siblings in what can be considered a fair fight.

It plays like an Uncharted game, which is mostly a good thing (unfortunately, the quirks of the third-person shooting mechanics are still there). In addition, we have touch controls. They aren’t forced down our throats quite like the Sixaxis gyroscope controls were in the original Uncharted, they’re usually optional. You can trace paths for Drake to climb with your finger, but only if you want to. That said, the forced motion-control melee attacks and swipes had me pining for traditional controls.

The way you interact with artefacts has had a Vita-specific makeover. Now, you can tap items to collect them, even during cutscenes, but it doesn’t stop there. Now, you get to examine them. You rub charcoal with your finger. If the game tells you to hold a piece of paper up to a light source, you hold the Vita up to the light, and bam, a message appears thanks to the clever rear-camera. With the wealth of control inputs at the developer’s disposal, I felt more like Nathan Drake than ever before. It’s non-traditional controlling done right.

The game is wholly set in the jungles of Central America, which is a major bummer for fans who have become accustomed to globetrotting Uncharted adventures. Sometimes, the levels can feel a bit samey, but hey, it’s a new Uncharted game, so even if the big set-pieces aren’t there, the engaging gameplay still is. The story is a little bare this time around. While it’s perfectly serviceable (basically, this guy Dante needs your help in Central America, you bump into the token hot chick, Chase, and Drake and friends end up hunting down a lost civilisation), it doesn’t come close to matching the emotional resonance of the latest two console Uncharteds.

The thing is, though, given how far we’ve seen the series develop on consoles, after playing Golden Abyss, I can say with some certainty that we have not seen the best of Uncharted on the handheld. This is just the beginning, and what a remarkable beginning it is.