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[Ferr986]

Spoiler

The story was definitely a big question mark, though from what I gather, I think we can safely assume that the player character being a robot means that he/it is from the same place as all of the other technology present in the game. The reason they came to the planet, who can say? But the player character obviously develops a bond with the world and the native life that causes it to turn against its creators.

I could be completely wrong, but that's what I got out of it. And even then that wasn't really until my second time through.

What I got for my first playthrough is

Spoiler

ancient civilization gather (magic?) water and creates the ¿sea?. The water creates life. Then ¿aliens? comes and use water to mass create robots (divers, that mini robots that follow you, you can see them being manufactured using water).

Then I guess there's some kind of conflict between them? There's murals about sharks, I guess they're like the guardians of the sea (that's why Sharkie goes ham against the robots).

I'm still not sure what's the purpose of the divers :/ Although I wonder if they're the "aliens" and not something created by them, because a diver already appears in the mural.

Really need to look for more clues on my next playthrough.

 

[Gitaroo]

Is the ps4 version running at 60fps 1090p?

 

[klier]

Is the ps4 version running at 60fps 1090p?

No for both.

As for the game, I played it yesterday:

Loved the style, graphics and music. Hate the 'story', hate the small enviroments that feel like aquariums instead of the Ocean, and I hated the freaking walls in the middle of the 'ocean'. Not cool to bump into a wall with a humpback whale.

Overall, amazing visuals and art style, but simple and shallow game. The biggest let down it being almost like a corridor game with a few semi open areas.

 

[Mdk7]

It's pretty much Sea Journey dude, let's not kid ourselves. So much of the game is a nod to the way Journey thematically plays out that it's hard not to make the comparison. Abzu didn't hit the emotional highs of Journey for me but I still ended up enjoying the hell out of it.

Spoiler

Was expecting a bit more out of the deep sea fish areas though, would've been nice to have dealt with the true darkness of the abyss vs. the slightly darker blue and reflective fish that we ended up getting in those moments.

I FULLY agree with the spoilered consideration... It should have been just like you said IMO.

 

[klier]

Yeah, deep sea should have been pitch black, with only your light. Also disappointing.

 

[hichanbis]

Very disappointed in the game.
There simply is no gameplay. It's a game with mechanics and levels but without any substance, purpose or direction.

It really is a shame because I can see potential at every corner => would be cool I it had a sense of danger or tension, would be cool if I had to jump out of the water to reach things, would be cool if I had to avoid jelly fishes or sharks, would be cool if they had made an enigma with this or that, would be cool If I needed to maintain max speed in the stream, etc.

I liked Journey and I love the ocean, so I really don't get how they manage to let me down but they have.

 

[Arthea]

Very disappointed in the game.
There simply is no gameplay. It's a game with mechanics and levels but without any substance, purpose or direction.

It really is a shame because I can see potential at every corner => would be cool I it had a sense of danger or tension, would be cool if I had to jump out of the water to reach things, would be cool if I had to avoid jelly fishes or sharks, would be cool if they had made an enigma with this or that, would be cool If I needed to maintain max speed in the stream, etc.

I liked Journey and I love the ocean, so I really don't get how they manage to let me down but they have.

There are like bazillion games with tension and danger, where you need to maintain speed and avoid things, there is only one ABZU and I'm fine it being like it is, more than fine, I'm not sure I'd bought a game like you describe day one, I have enough of games like that as it is.

Also totally don't agree with opinions that a game needs to be darker. No, it doesn't.

I also must say I don't perceive this game as Journey 2, it's own thing.

 

[wouwie]

I love the game. Presentation wise, it's just incredible and the visuals are breathtaking. Gameplay wise, it's just what i expected and it's perfect the way it is. I'm taking my time with it, enjoying every minute just swimming around and admiring the beauty of it all.

I'm so happy that games like this are still being made. So a big thank you to the developers behind this game.

 

[senahorse]

Probably the most beautiful game I have ever played, my jaw dropped at the amount of fish on screen, and the music as expected was amazing, what a great little experience.

 

[Ferr986]

Very disappointed in the game.
There simply is no gameplay. It's a game with mechanics and levels but without any substance, purpose or direction.

It really is a shame because I can see potential at every corner => would be cool I it had a sense of danger or tension, would be cool if I had to jump out of the water to reach things, would be cool if I had to avoid jelly fishes or sharks, would be cool if they had made an enigma with this or that, would be cool If I needed to maintain max speed in the stream, etc.

I liked Journey and I love the ocean, so I really don't get how they manage to let me down but they have.

I find strange that you liked Journey but not Abzu because of little gameplay. Journey barely had any gameplay too.

 

[Mdk7]

I find strange that you liked Journey but not Abzu because of little gameplay. Journey barely had any gameplay too.

I agree: how could you find the gameplay of Journey satisfying while thinking this one isn't there?

 

[UpDownLeftRight]

Very disappointed in the game.
There simply is no gameplay. It's a game with mechanics and levels but without any substance, purpose or direction.

It really is a shame because I can see potential at every corner => would be cool I it had a sense of danger or tension, would be cool if I had to jump out of the water to reach things, would be cool if I had to avoid jelly fishes or sharks, would be cool if they had made an enigma with this or that, would be cool If I needed to maintain max speed in the stream, etc.

I liked Journey and I love the ocean, so I really don't get how they manage to let me down but they have.

Isn't Journey the exact same though? Like there's one part where you're sneaking around some weird snake things that I remembered but other than that I only recall walking and jumping. I honestly felt the games were practically identical in many way when you remove MP from the equation. Having said that though I never replayed Journey because it felt too long for the type of game it was, so I may have missed and forgotten stuff.

 

[CHC]

Just noticed this is 16 bucks on the Humble Store (Steam key). I'm going for that deal, fair enough price.

Edit: Eh nevermind that's the price on Steam also.

 

[kyser73]

Finally my ban is lifted!! Been a tough couple of weeks, especially missing out on the early days of this thread!

Thanks to Deckard Chapel for the awesome OT!

Anyway, the game...is wonderful. It clearly draws on both Journey & Flower, but brings its own dish to the table. It gave me the sense of childish freedom I had playing the first level of Mario 64, something even Journey didn't manage.

The imagery is from Journey. From the wall murals, to the story (more later), it draws on and expands on that gorgeous geometric style Journey has.

The flow of the game is more Flower - the movement & especially the way the movement can be broken and the animation when it happens...it felt more like hitting the powerlines than being zapped by the robo-dragon thingies to me.

Spoiler

for me there were many periods where I connected to the game the way I did Journey. the first one to really hit was the Blue Whake encounter, when you think they've gone and suddenly there's a giant head & eye looking at you, right there!

The second was the end of the Shark temple level & arriving at the entrance of the War Machine. The camera pullback & sense of enormity, coupled with the deep contrast with the life & joy of previous levels and most of all the dramatic tonal shift on the music combined to give me an amazing sense of awe & dread.

Finally - although these three examples aren't the only ones - the freedom of the final level, riding with my shark companion, diving & leaping from the water with the whales and finally smashing the Machine...joyous!!!

So the story...I took from it that there was a humanoid population who worshipped the Shark as 'King of Fish', and who had access to a power source of some kind - this is the swirling void/shiny star image on the walls.

Their technology allowed them to harness this power, enabling them to build the little drones, the androids & capture & preserve older species. There was a strong religious element to the early relationship with the power source, later replaced by technological exploitation and subsequently the creation and powering of the proximity mines, and presumably war or some conflict that led to the creation of the giant gates between the Eco-systems.

These are familiar themes - Flower to some extent, but more so Journey, which has a similar story of a civilisation undone by its technology, but while Jourbey is about the path of life, death & rebirth I think Abzu is about the quest for freedom and possibly even how nature & technology can co-exist - represented by the android & shark.

Sorry for the rambling post - I've played through the game three times now, and really wanted to get these thoughts out!

One final thing tho - I got myself some PS wireless headphones, and wore them on my second playthrough and it contributed significantly to the impact of the game, so I recommend it to anyone!

 

[Gitaroo]

No for both.

As for the game, I played it yesterday:

Loved the style, graphics and music. Hate the 'story', hate the small enviroments that feel like aquariums instead of the Ocean, and I hated the freaking walls in the middle of the 'ocean'. Not cool to bump into a wall with a humpback whale.

Overall, amazing visuals and art style, but simple and shallow game. The biggest let down it being almost like a corridor game with a few semi open areas.

I meant 1080p, its not even 1080p for ps4?

 

[Ferr986]

One final thing tho - I got myself some PS wireless headphones, and wore them on my second playthrough and it contributed significantly to the impact of the game, so I recommend it to anyone!

Indeed, I played it with my ATH M50, recommended using headphones if you can!. Only downside is on the first level,

Spoiler

all of these tiny robots sometimes made too much noise while swimming IMO

I meant 1080p, its not even 1080p for ps4?

1080p and 30 fps.

 

[blastprocessor]

I'm finding 1440p with the 1060 with vsync off in the game and adaptive v-sync (half refresh) on in the Nvidia control panel is working well enough.

 

[Moose84]

Would people recommend playing this in a single playthrough like Journey?

 

[Easy_D]

What I got for my first playthrough is

Spoiler

ancient civilization gather (magic?) water and creates the ¿sea?. The water creates life. Then ¿aliens? comes and use water to mass create robots (divers, that mini robots that follow you, you can see them being manufactured using water).

Then I guess there's some kind of conflict between them? There's murals about sharks, I guess they're like the guardians of the sea (that's why Sharkie goes ham against the robots).

I'm still not sure what's the purpose of the divers :/ Although I wonder if they're the "aliens" and not something created by them, because a diver already appears in the mural.

Really need to look for more clues on my next playthrough.

Well:

Spoiler

I think the diver robot you control is essentially doing the opposite of what it's supposed to. It's there to steal the source of life, which is why that hologram shows the robot with the light in its chest, you're essentially built to gather more power for the factory ship. Which is why the shark is an asshole towards you until you save it. Then it realises you're actually helping after you lift the rubble off of it, which is why it sacrifices itself to save you. You not following your evil robo directive is probably also why the tech-mines see you as hostile too.

 

[megalowho]

Played through last night, enjoyed it. Pretty and relaxing, took my time swimming around taking screenshots. Like an interactive aquarium with some neat one off moments, pleasant soundtrack too.

It certainly takes a lot of cues from Journey/Flower in terms of progression and tone, for better or worse. Definitely some diminishing returns to that formula for me. Unique enough to be worth a playthrough at least.

 

[Gbraga]

Really excited to play this >_<

The impression I get from reading people's thoughts is that it's conceptually closer to Flower, but lifting the execution from Journey. Would that be accurate?

I see a lot of people let down from not having the same emotional payoff as Journey, and saying that it's basically just about taking in the beautiful visuals and relaxing atmosphere, and that reminds me a lot of Flower. And it's kind of what I was expecting from this game, something to relax after a hard day at work.

 

[Oneself]

1080p and *more than* 30 fps.

Fixed it for you.

 

[ChanMan]

Me and my fiance took turns playing this last night and were so amazed. It is everything I would have hoped for. We didn't finish it in one sitting though, probably played for about 2 hours before going to bed.

 

[Brandon F]

Really excited to play this >_<

The impression I get from reading people's thoughts is that it's conceptually closer to Flower, but lifting the execution from Journey. Would that be accurate?

I see a lot of people let down from not having the same emotional payoff as Journey, and saying that it's basically just about taking in the beautiful visuals and relaxing atmosphere, and that reminds me a lot of Flower. And it's kind of what I was expecting from this game, something to relax after a hard day at work.

I would definitely argue it being closer to Flower, or an iOS mystery item hunt adventure, or an interactive After Dark screensaver from the 90's. It's a visually pleasing little theme-park attraction to wander through, touch buttons and witness the sea life dance, sometimes with hauntingly mesmerizing choreography. The music is perfectly cued to the underwater eye-feast and helps impress upon the player a sense of grandeur far beyond what the game actually is. Haven't finished it yet, but it's charming albeit shallow so far. In that sense I suppose journey comparisons are apt too...

 

[Ferr986]

Well:

Spoiler

I think the diver robot you control is essentially doing the opposite of what it's supposed to. It's there to steal the source of life, which is why that hologram shows the robot with the light in its chest, you're essentially built to gather more power for the factory ship. Which is why the shark is an asshole towards you until you save it. Then it realises you're actually helping after you lift the rubble off of it, which is why it sacrifices itself to save you. You not following your evil robo directive is probably also why the tech-mines see you as hostile too.

Spoiler

Yes, make sense that they are harvesters. One mural shows a diver with the water ball and the triangle structure.

Need to look more into the murals on my next playthrough. I see people insisting that divers and the ancients are the same but they looked diferent to me, hence why I said aliens (but dunno if they were really aliens or maybe creations of the ancients to industrialize the water instead of keep using jars lol).

Really excited to play this >_<

The impression I get from reading people's thoughts is that it's conceptually closer to Flower, but lifting the execution from Journey. Would that be accurate?

I see a lot of people let down from not having the same emotional payoff as Journey, and saying that it's basically just about taking in the beautiful visuals and relaxing atmosphere, and that reminds me a lot of Flower. And it's kind of what I was expecting from this game, something to relax after a hard day at work.

That's pretty much how I felt with this game, yeah.

 

[TheWorthyEdge]

What's this better on PC or PS4?

 

[fernoca]

Really enjoying this. Feels like a nice mix of Flower and Journey.

 

[Inkwell]

You can't not compare this to Journey. There are so many similarities that it feels like a sequel. Abzu has more of those jaw-dropping moments though. The game is beautiful, and the art direction and music are fantastic. I have a few issues with the game, but the biggest one is the story. It's a little vague and I think I understand what the game is communicating, but it just didn't land like I'd hoped. Journey was about something broader and felt more meaningful. When the title came up at the end of Abzu I kind of felt a little like "...that's it?".

I'll get into a little more detail with spoilers, but I just wanted to say that anyone checking out this thread who is curious about the game should definitely pick it up. I feel any negatives to the game are greatly outweighed by it's positive aspects, and I'm going to be a little more negative in my spoiler bit.

Before I go full on spoiler, did anyone else think the story was going to

Spoiler

parallel evolution and end with the character moving onto land? That scene where you climb out of the water you have salamanders and frogs, and you see birds flying around. You also start seeing prehistoric creatures at the point. I think it would have been more interesting compared to the story in the game.

Spoiler

Abzu has nothing like Journey's multiplayer to make it feel unique and special. Being able to swim is not enough. Considering you can leap out of the water, I feel it was a missed opportunity to do more with it. Not that I think this needed multiplayer. I like the isolation of it.

If I understand the story correctly, you shut down these dangerous machines created by that civilization to make the ocean a safer place for the sea life. Yes, you can compare it to what people have done to nature, but it feels much more meaningless than Journey's, well, journey of life.

Finally, the game does sort of feel like a (beautiful) husk of Journey. There are many copied elements. Ancient civilization making bad/evil machinery (complete with murals), slipstreams are like sand sliding, you travel literally deeper until you hit the darkest point of the story before climbing back out and higher up to the finale... I'm sure there's more, but with all of this added together it does feel like a lesser version of Journey to me.

 

[kyser73]

Spoiler

Yes, make sense that they are harvesters. One mural shows a diver with the water ball and the triangle structure.

Need to look more into the murals on my next playthrough. I see people insisting that divers and the ancients are the same but they looked diferent to me, hence why I said aliens (but dunno if they were really aliens or maybe creations of the ancients to industrialize the water instead of keep using jars lol).

That's pretty much how I felt with this game, yeah.

Spoiler

I think they're a creation of the ancients - the little drones, android & proximity mines are all derived from the method used to harness the 'star' power which aluded to in the murals.

 

[CopperPuppy]

Would people recommend playing this in a single playthrough like Journey?

Curious about this as well. I don't game in really long sessions. Would it be better to split this up over two nights or is one sufficient for the whole thing?

 

[kyser73]

Curious about this as well. I don't game in really long sessions. Would it be better to split this up over two nights or is one sufficient for the whole thing?

Unless you go big on exploring or dawdling it should take about 2.5hrs - at least that was my first playthrough time.

 

[Appollowexx]

For me Abzu was a wonderful experience, with beautiful animations, art and atmosphere and I had more fun playing around in the ocean than I did traversing the landscapes of Journeys world. That said the game didn't have the narrative and emotional impact of Journey so I feel that game left a greater longer lasting impression. I did have more fun with Abzu though and think they compliment one another nicely.

I do agree with others and think the deep sea segments could have been handled slightly better as the first half of the game with the surface areas was incredible.

 

[Ferr986]

You can't not compare this to Journey. There are so many similarities that it feels like a sequel. Abzu has more of those jaw-dropping moments though. The game is beautiful, and the art direction and music are fantastic. I have a few issues with the game, but the biggest one is the story. It's a little vague and I think I understand what the game is communicating, but it just didn't land like I'd hoped. Journey was about something broader and felt more meaningful. When the title came up at the end of Abzu I kind of felt a little like "...that's it?".

I'll get into a little more detail with spoilers, but I just wanted to say that anyone checking out this thread who is curious about the game should definitely pick it up. I feel any negatives to the game are greatly outweighed by it's positive aspects, and I'm going to be a little more negative in my spoiler bit.

Before I go full on spoiler, did anyone else think the story was going to

Spoiler

parallel evolution and end with the character moving onto land? That scene where you climb out of the water you have salamanders and frogs, and you see birds flying around. You also start seeing prehistoric creatures at the point. I think it would have been more interesting compared to the story in the game.

Spoiler

Abzu has nothing like Journey's multiplayer to make it feel unique and special. Being able to swim is not enough. Considering you can leap out of the water, I feel it was a missed opportunity to do more with it. Not that I think this needed multiplayer. I like the isolation of it.

If I understand the story correctly, you shut down these dangerous machines created by that civilization to make the ocean a safer place for the sea life. Yes, you can compare it to what people have done to nature, but it feels much more meaningless than Journey's, well, journey of life.

Finally, the game does sort of feel like a (beautiful) husk of Journey. There are many copied elements. Ancient civilization making bad/evil machinery (complete with murals), slipstreams are like sand sliding, you travel literally deeper until you hit the darkest point of the story before climbing back out and higher up to the finale... I'm sure there's more, but with all of this added together it does feel like a lesser version of Journey to me.

Abzu, Flower and Journey spoilers

Spoiler

Jetstream areas are taken from Flower, more than Journey. They're really similar.

Same like areas where you avoid mines, the grey areas where you bring back fishes (instead of flowers in Flower) or even the final stage is more Flower than Journey, with the theme of destroying the machinery.

Journey's inspirations comes from (as you said) from the lore, and also that it's straight a journey from pont A to B.

Spoiler

I think they're a creation of the ancients - the little drones, android & proximity mines are all derived from the method used to harness the 'star' power which aluded to in the murals.

Spoiler

yep although I wonder, murals show the ancient with the sharks and they did build a lot of sharks like statues, but sharks are enemies to everything robot related. Guess ancienta fucked up and sharks got angry.

 

[dukie85]

Ohhh man.. The game and the music are both so relaxingly gorgeous. I love it.

 

[N° 2048]

Ohhh man.. The game and the music are both so relaxingly gorgeous. I love it.

Just started. 100% agreed.

Gonna do the full play through in one sitting.

 

[Static Veins]

Played and finished this in one sitting this morning. An amazing experience from beginning to end; filled me with the same feelings as playing Journey for the first time. And the soundtrack was once again stellar - Austin Wintory is an absolute god when it comes to scoring games like this.

Going to let that playthrough sit a while before jumping in for round two to get all of the trophies I think.

 

[Auctopus]

Reading this thread, thatgamecompany must be feeling pretty good getting praise for a game they didn't even make.

 

[ghibli99]

Reading this thread, thatgamecompany must be feeling pretty good getting praise for a game they didn't even make.

Well, there are a lot of streamers and media outlets using statements like "from the developer of Journey", which isn't literally a false statement, but most equate 'developer' with 'TGC' (instead of them saying more specifically 'art director').

 

[Palmer27]

I'm actually loving hearing that's it's an incredibly short game.

I think my 4 year old would love a game she can just swim around in.

I played it with my 4 year old sister - she loved it! She couldn't control the swimming - where as Journey she got the hang of traversal quite nicely. Lovely game to play with a 4 year old though

Before I go full on spoiler, did anyone else think the story was going to

Spoiler

parallel evolution and end with the character moving onto land? That scene where you climb out of the water you have salamanders and frogs, and you see birds flying around. You also start seeing prehistoric creatures at the point. I think it would have been more interesting compared to the story in the game.

I was expecting this too and was disappointed when the idea didn't go further

 

[HalfBakedProphet]

What I got for my first playthrough is

Spoiler

ancient civilization gather (magic?) water and creates the ¿sea?. The water creates life. Then ¿aliens? comes and use water to mass create robots (divers, that mini robots that follow you, you can see them being manufactured using water).

Then I guess there's some kind of conflict between them? There's murals about sharks, I guess they're like the guardians of the sea (that's why Sharkie goes ham against the robots).

I'm still not sure what's the purpose of the divers :/ Although I wonder if they're the "aliens" and not something created by them, because a diver already appears in the mural.

Really need to look for more clues on my next playthrough.

My probably-incorrect-theory is...

Spoiler

The ancient divers seen on the murals were alive and not robots; humans from a far off past. At the time of the creation of the murals we see in the game, they had a close, spiritual connect to the ocean and its creatures. Including the sharks, who were (and still are) the guardians and protectors of the ocean. The ocean itself was literally alive and the humans understood this.

The "alien" tech was created towards the end of the Ancient human civilization as a way to control and harvest resources from the ocean. The humans eventually had lost their spiritual connection to the sea creatures and only saw the ocean as an ends to a mean. After the humans died out (probably from the environmental destruction they had themselves caused) the technology kept propagating and growing based on its original programing. (kind of like in Soma)

The lone Diver we play as is a robot created in the image of the Ancient humans. This Diver has a "soul", same as the shark. My theory is the spirit of the ocean infused itself with the robot Diver as a means to destroy the old, harmful human technology and restore life to the ocean.

 

[Nbz]

Decided to compile my thoughts into a video review. First time doing one of these, hope it went ok

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OABd4R4qJR8

 

[tcrunch]

Not done with this yet, just finished a part where a shark

Spoiler

jammed itself into a giant metal triangle and blew up

.

I was reading upthread and someone described it as an interactive screensaver. That is my impression too. It's relaxing once you learn the controls, and has no traditional gameplay. It's like swimming through episodes of Blue Planet. Sometimes the bare texturing looks unreasonably flat/simple but mostly it works. The main character's anime eyes are creepy. Has nice music that is synced perfectly with each environment. I would wait for a sale price had I not bought it already, due to the lack of actual gameplay. I've not played Journey or Flower.

 

[Chronospherics]

I never understand the emotional payoff of Journey, I enjoyed the game as an art game but I didn't feel anything at the end. What were you supposed to feel, and why were you supposed to feel it? I guess I didn't get it.

I like this game more, because it has more freedom of movement and a greater degree of passive interaction with the environment (as in, when you go near things, they react).

 

[Karkador]

I'm gonna ruminate a bit on why this game is blowing my fucking mind.

When I was a kid, I went over to someone's house and they showed me one of those interactive CD-ROM encyclopedias about ocean life - the type with videos playing off the disc, with sound and everything (pretty crazy in an era before DVD). I grew up near the ocean, so ocean life was everywhere in my childhood - family trips, field trips, school lessons, food, etc. Even then, the thing I witnessed that day was so impressive, because at the time it was immediately immersive and explorable like nothing before it. That milestone moment for me in computers is marked by the ocean.

So it's a pretty nostalgic feeling for me, playing ABZU and feeling an incredible sense of immersion into the ocean again. It's an understatement to say the game looks good - it's one of the most technically impressive games I've ever seen, and that's before considering the great art direction. Some of the things I've seen in this game (and I have yet to finish it), it's almost hard to fathom. It seems like unprecedented, landmark videogame stuff. It's taking me back to all those times I've seen games and computer software leap forward - and again, the occasion is marked by the ocean.

I played Journey several times and enjoyed it, but I don't agree with the comments that ABZU is not as "moving" as Journey. ABZU's context is that the life and splendor is (mostly) our real world, just often unseen. It's a "holy shit" realization, again and again, that I didn't get from Journey.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Yup, I've been sharing like crazy too. lol

What's your Twitter name? I thought I had you added.

@EnigmaSG1

 

[Afro]

Just started, beautiful! Love the breach animation.

edit

 

[Goldrusher]

This quick screenshot came out nicely...

 

 

[Deckard Chapel]

Did it in one sitting yesterday. Enjoyed it more than Journey even.

Same here.

I love the ocean. This game gives you such a feeling of joy and love for the ocean and in reality, I would never get remotely near a shark, a whale or anything larger than a dog - but this game soothes those fears away and makes you want to connect with everything in the ocean.

This game has got me looking at diving lessons.

Me too! There's a place about 30 minutes away from where I live that offers diving lessons. It's an old quarry that's been converted into a giant, artificial ocean environment. The only thing that makes me apprehensive is that I've heard that there's no actual bottom - there's a crevice that they've not been able to get to the bottom of. That gives me the fear LOL!

Yeah, deep sea should have been pitch black, with only your light. Also disappointing.

Agreed.

Collector's Edition maybe? They could add new levels to extend the experience - I would buy it!

Thanks to Deckard Chapel for the awesome OT!

You are very welcome!

Would people recommend playing this in a single playthrough like Journey?

Yes!

It's like swimming through episodes of Blue Planet.

Very good analogy!

I'm gonna ruminate a bit on why this game is blowing my fucking mind.

When I was a kid, I went over to someone's house and they showed me one of those interactive CD-ROM encyclopedias about ocean life - the type with videos playing off the disc, with sound and everything (pretty crazy in an era before DVD). I grew up near the ocean, so ocean life was everywhere in my childhood - family trips, field trips, school lessons, food, etc. Even then, the thing I witnessed that day was so impressive, because at the time it was immediately immersive and explorable like nothing before it. That milestone moment for me in computers is marked by the ocean.

So it's a pretty nostalgic feeling for me, playing ABZU and feeling an incredible sense of immersion into the ocean again. It's an understatement to say the game looks good - it's one of the most technically impressive games I've ever seen, and that's before considering the great art direction. Some of the things I've seen in this game (and I have yet to finish it), it's almost hard to fathom. It seems like unprecedented, landmark videogame stuff. It's taking me back to all those times I've seen games and computer software leap forward - and again, the occasion is marked by the ocean.

I played Journey several times and enjoyed it, but I don't agree with the comments that ABZU is not as "moving" as Journey. ABZU's context is that the life and splendor is (mostly) our real world, just often unseen. It's a "holy shit" realization, again and again, that I didn't get from Journey.

I was the same as a child. The ocean always held a special fascination for me and it still does.

 

[DedValve]

Kind of mad I didn't pre-order this to get that sweet theme when I ended up buying it yesterday anyways.

Think I'm near the end. Man this game is stunningly beautiful. What I'd give to have an open ocean just to explore to my heart contents but I can see myself replaying this. Glad I bought it!

 

[Ferr986]

I never understand the emotional payoff of Journey, I enjoyed the game as an art game but I didn't feel anything at the end. What were you supposed to feel, and why were you supposed to feel it? I guess I didn't get it.

I like this game more, because it has more freedom of movement and a greater degree of passive interaction with the environment (as in, when you go near things, they react).

Feels are like assholes, everyone has their own lol

Really, I had and absolutely feeling of wonder and joy when I finished Journey, but everyone have different feels. For example, I found the ending extremely happy, while I did read some people found it sad.

For me it was the latest segment

Spoiler

it was like a rollercoaster of emotions. Take in mind that, unlike Abzu, Journey happens mostly in a desert, so the absolutely change of scenery in the last area makes a bigger impact than usual.

I think having nothing do to other than fly around in the last area of Journey works. You've been through hell on your Journey and you defeated the odds of the prophecy telling that you would die at the mountain, so just flying around Paradise (the last area feels pretty much like a pre Paradise area) felt like a rewarding experience. Then add the scenery+music dynamism was simply perfect.

And the ending was the best the game could have IMO. Your Journey literally ends with a new one, walking to the light, a new journey through afterlife/rebirth.

Even the credits felt powerful to me, with the vocal music and your rising star going through all of your journey (while you see other journeyes doing the same path like you).

Every thing I said it's the result why it felt emotional to me, although as I said, this varies to person.

Abzu has a cool final area, but it's more about going through old looking areas defeating machines in arena rooms. And the credits were pretty static. It's still have an incredible art direction and a powerful scenery of nature defeating technology, but there was nothing that i could connect with like the journeyer in Journey.

But Abzu is a different experience at the end. It's more about the wonders of the sea. Abzu has a stronger path, while Journey has a stronger destination (because well, that's the point of that game lol).