A spin off from the main series, Golden Abyss is never the less a great game in its own right.
As a spin-off not developed by Naughty Dog, you can be forgiven for thinking that Golden Abyss must not be a good game. You would be wrong, it is a great game with one of the better stories in the series and visuals that really show off the Vita's gorgeous screen.
Taking control of Nathan Drake once again, you head to South America on yet another treasure hunt, this time with an old friend by the name of Dante. The story twists and turns from there, a new 'Drake girl' is introduced (I had to!) and the manical General who serves as the main antagonist is a brilliant bad guy.
The few problems the game does have come from its host system itself, albeit in a strange way. This being a launch title, it is understandable that Sony want to use it to show off what the system is capable of, I get that, but it comes at the expense of user experience, as the game constantly pops up with a touch screen based mini game - for just about everything.
Climbing ropes, rowing kayaks, melee attacks, cutting cloth and bambo - you can even use the touch screen to climb which is completely unnecessary and doesnt always work. Some of these actions are mandatory but some aren't, you can still use the analog sticks to climb for example.
It can be really annoying to have to touch the screen every five mintues, but the story and core gameplay is so strong that you can get past it and enjoy the game for what it is - fantastic.
There are a few menu navigation quirks as well, with pressing on the clearly visible options on the menu screen not doing anything until you slide the actual menu bar so that the desired option is dead centre. Its a little thing, but annoying and pointless none the less.
The rest of the controls are fantastic, shoot feels good and using the back touch screen to zoom in the scope on the sniper rifle really feels great and pretty intuitive. The game is actually a great showcase for what the Vita can do, but the developers should have done more with less and took at some of the touch screen based actions, as it can take you out of the experience.
The voice acting is great as always, Nolan North returning as Drake and all the other characters being equally well played. Golden Abyss is an amazing story in a great game, and has one of my favourite tales of the series and is a great start to potential Vita spin offs.
Though its not without it's problems, Golden Abyss is the title not to miss if you have recently picked up a Vita, and while to some it is probably the worst in the series, it is still better than 95% of the other action games out there, and that is worth shouting about.