Reviews

Give Them a Big Hand(held)

Portable gaming has never been richer and more diverse than it is today. Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 only left our Nintendo 3DS cartridge slot this Christmas to make way for each other, and games like Angry Birds may very well be more widely consumed than air and water in some countries. But, however good those games are, it's never been possible to achieve quite the same thrills on the go as those you experience in front of the TV with a PlayStation or Xbox.

Never been possible, that is, until the launch of PlayStation Vita. Sony's new handheld games console isn't quite as powerful as its under-the-TV cousins, but it's as close as anyone has ever come. The graphics are sumptuously detailed and silky smooth, pumping incredible detail through the huge 5-inch OLED screen, and thanks to console-style controls - two analogue sticks, d-pad, symbol and shoulder buttons - you can play games the way you would at home. Meanwhile, the addition of a super-responsive touch-screen opens the door to smartphone-style experiences while a unique "rear touch" panel lets developers come up with new concepts altogether.

Golden Child

There's no better example of this than Sony's own Uncharted: Golden Abyss, which offers the best of all possible worlds. The PlayStation 3 series is among the console's most visually spectacular exclusives, but the shrunk-down PS Vita release, which is an entirely new adventure, admirably holds its own in comparison, revealing amazing views of Central American mountain ranges, jungles and lost temples and set-pieces that - while they don't quite rival Uncharted 3 - definitely belong under this banner.

A prequel to the series, it sees hero Nathan Drake teaming up with new love interest Marisa Chase as the duo seek to solve the mystery of a massacred Spanish expedition 400 years in the past. As usual, you make progress by climbing around ancient ruins in acrobatic fashion - the eye-catching platform gaming is perfectly recreated - and getting in elaborate gun and fist fights with legions of hired goons. The action only lets up for well-acted and amusingly written cut-scenes - and of course to solve various puzzles.

Remote Controls

These frequently take advantage of the PS Vita's many control options - including one ingenious puzzle that requires you to find an actual real-world light source to illuminate a particular conundrum using the PS Vita's camera. There are myriad different collectables that utilise touch-screen, camera and rear panel as well, including various charcoal rubbings and unique photo opportunities.

You use Nathan Drake's ever-present diary to keep a look-out for secrets and treasure and flick through it with the touch-screen, a bit like an eBook. If you're so inclined, you can even use the touch-screen to control platform sequences, drawing lines across glowing stone outcroppings to manoeuvre Drake. It's not as tactile as using the buttons, but it's not bad if you're a more casual player.

There's no multiplayer, but the single-player campaign lasts for many hours and frequently mixes things up with new locations and even some cameos from famous old friends. As usual, you dig very deep by the end of the adventure, uncovering a lost civilisation in the process - at great expense to some of the game's stars - and learn an important lesson about greed and sacrifice.

Livin' la Vita Loca

As an advert for PlayStation Vita, Uncharted: Golden Abyss does a fine job, and it's a great game in its own right. It's a console-style experience in many respects, but the PS Vita proves more than a match for it - the system standby button, similar to phones and tablets, freezes the game wherever you are and resumes very gracefully when you return to it, so despite its potentially unwieldy nature it ends up suiting any commute or social situation.

As for the rest of PlayStation Vita, its only real drawbacks are a too-basic internet browser (similar to PlayStation 3) and high pricing on the PlayStation Store, but on the whole it's a marvellous handheld. It's incredibly light, smaller than you realise but with a big screen, boasts impressive battery life for something this powerful (around four hours of Uncharted on full brightness without a charge), and has all the right controls and games. All in all, it's thoroughly recommended.

GAME's Verdict

What's Good?

• Amazing console-style graphics.
  
• Great variety thanks to multiple control methods.
  
• Continue the amazing Uncharted adventure on the go.

What's Bad?

• Some levels are a little too long for a portable experience.
  
• Not much use of the rear panel so far.
  
• No multiplayer.