Will the Vita live up to its name? - Uncharted: Golden Abyss and BF: Bad Company

AKA A Backlog Diary: Part 29

Two sets of treasure hunters, rather different in their approaches. One group seeks to liberate their wealth from a group of evil mercenaries; the other from ancient civilisations. Although the latter does also deal with evil mercenary types and corrupt dictators… wait a minute…

Both stories feature a group going about their daily business. Both cross paths frequently with corrupt dictators, and spend a good portion of their time blowing stuff up and killing mercenaries. I guess until I started writing the above paragraph, I hadn’t noticed how corrupt dictators and mercenaries seem to be finding their way into everything I play. Heck, I bet even Metro 2033, the next game on my to do list, features some kind of facist regime. Wouldn’t surprise me at all.

So on to the differences, one was released nearly four years ago, one was released but three months ago. One is a first person shooter, one is an action/adventure/platformer. One is based only on consoles, the other only available to a handheld. I’m going to leave a little gap so you can try and guess the two games. Ready?


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Battlefield: Bad Company for the Xbox 360, and Uncharted: Golden Abyss for the PS Vita. Yes, I now own a Vita too.

So, they’re different ages, different genres, and have different names, but they shared an equal level of disappointment. I was expecting a little more from each of them based on other games in their respective series, but in the case of Battlefield:BC, I guess it had a slightly more humble beginning than its frankly much more awesome sequel.

One way it trumps its follow up is actually being a lot more humerous. It seems to have a slight throwback to the old WW2 era heist-esque movies, where a squad of commandos would take on a league of Nazi’s, all the while with a tongue in their cheek and a gun in their hand. Sound is used very well, from the choice of music in menus and emitting from vehicle radios to the obvious explosions and gun fire. I played a demo back when the game was first launched, but only bought the game a month ago. I guess it really shows its age. The Frostbite engine has come along nicely from this comparatively ugly game, and whilst it isn’t the worst looking game out there, you can tell this was released four years ago.
The plot is wafer thin, but Sweetwater, Marlowe and friends carry it along at quite a cheerful pace, and the gameplay itself works fine, with an interesting alteration on the replenishing health system of most FPS’s. If you see it for £5.00 in a bargain bin, it isn’t a bad flutter, and should provide something of an entertaining weekend. Just don’t expect a revolution, because despite the games merits, there are more engrossing first person shooters out there. 6

As for Golden Abyss, I have to say it’s the weakest Uncharted game since the first, probably finding itself on par. Levels are repetitive and somewhat bland, and the game fails to contain any of the features that made Uncharted 2 & 3 as great as they were; namely awesome location, thrilling set pieces, and Elena. Instead we get an Elena clone who ends up as a love interest of Drake’s, but being a prequel, we can all assume how that one ends. Chase fails to fill Elena’s shoes; she just isn’t that likeable, and yet you still have to spend a whole chunk of the game with her. The Sully section is as fun as you can expect, but is marred by previously mentioned repetitiveness in both locale and action.
Touch controls feel kind of shoe-horned in, with charcoal rubbings becoming tiresome, as well as the sections of QTE where you swipe the screen. Initially, the gyro controls were annoying too, but become essential once you realise how hard it is to aim without them. I ended up using a combination of right stick to line them up, and gyro controls to enhance accuracy, which when you get used to it, isn’t too bad a system. However, it wasn’t worth the hassle, and doesn’t really add anything beyond initial frustration.

I really feel the developers missed a trick with Uncharted on Vita. If the system doesn’t start getting some rock solid titles, it could plummet into oblivion right next to the Sega Saturn; a good piece of tech which no one knew how to program for. With Resistance getting the shoddy reception it is, we can only look forward to a potential Playstation All-Stars release. Come on Sony; this is the first time I’ve bought one of your systems close to launch, don’t make me regret it! Ironically, it seems the Vita may well run out of life prematurely, but then the PS3 was a late bloomer in my opinion.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss gets a disappointing 6.

Next time, Metro 2033, which so far I’m really digging.

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