I confess, my experience with Uncharted: Golden Abyss‘s big brothers has been limited. I’ve played them for a few hours each, and much appreciated the production values that went into them, but for some reason or another had neglected to stick with them. However, it’s one of those gamer itches I’d always meant to scratch at some point in the future so I was delighted to hear that the PS Vita version, Golden Abyss was to be a prequel taking place before the series initial outing, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.  So now that I’m starting out from the beginning of the mythos, how does Golden Abyss fare?  Read on. Uncharted: Golden Abyss starts off briskly with Drake arguing with his partner, Dante before flashing back two weeks before the incident.  Drake and Dante along with Dante’s partner, Marisa Chase are exploring a dig site in Panama.  At which, a wealth of Spanish conquistador corpses who were apparently poisoned are discovered, and a long, drawn out mystery begins unraveling itself.  While the story remains mostly entertaining throughout, there are some pretty heavy-handed plot devices and turns you’ll see coming a mile away.  Still though, the voice acting is solid even if some of the dialog’s a little questionable. Graphically, Golden Abyss is a tour de force of the Vita’s capabilities.  Whether Drake is shimmying on the ledge of an ancient ruin, sliding full force down a shallow waterfall, or leaping the distance of a nigh-impossibly large gap to safety with the setting sun in the background it all looks gorgeous.  Animation is fluid and not at all stiff, but the occasional graphical hiccups do manifest in the form of clipping issues. Gameplay in Uncharted remains as solid as its console counterparts.  The only shortcoming that I see would...