Uncharted: Golden Abyss - Vita

[rmoxon]

The opening 3 chapters are the worst part of the game by far and the only part of it that doesn't feel like it matches up to other games in the series, possibly due to all the intrusive tutorials.

Once you hit what I think is chapter 4, when

->Open Spoiler<-

drake gets captured

, things really take off and it's slowly becomes one of the best in the series.

Reviews like the giantbomb one that said its like a made for tv version of the others are way off the mark, this contains everything that makes the series special.

[capcom_suicide]

Have you been down the river yet CS? That's when it really kicks up a gear IMO.

Yeah, quite a way past that bit. The game certainly gets better, and is quite unique for a handheld, My personal tastes would put the series in the following order: UC2->UC3->GA->UC1

For a launch title this is very good indeed. I like the story personally, and it feels kinda old school tomb raider with fun climbing/exploring and the gunplay is enjoyable. Back pad works well for sniper zoom and camera zoom, very well indeed as you don't obscure the screen and have free hands for the controls. That will be a winner in any FPS I reckon.

I feel the game misses some larger set pieces, perhaps they come later on. There have been some interesting ones, but they don't feel on the same scale as the PS3 games.

All in all, so far it's a good enjoyable game, but certainly not a classic or something i'd replay again. Just a nice fun solid game, and a revolution in mobile graphics. I can't wait to see what the Vita has to offer in the future, I can't see anything on the near horizon, but the platform is very exciting indeed.

[rmoxon]

Yeah, quite a way past that bit. The game certainly gets better, and is quite unique for a handheld, My personal tastes would put the series in the following order: UC2->UC3->GA->UC1

For a launch title this is very good indeed. I like the story personally, and it feels kinda old school tomb raider with fun climbing/exploring and the gunplay is enjoyable. Back pad works well for sniper zoom and camera zoom, very well indeed as you don't obscure the screen and have free hands for the controls. That will be a winner in any FPS I reckon.

I feel the game misses some larger set pieces, perhaps they come later on. There have been some interesting ones, but they don't feel on the same scale as the PS3 games.

All in all, so far it's a good enjoyable game, but certainly not a classic or something i'd replay again. Just a nice fun solid game, and a revolution in mobile graphics. I can't wait to see what the Vita has to offer in the future, I can't see anything on the near horizon, but the platform is very exciting indeed.

As far as games that recreate the feel of big console experiences go Resistance burning sky's looks pretty spectacular and the one to watch out for. Dont think it's out till may though.

[BIG EDD]

Just got to chapter 22,I thought chapter 21 was great and really enjoying this handheld version

[blazing-star]

No lefty controls, damn their eyes!

[Dogg Thang]

It really bugs the ass out of me when games give you partner get capable of getting themselves killed. Only come across it once here, in of the later sections but it's really frustrating me. If I take out the enemies in a controlled way, it's too slow and he gets killed. Go in guns blazing and I get killed. Pox.

[capcom_suicide]

Finished this one today, some really lovely visuals and levels later on. Bugs me that it's not native resolution.

Solid game and certainly the PSVita proves that the controls and hardware are cutting edge. I can't wait to see what the likes of Naughty Dog could achieve. As a launch game Uncharted hits the spot and I really enjoyed playing it. Solid 6 for me, 7 if they had managed Native resolution. (Bit of a bug bear for me.)

[saturn-gamer]

I think I put this one above the first Uncharted, which means Bend did a great job. Golden Abyss gets the gameplay such as the stealth kills etc from UC2 onwards. GA starts off decently, a lot of gimmicky touch tutorials, then it gradually gets better and more interesting. From Chapter 12 onwards it becomes really great.

Where the game falls short is the writing and the characters, I do think the Naughty Dog games did it better but you can't really fault Bend studios.

This is just a launch product, things WILL get better from here on. So it looks good.

[shaffy_oppa]

Completed it a few nights ago and it's great, definitely better than the third. My only real problem had to be those two fights and the opening, it starts off real slow...

[davek22]

I don't like it when cover based shooters keep the crosshairs on screen while in cover, it makes the game too easy and also ruins the immersion, you can't aim at something unless you're looking at it, so why give you a cursor when you're not actually aiming at something?

Just been playing Unit 13 and they put the aimer on screen while in cover in that game and its miles more fun as a shooter. Devs need to adapt to the limits of the machine and Zipper did it better than Sony Bend in my books

[Dogg Thang]

Just finished this. I thought it was pretty good. Not fantastic but definitely pretty good. The general gameplay had more of a Tomb Raidery slant and that's my favourite part of Uncharted. Less interactive cut scenes, which I'm very cool with. And the combat I found to be the least frustrating out of all the Uncharted games, especially 3. It wasn't a chore in this one. They limited the waves of enemies and the arenas were nicely laid out. You could say they were a little more contrived than the arenas in the previous couple but that was to its credit - it felt more structured.

The graphics were initially let down by the resolution issue, made worse by some even lower res effects like the fire. The res seems like a bit of a misfire, especially for a game that should be a showpiece. In the later areas, the visuals still really impress though, with some huge locations and lovely lighting effects. Very impressive and would have been much more impressive at the Vita's native res.

The locations were quite limited though. It's thirty-odd chapters and really just about three locations. And most of the ruins I felt suffered from being too realistic. By that I mean, these were overgrown wrecked ruins (as most ruins are) and, until the very end of the game, they didn't really lead to anything all that impressive. That said, that one location at the end was lovely and they really allowed us to take it in and they got the value from it. But I would love to have had some more impressive locations before the climax.

Gameplay-wise, the adventuring suffered slightly from clingy single paths. Post-tank Tomb Raider has meant precision jumping isn't really a runner and both TR Anniversary and this seemed to end up with long hanging sections instead. The only other gameplay issue I had was the swiping and Vita gimmicks. I thought the swiping was cack and that let down a couple of bits at the end. But the worst was the balancing thing which completely interrupted gameplay to show us this system has one of those accelerometer things.

Story was pretty decent, although maybe not quite as focused in terms of the main aim. Loads to find and collect though and I think it's great that most of the hidden goodies tied into the story.

Overall, I very much enjoyed it. A good launch title let down slightly by the urge to use every single Vita feature but one that, for me, handled some elements better than the big console versions.

[rmoxon]

Just been playing Unit 13 and they put the aimer on screen while in cover in that game and its miles more fun as a shooter. Devs need to adapt to the limits of the machine and Zipper did it better than Sony Bend in my books

Completely disagree, the unit 13 demo was pretty good but it's also incredibly easy, dont really remember it havingp a cursor when ducked into cover but that would explain why it was so easy. I personally play a lot of shooters and don't want an easy experience, having a cursor while in cover makes these games too easy.

Gears of War series is still the king of the cover based shooter genre and that doesn't have a reticle while in cover, it works perfectly. Being able to aim in cover (while your character isnt even looking at enemies) almost makes it feel like you aren't really using cover but just cheating.

Im sure if your idea of fun is strolling through games without a challenge then you will prefer it with a reticle when in cover, personally I don't.

[Dogg Thang]

One other GA thought... the original game featured enemies that were well beyond human. So did the sequel if I remember correctly. I know these didn't go down all that well with a lot of people and they (in a way) avoided it for the third. I can understand some people preferring the games to be grounded but I feel that has seriously limited what they can do in these games. There can be no huge build or WTF moments later on because they're just people. More people. And really the mythology and relics always suggest much more.

For me it killed any sense of payoff in 3 leading to a total anticlimax and, while that wasn't quite the case here, it did feel like they had to hold back at the end and ran out of things to throw at me.

Given the types of things Nate goes looking for, I'm really not convinced that keeping it grounded is doing the series any favours.

[MrMarbles]

One other GA thought... the original game featured enemies that were well beyond human. So did the sequel if I remember correctly. I know these didn't go down all that well with a lot of people and they (in a way) avoided it for the third. I can understand some people preferring the games to be grounded but I feel that has seriously limited what they can do in these games. There can be no huge build or WTF moments later on because they're just people. More people. And really the mythology and relics always suggest much more.

For me it killed any sense of payoff in 3 leading to a total anticlimax and, while that wasn't quite the case here, it did feel like they had to hold back at the end and ran out of things to throw at me.

Given the types of things Nate goes looking for, I'm really not convinced that keeping it grounded is doing the series any favours.

I definitely agree with this.

They might have been utter buggers to fight, but they certainly added an additional dynamic to both the story and gameplay and, for me, they fit the series beautifully, riffing on the supernatural elements of the original Indiana Jones trilogy.

I wonder if the original intention for this was to have

->Open Spoiler<-

a few rage-infected-esque baddies driven insane by radioactive gold

rushing Drake in the final stretch. Even something as simple as this would've added a bit of final act variety.

[rmoxon]

Yeah the original uncharted was clearly going for an Indy type vibe and that will always include supernatural elements. Yes Indy never fought rotting monsters but then he never had shoot outs with thousands of people either, these are games after all, not films.

Plus I quite liked fighting the monster type enemies in the first two games (though I hated them in the third and they were one of the many reasons I hated the combat in it).

Las games they really need to end with stuff like that becuase games should be harder towards the end, with the third game they substituted the challenge of tougher enemies with unfair gameplay and that wasn't good.