Uncharted: Golden Abyss Preview

Brief cut-scenes (of which there will eventually be two hours' worth) show that Drake's rapier wit is intact. It's exercised against a new cast of characters, with Jason Dante fulfilling Sully's role while Marisa Chase appears as the inevitable love interest. The quick-fire, Hawks-esque dialogue is all present and correct, thanks in no small part to the use of Naughty Dog's own motion capture facility and the return of Nolan North.

For the exploration and third-person shooting at the heart of Uncharted, Sony Bend hasn't altered the essentials - but its interpretation is often surprising. The NGP's dual sticks can keep up with the cover-based gunplay well enough, and the duck and run segments are as tight as those in the PS3 games.

The exploration and scaling of the environment is likewise largely untouched. It never ceases to amaze how many walls crumble at Drake's touch, leaving him dangling in a pre-canned animation. But there's a creep of the NGP's new and varied control methods that's sometimes welcome, sometimes less so.

For the stealth sections dotted throughout the demo they're a neat fit, with a tap of an enemy on the touch-screen triggering a takedown from behind cover. Scrambling across ledges and swinging across poles are also activities simplified by the touch-screen; all it takes is a swipe in the desired direction for Drake to traverse the environment.

At other points, Sony Bend's eagerness to play with each and every toy within the NGP's box of tricks can make for some counter-intuitive and sometimes downright ugly play.

Sections utilising the Sixaxis are the worst offenders, whether that's when balancing Drake as he traverses across a thin platform or, late in the demo, when they're used to control a rifle during a particularly awkward sniper scene. Motion controls can work well when sitting on a sofa, but there's surely little room for them in the more discreet world of portable gaming.

Such problems are an understandable by-product of Sony Bend's enthusiasm for the new hardware. It's commendable that the studio is so eager to experiment with all of the strange new features at its disposal. Any early missteps shouldn't detract from its achievement; this is authentic Uncharted on a handheld, and that's an impressive feat.