As the biggest first-party release of the Playstation Vita launch, Sony have called upon none other than Uncharted hero Nathan Drake. But can his blockbuster thrills translate to a handheld?
The fact it took nearly nine months for Nintendo 3DS sales to catch fire was down to a double whammy of Super Mario releases and a particularly painful price cut late last year. Learning from their rivals’ mistakes, Sony have set their stall out early for the Playstation Vita launch by putting the latest Uncharted incarnation front and centre.
To the uninitiated, the Uncharted series is without doubt the biggest first-party exclusive in Sony’s arsenal, offering Indiana Jones-style adventure, mind-blowing visuals and since its second installment of three, breathtaking set pieces. In other words, it’s the closest console gaming can offer to a summer blockbuster, so the choice to move into the handheld format was always sure to be risky.
From the outset, however, Golden Abyss seeks to assuage such concerns. For one thing, it is inarguably the best looking handheld video game ever released, offering graphics that while not on a par with last November’s Uncharted: Drake’s Deception, are close if not equal to the technological heft behind the series’ first title, 2007’s Drake’s Fortune.
Indeed it is the original game to which Golden Abyss owes its greatest inspiration, as developers Bend Studio (overseen by series regulars Naughty Dog) have cut out the later-added multiplayer mode and set their effort in a single tropical location rather than Nathan Drake’s recent globe-hopping exploits.
The result is a game that initially, is difficult to fully comprehend. The control scheme is identical to its big brother console versions and for gunfights, no features have been spared.
The tutorial alone has players hanging from ledges, firing rounds across bridges, tackling enemies to the ground and perfectly executing leaps that would kill any living person stone dead. It’s thrilling stuff and appears to have delivered the impossible – offering a true AAA blockbuster in your pocket.
The problems begin to surface, however, when you dive through a chapter filled with leaping followed by gunfights and follow it up with the subsequent chapter, which will invariably feature… the exact same formula. In fact, considering that there are an impressive 34 chapters within the game, the gameplay quickly grows a little stale and refuses to modify itself throughout the sprawling campaign.
The biggest culprit behind the samey gameplay is the fact that although the Vita can ape much of the Uncharted series’ signature content, it doesn’t have the chops – and probably never will have – to offer its own variations on Uncharted 2 and 3’s show-stopping set pieces.
Granted, it’s probably a bit much to expect the Vita Drake to be hanging and shooting from a plane as it takes off (oh Drake’s Deception, how we love you…) but without such moments to break up the action or eagerly anticipate, chapters quickly grow monotonous.
While Golden Abyss is both a technical marvel and an extremely well put together release, it can’t help but feel like the direct-to-DVD equivalent of Uncharted’s usual summer blockbuster fare.
Bereft of the series’ main development studio and much of its bells and whistles, Nathan Drake is still a fun gun to spend around 10 hours of your time with, yet Golden Abyss is the first time one of his adventures has felt non-essential.
Format: Playstation Vita
Developer: SCE Bend Studios; Publisher: Sony
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