Uncharted: Golden Abyss is a 2011 action-adventure game developed by Bend Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Vita. A spin-off of Naughty Dog's Uncharted series, the game was released as a launch title for the console. Golden Abyss is a prequel to the series, taking place before the events of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. The story revolves around adventurer-treasure hunter Nathan Drake as he becomes involved in a search for the lost city of Quivira and is aided by fellow treasure hunter Marisa Chase. Gameplay combines action-adventure with platforming elements, with players solving puzzles and fighting enemies using cover-based third-person shooting.
Concept work for Golden Abyss began in 2007, when Sony asked Bend Studio to develop a new Uncharted as a console launch title. Due to the changing specifications of the Vita, much of the early development was done using PlayStation 3 hardware. The entire project was overseen by original developer Naughty Dog, with Bend Studio receiving assets from the first two Uncharted titles and getting access to their motion capture facilities. John Garvin was both director and scriptwriter, the latter under the supervision of main series writer Amy Hennig. Hennig also ensured the return of Nolan North as Drake and Richard McGonagle as Sully.
The game was revealed in January 2011 alongside the Vita. Golden Abyss debuted to strong sales and generally positive critical reception. Journalists praised its graphics, voice performances, and recreation of Uncharted gameplay on the platform. Criticism focused on its storyline and implementation of Vita-specific controls. To date, the game remains exclusive to the platform, as it was left out of the PlayStation 4's Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection due to the standalone nature of its narrative.
Gameplay
Uncharted: Golden Abyss is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective, with platforming and puzzle elements. The player controls Uncharted series protagonist Nathan Drake. Progressing through a series of linear levels, Nathan explores a variety of environments including jungles, temple ruins, caverns and encampments.
During platforming, Nathan climbs along ledges and jumps between platforms created by the environments. Some levels include multiple paths and hidden areas with collectible treasures. During some sections, Nathan also swims through bodies of water, and rows a canoe down a river. In combat, Nathan can use stealthy takedowns, and engage in cover-based third-person shooting against groups of enemies. Shooting can either be done with precise aiming or blind firing. Nathan can pick up and use a variety of weapons, including pistols, machine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers, and grenades.
The game's controls use a combination of traditional joystick and button commands, and the PlayStation Vita's motion and touch control functions. The motion controls play into aiming Nathan's weapons or balancing during crossing on a tightrope while swiping on the touchscreen can both be used to guide Nathan through and around the environment and are mandatory when performing melee attacks. Some melee sections play out in a similar manner to quick time events. Some puzzles involve using the touch screen to reveal clues or adjust mechanisms. The back touch functions allow the player to zoom in with the weapon camera view, and take pictures within the environment.
Plot The events of Golden Abyss take place before Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Adventurer Nathan Drake accompanies old friend Jason Dante to a Panama dig site headed by the mistrustful Marisa Chase. At the site, they find the bodies of poisoned Spanish conquistadors and a grave marker with a Visigoth symbol. After Dante has to leave due to a phone call, Marisa shows Drake an amulet she hid from Dante, inherited from her grandfather Vincent Perez and they agree to team up. Nathan and Marisa are then attacked and captured by Dante's real partner, warlord Roberto Guerro, but the pair escape. They go to Perez's house, who hired Dante to continue his research after a terminal cancer diagnosis; Dante paid off Guerro for access to the site in return for a share of the treasure that Guerro will use to fund his conflict, while Marisa went there to finish her family's work. The pair learn that the marker referred to the Sete Cidades, an ancient Christian sect dedicated to finding the Seven Cities of Gold. Friar Marcos de Niza, a member of the sect, had been part of a failed expedition led by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado to find the city of Quivira.
Following further clues, one referring to a "Sword of Stephen", Nathan and Marisa follow Perez's trail to a ruined Sete Cidades retreat. They find Perez, who succumbed to his illness, as well as evidence that leads Nathan to suspect that de Niza deliberately misled Coronado. Nathan follows the ruins to a crypt that contains the Sword of Stephen—the personal sword of Esteban, de Niza's guide; however, they are interrupted by Dante and Guerro. Guerro takes the sword and Marisa after pushing Dante off a balcony for insulting him. Nathan and Dante reluctantly ally to escape the ruins and Guerro's army but are unable to stop Guerro from escaping with Marisa. Dante hires his mercenary army to avenge himself on Guerro, and Nathan leaves after they argue. Encountering his friend Victor "Sully" Sullivan, Nathan convinces him to help rescue Marisa and finish Perez's work. The two follow a map made from the charcoal rubbings of symbols found on the sword to a temple complex believed to house the entrance to Quivira. There they witness and fight through a battle between Dante's mercenaries and Guerro's men. Sully is injured in a fall, forcing Drake to continue by himself.
Nathan survives a rocket attack from Dante's mercenaries and enters Quivira where he rescues Marisa from survivors of Guerro's army. Using Marisa's amulet, they enter Quivira, discovering the "Golden Abyss", a gold-lined cavern linked by an underground lake. There they discover Esteban's corpse and a Geiger counter stowed in Chase's backpack revealing the gold to be irradiated from nearby uranium deposits. The people of Quivira slowly died out from radiation poisoning, and de Niza killed Esteban and his scouting party before deliberately misleading Coronado to keep the irradiated gold from being looted. Dante arrives, intending to sell the irradiated gold regardless, and Nathan beats him in a fistfight and escapes with Marisa. Marisa seals the Golden Abyss with explosives, trapping Dante inside, and Nathan has a last fight with Guerro which ends with Guerro falling through a damaged bridge to his death with the Sword of Stephen. Nathan and Marisa escape with Sully's help, and before leaving on a stolen helicopter Marisa throws away her amulet, saying it belongs "in hell" with the rest of Quivira.
Development Uncharted: Golden Abyss was developed by Bend Studio, a first-party production studio under Sony Computer Entertainment best known for creating the Syphon Filter series. Bend Studio was among the first studios to receive inside information about the Vita. As they were wrapping up production on Resistance: Retribution in 2008, the team decided they wanted to develop a new entry in the Uncharted series; at the time, the only released title was Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and had not gained the large industry presence it would. Bend Studio was chosen partly because of their long record of production quality titles for the PlayStation Portable (PSP). Bend Studio originally had a nine-person team working on the game, eventually expanding to 55 people. In addition to Bend Studio, several other studios collaborated on the title. Notable studios included MK Productions, which helped design some of the larger setpieces; Scratch Image, which handled lip-synching and facial animation; and the Visual Arts and Services Group, which polished the motion capture work. The music was composed by Clint Bajakian, who had previously worked as a music manager and minor composer on the other Uncharted titles. The sound and music design was outsourced to Sony's music staff, with thirty people assigned to the task.
Production ran in parallel to the final production stages of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and the development of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. The title was supervised by Uncharted studio Naughty Dog. While Sony was immediately willing for Bend Studio to create an Uncharted Vita title, Naughty Dog needed a lot more assurance and communication during pre-production. It was the studio's first launch title for a console, something that put extra pressure on the team during production. During the first year of production, the project was untitled, alternately using the working titles Uncharted X and Uncharted: Dark Secrets. The game's crunch period lasted from January to December 2011, putting a great deal of strain on the production team as they needed to give up weekends and holidays to finish the game on time. This had a debilitating impact on the team's morale, prompting the studio to put in solid work and overtime guidelines for future projects. An alpha build, technically playable from beginning to end, was completed in September, with play and focus testing enabling the team to adjust the playtime and streamline some elements.
Design
The early prototype builds used PlayStation 3 (PS3) hardware up until the final year of production, with a dedicated game engine only appearing during that time. It was the first time Bend Studio had handled the hardware, as their previous work had transitioned straight from PlayStation 2 to PSP. One of the early design prototypes had the game taking place around an open world hub with quests, but the team had no experience with open-world design and combined with story problems this version was scrapped. During production, Bend Studio was in constant and detailed contact with Sony regarding the Vita, giving them a deep insight into how the console worked. This open communication was part of Sony's shift in console production following difficulties with the PSP, wanting input and feedback before release from associated game studios. It was also key to keeping production going in the wake of hardware breakdowns. Part of the production was creating a rough working prototype of an early level so the team could understand the Vita's functions. The locked narrative, necessary for production to begin, proved an issue as several gameplay segments had to be kept despite negatively impacting pacing and characterisation. The length of the game was also an issue, with Garvin later feeling they had been overly ambitious.
A key inclusion was the Vita's touch-based control functions, as Garvin felt the team would have failed if the controls were similar to the PS3 entries. While there was speculation that Sony forced Bend Studio not to include other control options for elements like melee attacks, Garvin clarified that Bend Studio made the call. A recurrent issue was that the hardware specifications were changing all the time, with new information coming in every three months or so and their single Vita development kit being "the size of a PC". When motion controls were agreed upon, the team had to improvise using a PS3 Sixaxis controller, and until the introduction of the OLED screen, making the touch controls work was a constant struggle as their test model used the standard PSP screen. Getting motion controls to work alongside traditional controls while keeping the Uncharted gameplay style intact was one of the biggest challenges during development. The canoe section, which made extensive use of touch commands, was trimmed down based on negative feedback from test players.