Fish react to you as you move along, swimming alongside you, and each area is crammed with an almost unrealistic amount of creatures. The wildlife of Abzu is quite possibly its strongest feature, alongside the gorgeous watercolor artstyle. Collectible shells dot the world, while small pools can be activated by your diver, thrusting more ocean life into your current area. Certain points in the world even allow you to meditate, and focus on the wildlife, switching between them as they go about their daily routine. There is a huge emphasis on the different species of fish, and you have the ability to ride larger animals like whales or sharks. While these parts are few and far between, their controls feel awkward for how used to swimming you’ve become. Without spoiling anything, later on in the game there are a few quick sections that involve your character walking on land. The jet stream sections of the game are by far the most enjoyable, with your diver speeding along through tunnels and corridors, with fish wriggling all around them. There are plenty of beautiful areas, and a staggering amount of fish and ocean life, but this lack of gameplay leaves Abzu feeling a little hollow. However, the main draw of Abzu really is peacefully floating through a gorgeous oceanscape. There’s a few light, and I mean light, puzzle-solving elements like hitting switches or finding a small robot to open a path for you. Unfortunately, most of Abzu’s gameplay boils down to one thing: swimming.
The game is basically split into two different sections of gameplay – one where you’re free roaming around a small area, exploring and solving some very light puzzles the second has you traveling down a jet stream at high speed in order to reach another open area. Journey had some smart puzzles and platforming weaved in between its mysterious story and world, but Abzu’s setting holds it back by restricting the player’s speed and options for movement. While Abzu does try to emulate Journey in both its look and feel, it just can’t stand up to it gameplay-wise. R2 swims forward, while X gives you a speed boost, square lets you interact with objects, and circle is some kind of strange roll that I never really found a use for. Abzu’s controls are simple the left stick controls your diver going up, down, and every other direction. Your diver doesn’t necessarily move slow, but for how large some of the areas in the game are, it’s slower than you’d like. Underwater sequences in games are tough to nail, regardless of an entire game being set underwater. The act of doing that is a beautiful thing, making the dark and desolated areas vibrant and filled with life. This turns out to be the main goal of Abzu – traveling to four of these areas and rejuvinating the plants and ocean life of each. There’s a single pool of water at the bottom, that takes you to some kind of ethereal realm where your diver can use some kind of power inside themselves to regenerate the ocean life of the previous area. As you travel through a picturesque ocean environment absolutely packed with fish and underwater creatures, eventually you happen upon an area filled with darkness where everything looks dead. Like Journey, though, there are no spoken words in the game, only images. This ambiguous storytelling remains throughout the experience, with the game giving you bits and pieces of imagery and context here and there.
The small robotic looking diver you play as wakes up in the middle of the ocean, there’s no explanation how or why, all you know is you need to swim forward. Much like Journey, Abzu begins abrubtly, dropping players into the role of an enigmatic character, who’s seemingly on some kind of important quest or mission. It definitely has some gorgeous and memorable moments, but stumbles in a few places along the way. Abzu takes a page directly out of Journey’s book, trying to emulate the experience players had, but this time with an underwater setting. They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, but that may not always be true.
In 2012 the indie game Journey was released, wowing players with its gorgeous sand-strewn and evocative story and soundtrack.