Originally published on tumblr (7/28/17)
In an effort to trim down my backlog, I’m going to make more of an effort to get through as many games and give them their 15 minutes of playtime. Abzu was one I got back in a Humble Bundle but never got around to playing. I was a little more intrigued in it after finding out that the art director was the art director for Journey as well, and that certainly shows. However, the comparisons to Journey don’t stop there as Abzu tries to go for the same visual storytelling that Journey does.
Story
The opening shot of the game takes you through the ocean, diving from surface into the depths, past schools of fish darting by, until you end on a bright ball of reddish light. After that is a cut to your character. Because I won’t be able to stop making comparisons to Journey, similar to Journey you start the game as a lone, isolated figure out in the middle of a vast wilderness. In this case, instead of an elegant Jawa in the desert, you are a faceless diver in the middle of the ocean. There isn’t much more setup to that but there are small hints as to the world the game takes place in.
First is the establishment of technology. The diver’s kit has a sleek, modern feel to it reinforced both by the flashlights that turn on in dark environments and a pinging feature that activates when you try to go off the beaten path. A few minutes into the game you run into what looks like a small drone that jets around, beeping and lighting up.
Second is the establishment of an otherworldly/ethereal plane. As the diver you pass through a bright portal that takes you to this vast, violet black environment with bright beams of energy and light that are emitted from a nearby pedestal. Beyond that, there are glimpses of a previous civilization etched into hieroglyphs on stone walls found throughout the first area. Their design is similar to that of the diver, so there will mostly be an attachment drawn later in the game.
Similar to Journey.
As my interest was kind of starting to flag around the 12 minute point, the game did manage to pick up by bringing back an established creature to eat up the drone and showing more of the ancient technology in the background. Hopefully more of these moments are peppered appropriately throughout the game.
Mechanics
The swimming feels very nice and fluid (ayyy), and you move appropriately slow for the first area at least. There is a latch on mechanic where you can travel holding onto larger fish but that appears to be for more of a scenic ride than any faster movement. The swimming felt a little finnicky at first but after setting the controls from Inverted to Normal it was much easier to settle into.
X allows you to ping and interact, but the pinging doesn’t really come into play until you meet your drone who simply chirps the same number of beeps in response.
Finding statues allows you to “meditate” which effectively lets you track the camera on any nearby fish. The first statue, and presumably every statue afterwards, is placed in a well-lit area with plenty variety of fish to keep track of.
Unlike Journey, ABZU seems to rely a little more heavily on the visuals to keep the player interested rather than small game mechanics. Even in the beginning of the game, your ability as the player in Journey to play a small gliding and hopping game with the scarf and interact with a large amount of the environment keeps the player far more engaged than looking at, admittedly gorgeous, scenery.
Aesthetics
The visual style of ABZU is very clearly it’s strongest aspect. The sleek shapes, bright vibrant colors, and excellent use of lighting/shading to establish mood and tone offer consistently gorgeous panoramic views. Unlike Journey, however, the game seems to center its visuals around discrete areas rather than setting up a series of scripted events and establishing what can be thought of as a painting in motion.
Technology
Abzu offers another somewhat related surprise in that it shows just how capable Unreal is towards creating minimalistic colorful graphics. I suppose that may just be a bias I have towards thinking of Unity as largely having games capable of this sort of aesthetic but titles like Abzu and Gigantic prove otherwise.
The game handles incredibly smoothly with no loading times, or rather loading times that are hidden by the scenery (similar to Journey). Excellent use of pathfinding and AI in the fishes to create a wonderful replication of underwater life.
All in all, an interesting game but Journey does everything it does and better. Abzu is certainly gorgeous looking but I can’t help but feels there’s just too much of a disconnect with me as the player and what my character is doing on screen.
Kyle Learns to Write Good 