“The Vita doesn’t have any games………”
At this point that statement is complete rubbish. The PlayStation Vita has all sorts of games, ranging from Triple-A titles such as Unit 13 and Assassins Creed Liberation. The Vita also has a large variety of smaller titles such as Guacamelee and the recently added Limbo. The Vita has games for the hardcore gamer and the casual gamer as well.
The main reason I decided to write this article was to tell the person on the fence about purchasing a Vita a little secret, you only need to buy one game for the Vita and that game is Uncharted Golden Abyss. This game is not only the best game on Vita, it is the reason all Vita owners or potential buyers should be excited about the future. Golden Abyss gives you a console experience on a handheld unlike any other device. You are literally playing an Uncharted game on a 5″ OLED screen that in my personal opinion is better than the original Uncharted on PlayStation 3. The reason all Vita owners should be excited is because Golden Abyss is just the tip of the Iceberg. There is no telling what we will see when the PS4 launches in the fall of 2013, Infamous anyone…..?
Uncharted Golden Abyss was created by Bend Studios and not by the original creators Naughty Dog. Which isn’t a slight against Bend in any way, these guys actually did some amazing things in Golden Abyss that I think Naughty Dog will adopt in the highly anticipated Uncharted 4. Such things include the backpack that Nathan Drake wears throughout the game and the introduction of charcoal rubbings. Though the charcoal rubbings at times began to get a tad annoying, I felt they allowed the player to be more immersed in the story and actually feel a little more like an explorer. We all know that Uncharted 4 will be on PS4, so I feel Naughty Dog will take advantage of the touch functionality in the new Dual-Shock 4 and continue the charcoal rubbings from Golden Abyss. As for the backpack that Sony Bend added, I keep coming back to how ingenious the backpack was used to store weapons in The Last Of Us, another gem from Naughty Dog.
In the end Uncharted Golden Abyss isn’t just a Vita game, it is the Vita game that you need to play. It plays like the other Uncharted’s and at times does things a little better in my personal opinion. This game has set a great cadence for things to come with Sony’s little handheld and frankly I’m quite excited as you should be too.
Trevor Cannon 