ABZU, a relaxing underwater journey with some drops of anxiety.
I don’t typically play games that deal with open water because I’ve got a phobia of it, but sometimes I’ll give them a try just because they look go and seem to be something I can handle.
ABZU is certainly no Subnautica in the sense that there’s no sea creatures coming to get you, even if the great white does seem intimidating.
TRIGGER WARNING: Open water, some flashing lights
Where can you buy?
- Available on Humble Bundle
- Available on PlayStation
- Available on Switch
- Available on Xbox
Pros:
- Ride some of the animals
- Meditate and learn names
- Beautiful environments
- Nice soundtrack
Cons:
- Controls take a bit to learn
Explanation to Negative Feedback
Controls take a bit to learn
It’s not a huge con, because this isn’t the first game I’ve played with swimming in water, and for some reason, swimming in water is so much more complicated than walking on land. You try to go up and you end up doing backflips, which is cool, but we need to go up.
My controls were inverted at first so I had to fix it. But as normal controls, it was still messing with my head.
But once you get the hang of movement in water, it doesn’t become as difficult.
Explanation to Positive Feedback
Ride some of the animals
For the most part, I think it’s creatures that you can free that become the larger wildlife that you’re able to hold onto and ride. Obviously you can’t ride smaller fish, but even when you’re riding something, you can’t control where they go.
You can do a flip with them, though!
Meditate and learn names
I love the fact that you can meditate on statues that look like sharks (you’ll need to use your sonar on them) and from there, scroll from one variety of fish to another and learn their names in the lower right corner of the screen. A lot of the wildlife I knew of, but a lot of them I had no clue.
Thus is the mystery of the depths, right?
You can also learn names of the aquatic life from freeing animals from “burrows” with your sonar. Super nifty.
Beautiful environments
Some environments are so peaceful and tranquil looking, and then you have the environments that really makes you nervous when you see them, such as with the environmental hazards or even the fact that there’s a shark crossing your path.
Honestly, nothing can technically kill you in the game, and there’s only a handful of sections that provide hazards. I mean, even those areas are really well done.
Nice soundtrack
For such a seemingly simplistic game, the soundtrack is on a much more grand scheme of things. It’s epic and instrumental, and I swear I just swam around areas for longer than I needed just to listen to more of it.
I can’t say for sure if the instrumental play fits the mood of all areas of the game, but for the most part, it was certainly background pleasure no matter what area I loitered in.
Unfortunately, there’s no DLC of the soundtrack, which surprised me.
If you enjoyed the music, it was created by Austin Wintory.
Links Worth Checking Out
- Nothing here
Achievements
- Arctic Explorer
- Ballet
- Breach
- Collector
- Connection
- Ecosystem
- Food Chain
- Jetstream
- Kraken
- Leviathan
- Reflection
- Zen Master
