Uncharted: Golden Abyss Review

Uncharted in the palm of your hands?! Now that sounds so rad. But finally getting the chance to touch Nathan Drake? Ewwww. Okay, bad joke but this was the Vita game I’ve been waiting for for a long time (pretty much ever since the announcement of the PS Vita). 

So right off the bat, what stuck out like a sore thumb to me was that it is an Uncharted game, but it wasn’t developed by Naughty Dog. The game was developed by Bend Studios, not Naughty Dog. This is what stunned me because you can’t have an Uncharted game without Naughty Dog being the developers. Now getting more technical with the game, the controls is a little excessive. There’s a lot of repetitive things you have to do in order to get things right in the game, like swiping the touch screen a certain way. But it is innovative on how they used every single aspect of the device in order to keep the player more involved in the game. The graphics are pixelated at times and looks a bit wonky. Also, the music doesn’t match the tone of the game and is somewhat different than the previous soundtracks. Probably the biggest complaint I have with the game is the weak story. The Uncharted series are known for its Hollywood style storytelling. The games are pretty much like playing a movie on an epic, grand scale. Golden Abyss feels like there isn’t much explained in the game. Everything feels rushed and just doesn’t have that epic feel as the previous games do. 

Now with the positives. I do like the fact that there are tons of puzzles and tons of collectibles. There’s times when you have to swipe the screen in order to reveal charcoal rubbings, put pieces together like a puzzle in order to form a map, and even point your Vita towards direct light in order to reveal a hidden message. These activities made me feel like a real treasure hunter and explorer. I know I’ve said the graphics aren’t that great, but when you play the game more, you get used to it and it somewhat gets a lot better. When you do meet up with Sully (yeah, spoiler alert!), there’s a short scene where you get to control him for a little bit. It was pretty cool playing as him for once in the series. The new characters are always welcome and the voice actors are top notch as always, but it was really cool seeing Drake and Sully reunite. 

No matter what, I still love this game. Anything Uncharted is still bad-ass, if it’s on a console or handheld. 

Rating: 3.5/5