Uncharted Golden Abyss "Play It Your Way" Official Trailer (2012, SIE Bend Studio/SCE)
2Uncharted: Golden Abyss is an action-adventure platform video game, the fourth entry in the Uncharted series. It is the first portable entry in the series, released for the PlayStation Vita. It was developed by SIE Bend Studio, with development overseen by Naughty Dog. The game was released as a launch title in Japan on December 17, 2011. It was launched in North America on February 14, 2012, Europe on February 22, 2012 and Australia on February 23, 2012.
The story is set some time before the events of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and begins in medias res with Nathan Drake following rival explorer Jason Dante through a temple complex in Panama. Dante has ordered his army of mercenaries to kill Drake on sight, and after a series of gunfights, the platform Drake is climbing is hit by an RPG.
The game then flashes back two weeks, when Drake and Dante, revealed to be old friends, arrive at a dig site in Panama headed by Dante's "partner" Marisa Chase, who doesn't trust him. At the site, they find corpses of Spanish conquistadors that were apparently poisoned and a grave marker with a Visigoth symbol. Chase also shows Drake an amulet that she hid from Dante. The dig is then interrupted by Dante's real partner, warlord Roberto Guerro. Guerro captures Drake and Chase, however they escape Guerro's base after Chase starts a diversionary fire.
On June 2, 2011, the official title for the game was unveiled as Golden Abyss, and numerous hands-on previews of the game were released across several sites. This was the first public appearance of the game since its unveiling in January. Prior to the announcement though in May 2011, it was rumored that the game's title would be Uncharted: Golden Abyss, before any official announcement from Sony. The game features touch and motion based controls for navigation and aiming, though these are optional control schemes. The game was developed by Sony Bend Studio, who were being overseen by Naughty Dog. The game has an optional touchscreen control feature and motion sensitive controls. In a demo at E3 2011, it was shown that weapons can be picked up and reloaded by tapping the weapon icon on-screen. Bend studio creative director John Garvin confirmed that Naughty Dog allowed them to use their mo-cap and voice-over studios. It was also confirmed that the game would contain over 2 hours of cutscenes. The game doesn't run on the full resolution of the OLED screen of the Vita (960 x 544), instead it runs about half the native resolution (720 x 408)
Nolan North revealed in an interview that he would return to play Drake, lending his voice acting talents along with motion capture work, as in the console games. He revealed as well that the story was also being written by Garvin. According to a motion capture video released from PlayStation, Richard McGonagle would be returning as well, reprising his role as Victor Sullivan. Naughty Dog co-president Christophe Balestra confirmed the game's stance in the franchise, as well as suggesting a greater focus on exploration rather than gunplay.
The 1.01 update added "Black Market", an in-game store which enables players to trade and receive bounty items that are collected in the game with other Vita players using the PS Vita's "NEAR" application. In addition to this, the patch also prepared the game to use the Treasure Map DLC pack. Patch update 1.02 fixed bugs and issues. Patch 1.03 enables players to unlock cards based on game collectibles for the upcoming Uncharted: Fight for Fortune game, and also improves the bounty drop from enemies.