What it is:

Uncharted: Golden Abyss is the first mobile iteration of the action adventure series that will appear for the PlayStation Vita next month.

Unlike the PlayStation 3 titles in the franchise, Golden Abyss isn’t developed by Naughty Dog, as the studio just supervised the work done by Sony’s Bend studio.

Even so, from what we’ve seen up until now, the game is looking very good. Several videos and screenshots showed off impressive environments and action that had the same kind of visual quality we’ve come to expect from an Uncharted game.

In terms of story, the game takes place before the events of Drake’s Fortune, the first game in the series, with Nathan Drake needing to find the secret behind the massacre of a Spanish expedition in Central America.

As you can imagine, throughout his adventures he forges new friendships and breaks older ones, meanwhile trying to survive against various types of mercenaries and paramilitary forces that are also on the hunt for the expedition’s treasure.

The game uses plenty of the Vita’s features, from the twin-stick controls that deliver an experience not unlike what we’ve already seen on the PS3, to its touchscreen, which comes in handy during the climbing sections. There are also some quicktime events, in which players need to execute gestures on the touchscreen, but let’s hope Sony keeps them to a minimum.

Why it matters:

The PlayStation Vita is set to offer, more or less, the experience of having a PS3 in your pocket, and there’s no better game to showcase this than Uncharted: Golden Abyss. We were very pleased with it after our hands-on session at Gamescom 2011, so it should certainly delight new owners of the Sony handheld that want a safe investment.

Get ready for the release of Uncharted: Golden Abyss next month, on February 22, right alongside the launch of the PlayStation Vita and a variety of other games for the new mobile device.