Uncharted: Golden Abyss Review

[Umych]

Hello everyone I’d like to start a relatively new format on this forum (correct me if I’m wrong), in which I give a full analysis, opinion on the game. I don’t promise to you that my opinion will be similar to yours, if not, just share yours. Today’s patient is Uncharted: Golden Abyss for PSVita. Also since this is the first time I’m writing something this big and english isn't my first language, so please be nice. 

 

 

 

Uncharted: Golden Abyss.

 

 

The game was released in Japan on December 17, 2011 and North America on February 15, 2012. Even though this game was produced by Naughty Dog and published SCE, the developing team was SCE Bend Studio, and it shows. Also, this game is a prequel. 2/2 - not a good start already. Uncharted: Golden Abyss in a nutshell is the same Uncharted we know and love, except for the good characters, good story epic scenes and sense of adventure. The developers most likely were given the same engine first three games were developed on, because the game feels rather similar compare to the previous instalments. Graphics, controls, animation everything is back, which is nice, but the game still feels uninspired.

 

Plot. Right a way I can tell, that plot failed to engage me. I didn’t care for anything that was happening on screen. The game didn’t give you much explanation on that is going on, also there were way too many cutscenes and they were far to long and boring to spend you time on. But if you will try to skip these cutscenes then be my guest, because sometimes there 4 to 5 of them going one after another. I will have to constantly pressing start and press skip in oder to get through. Why couldn't you skip all cutscenes at ones? Anyway after an hour of so, I muted the sound and continued on my marry way, since I completely lost my hope. Let’s take a good game for example, Dark Souls. At first, plot in that game didn’t get to me either, I was too busy figuring out the gameplay elements and enjoying great combat system, so I didn’t follow the story. However by the middle of the game, seeing all these characters and beautiful, full of mystery landscapes I felt like going on the internet and trying to keep up with the plot. Which simply doesn't happen in Golden Abyss. It doesn't help the situation that we have cheap, ugly Elena-Chloe-Wannabe following us around. Her name is Marisa, but I like to call here “character #3”, and she is love interest, side-kick, friend, pointless escort. Sally makes an appearance though, not until half of the game however, but by that time, I was far too depressed to appreciate. These characters will accompany you one at a time, and introduce some cooperative gameplay elements which I will talk about later. I feels like the game was made simply to fill the gap in PS Vita’s library and demonstrate the functionality of Vita, which the game did. However it’s still not a good reason for it to be made.

 

 

Visuals. Honestly game looks great. Nothing spectacular though, but view of landscapes and environment looks rather decent on PSVita. Somewhat between Uncharted one and two. Thought facial animation in cutscenes looks a little awkward, it’s all fine… 

 

 

Gameplay. The gameplay is a bummer though. I can't tell you how many times I fell to my doom from the cliff just because the camera angle wasn’t right, the jumping is awkward, level design didn’t make any sense. There are some objects which Nathan can climb on and he can't on others, never mind the fact that they look exactly the same. As I said level design feels dull, because of that any sort of enjoy-full exploration is out of the question. And of course developers had to include PSVita gimmicks into the game. Some of them implemented nice, like rotating and object you examine with rear touchpad, wipe the dust from object using touchpad, zooming while scoping with spice. Some features, however were really annoying, pointless and uninspired: balancing on the planform with gyroscope, climbing walls and ropes using touchpad, hitting the boss and move objects with swipes. And don't get me started on those boss fights. Not only it’s the way it implemented is dumb and annoying but it takes like 5 minutes to get through, if you make 1 - 2 mistakes it’s all back with all the cutscenes and dialogs you cant skip. No skill is needed, just use the speed of reaction and pray to God for touchpad to react properly on you swipes. Freaking checkpoints are another issue. Upon death you go 10 - 15 back, have to kill all the enemies, sometimes even watch cutscenes. Dark Souls, again, had like 10 checkpoints throughout the entire game, while dying you have to go back 40 - 60 minutes back and loose all you hard work.In that game, however player doesn't feel bad, because gameplay is deep and challenging. In Uncharted it’s annoying and redundant. Also, the game is split in 34 chapters. But not in good kind of chapters, like summer, autumn, winter like in The Last of Us, no no no. I mean absolutely pointless chapters. Some of them last 30 minutes, some of them have 2 cutscenes and 2 or so minutes of gameplay… What’s the point? Should I also say that this game is long as hell? As I said earlier there are some co-op elements with you “escort buddies” in the game, like giving a boost, swimming on a boat, covering each other, but nothing special. Funny thing happened when you and you “escort-person” try to flank enemies from different sides. AI just constantly switches waypoints trying to figure out what cover to take, therefore simply spins on the same spot and gets killed. Good AI, guuuys. Other times they completely lock on your partner and don't notice you at all, even if you run in front of them and try to get some stealth kills. There are tons of enemies too. It’s very stupid when Nathan spares the life of the final boss, but kills thousands of people in the most cold blooded way possible. I think it would have worked out better if there were fewer enemies but the were smarter and more challenging… However the ideas of mystery solving was used a bit more in this game, you can find artifacts, wipe the east from them, rotate combine them together, take pictures of landscapes and so on. It’s fan, at first, but becomes old very very fast.

 

Trophies. This part is full of disappointment too. A small amount of silver trophies, even less golden ones, however a huge load of bronze trophies. About 60% - 70% of the trophies we have already seen in the previous games. The ones that are new, however, only related to mysteries that you have to find and solve. Uninspired.

 

Conclusion:

 

Plot  4/10

Visuals 7/10

Gameplay 3/10

Trophies 5/10

 

Total 4/10

 

Uncharted Golden Abyss is a good game if you have to kill some time on the go. Other that that it’s a good option. and in my opinion, isn’t worth to spend your time on. 

 

P.S. Woah, this turns out much longer that I expected. Hopefully this format is acceptable, I just really wanted to share my opinion. I am also interested in yours, let me know what you think of the game and of my review in total.

 

 

Edit: Have deleted a big part of introduction. 

Edited July 7, 2015 by Umych

[Xxleonardo97xX]

Yeah, the game is by no means like the Uncharted trilogy but I don't think it's a 4/10, there are way worse games than this one.

 

And this Uncharted is just like this because of the low VITA specs, a 4/10 is more adequate to a game made for a powerful system and still performs bad.

[AbyssRex]

Very interesting review. You do make a lot of good unbiased points. I personally loved the game and would recommend it to anybody who has a vita. My main issue was that on crushing the touch pad wouldn't always respond the way you want it to and if u fool up once you die. And yes I agree it was overly long uncharted game with way too many chapters. Overall a pretty good review I would score it higher but an opinion is an opinion. We all have one

[medenko1975]

Come 4/10? It's easily 6/10, quite fun to play.....I just started, chapter 2

[StrickenBiged]

It was my first Uncharted game, and I really enjoyed it personally. It's more like Drake's Fortune than the others (combat in particular was very reminiscent of DF). I can forgive them not including other characters besides Nate and Sully - Bend were tasked with building a prequel without interfering with the story-arch of the main trilogy, so naturally they wouldn't use anything which, years later, the other characters might like to reference. 

 

I'd have said that the main plot was pretty standard Uncharted fare anyway. We're after a treasure, oh no: so is some unsavoury types, here's a new girlfriend, we're hot on their heels, everyone gets to the treasure at the same time, now we have a climactic set piece fight and escape. OK, so I haven't played U3 yet, but I can tell already that's the formula these games work to. 

[DaivRules]

Excellent example of my big problems with reviews. Using scores (which are used to compare and contrast with other games scores) and using other games for context.

 

Explain the game in reference to itself, not other games or what the reviewer does or doesn't like themselves. Let the reader decide if what you're explaining to them is something they're interested in.

 

I spent so much time playing Chapters 1-24 on Hard with a guide for the collectibles that I didn't even think of just playing through it without the guide and I'll just go back and grab the collectibles on another play through. Reading this on PSNP reminds me to jump in and finish the story myself so I can clear this from my backlog.

[Sebulba2000]

I have really enjoyed this game and I think it is awesome. The visuals (as for the Vita) look stunning, gameplay and level design is really well done, I didn't feel bored even once in the entire course of the game, the plot is OK. In my opinion this the 2nd best game for the Vita, the first one being Tearaway for me.

Edited November 30, 2015 by Sebulba2000

[merciful84]

I thought Golden Abyss was just as good as the first Uncharted. Its no Uncharted 3 but it definitely lives up to the series' standards and the gameplay deviates very little from the others. Sometimes the touch screen QTEs would be annoying but at least it made use of the Vita's hardware capabilities.

Edited November 30, 2015 by merciful84

[Super-Fly Spider-Guy]

Tbh it's probably my favorite Uncharted, though that could be because it's the first one I really got into. I played the others but this one good me hooked. As far as portable titles go, for any system, this is an incredible game.

[StrickenBiged]

Excellent example of my big problems with reviews. Using scores (which are used to compare and contrast with other games scores) and using other games for context.

 

Explain the game in reference to itself, not other games or what the reviewer does or doesn't like themselves. Let the reader decide if what you're explaining to them is something they're interested in.

 

Why do you count this as a big problem with reviews? Scores are a staple of how reviews work in other media - 5*s systems in movies, IMDB and Rotten Tomato ratings, etc. 

 

I think comparison with other games is really helpful personally, and not just on a score basis.

 

If a reviewer tells me "If you enjoyed X game, you will enjoy this" or "If you did not enjoy X, I would not recommend this", that's much more helpful than a score because it provides context. Even if one game scores higher or the same as another, the reader is given a point of reference on which they can think "Yeah, I did enjoy X, so maybe I'll give this a look" or "well, I didn't enjoy X so this probably isn't for me" irrespective of the scores.

[DaivRules]

Why do you count this as a big problem with reviews? Scores are a staple of how reviews work in other media - 5*s systems in movies, IMDB and Rotten Tomato ratings, etc. 

 

I think comparison with other games is really helpful personally, and not just on a score basis.

 

If a reviewer tells me "If you enjoyed X game, you will enjoy this" or "If you did not enjoy X, I would not recommend this", that's much more helpful than a score because it provides context. Even if one game scores higher or the same as another, the reader is given a point of reference on which they can think "Yeah, I did enjoy X, so maybe I'll give this a look" or "well, I didn't enjoy X so this probably isn't for me" irrespective of the scores.

 

It's humanities major flaw. Everything must be categorized, quantified and compared. Just because other media uses a flawed system doesn't mean it's a good thing. Scores (for entertainment media) are and can only be subjective. They are influenced by the reviewers mood, biases, hell anything that has ever happened to the reviewer. A good reviewer is objective and evaluates the material on it's own. The best reviewers can give you enough insight in the review for the reader to decide whether the subject is worthwhile to them without letting the reader know how the reviewer feels about it. Humans seek validation in the precious scores/ratings for things they both like and don't like. It's insane. That's why it's a big problem I have with reviews. 

 

A summary which compares games *after* a review is complete is appropriate. Comparing gameplay in the review itself assumes the readers are familiar with the other title. Instant alienation of every reader not familiar with the other title. Some would call it pretentious when a reviewer assumes the reader has already played the title they contrast the reviewed material with. I love reading a review that evaluates the game itself and *then* says if you think this is interesting, then this other thing has similar traits. It's how I found Disgaea! However, doing this during the review is cheap. The reviewer should be able to evaluate the material on it's own, it doesn't matter what the media is.

[TekkenKing10]

I'm a big fan of the Uncharted franchise, but this game was a chore. Way too many collectibles plus the bounty trophies made this game so boring and dreadful to play. I was so glad when I finally got the plat. I'll probably never touch this game again. The trilogy is way better than this.