Fancy Clown
Member
CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS ACROSS ALL UNCHARTED GAMES
All this talk about Uncharted 4 put me in the mood to dive into some classic Uncharted goodness. Unfortunately, my PS3 has gone the way of all things (actually I'm pretty sure it was a combo of Uncharted 3 and The Last of Us that killed it) so, the only Uncharted I'm able to replay is the Vita entry, Golden Abyss.
To preface my thoughts on this game, so I don't give the impression that I'm going to be bashing this game and the people who like it (I am genuinely curious as to why some people consider it one of the best in the franchise, though), I'll start by saying that I do enjoy this game. It's pretty good fun, and it's unbelievably cool to have an Uncharted adventure that I can play wherever I want. Also, jaggies aside, the game is insanely beautiful. I mean, just look at it:
But, while the game is pretty fun and stunning to look at, it just falls so ridiculously short of any of the Naughty Dog entries in the series.
Story:
For starters, it is incredibly clear that Naughty Dog had no hand in writing this game. The story isn't necessarily bad--although it is unmemorable--but it is told poorly. One of the strongest aspects of Naughty Dog games--and by extension the Uncharted series--is that they try and make as much of the story interactive as possible, and only use cutscenes when gameplay simply wouldn't make sense. This lead to all sorts of awesome storytelling moments across the Uncharted games: exploring a Nazi submarine in Drake's Fortune, mountaineering and bonding with someone who doesn't speak the same language as you in Among Thieves, and the desert scene in Drake's Deception.
With Golden Abyss it seemed like they took every opportunity to tell the story by only using cutscenes. Seriously, for every 5 minutes of gameplay it seems like there are 2 minutes of cutscenes. It's incredibly tedious, especially considering the writing just isn't very good. Out of all the new characters, only Dante is remotely interesting (the Chase and Guerro are so, so cookie cutter). Gone are the brilliant character interactions of the original triliogy, or even the interesting existential themes of 3, only to be replaced by an endless onslaught of hit-or-miss banter. Probably 40% of the dialogue could have been cut from this game.
You will find nothing like this in Golden Abyss:
Gameplay:
It's been said before, but I'll say it again. The gimmicky touchscreen stuff in this game is awful. It just pads the game out. I don't even feel motivated to grab the treasures in this game because positioning a camera just right, or doing my 100000th charcoal rubbing is so tedious, and destroys the pacing of the game.
The combat in this game is a lot of fun though; it's classic uncharted action. The problem is, until the last 3rd of the game you will mostly be doing the 'exploring' and 'puzzle solving' mode of Uncharted. Again, this wouldn't be a problem if Naughty Dog had made it (3 doesn't have a lot of combat in the beginning either, but makes up for it with amazing story telling moments like the young Drake section). Even the platforming feels worse for some reason, with way too many boring 'press x a million more times than you should have to to climb up this segmented ledge' and not enough 'wholly shit the bridge is collapsing gotta climb up'.
This is fun:
This is not:
In general, there's not enough 'holy shit' moments that Uncharted is known for.There's not really a single set-piece beyond a tame 'run away from explosion' and 'dodge turret fire', or any moment that stands out at all. It really just sort of blends together. Even people that don't like Uncharted 3 have to admit it's far more memorable than this game, where you get to: play as young Drake, escape a sinking cruise ship, fly out of an airplane, desert walk, do a caravan chase, etc.
I appreciate that this game tried to take the scale back to Drake's Fortune levels, but even that game had more memorable and enjoyable sections than GA (nazi submarine, jet ski, giant death trap puzzle room, zombies, jeep chase). What is there to remember from this game? That time you were in the canoe with sully and couldn't change directions but swiped the screen every few seconds to paddle while listening to mediocre banter?
Even the setting in Golden Abyss just felt uninspired compared to the others, with ruins I never felt in awe of, too much repetition in color-scheme and design, and not enough attention to detail.
Also, I would be remiss to mention that this game contains the worst final boss of almost any game I've ever played. 2, back to back, really really lengthy QTE bosses that you have to start all over if you lose. It's like Drake's Fortune's boss only 10x worse.
Again, all in all it's a decent Vita game, and I would love to see a sequel that gets past all the growing pains of this one. I just don't think this game comes close to any of the original Uncharteds, in any facet really.
So GAF, what are your opinions on this game? I especially would like to hear from those that loved this game. What makes it better than any of the first 3 in your eyes?