Game review: mesmerising and artistic, Abzu finds endless depths under the waves
After the award-winning success of his earlier work Journey, developer Matt Nava has gone underwater for beautiful and contemplative game Abzu
Abzu
Giant Squid
4.5 stars
The beauty of our world is without parallel, that almost goes without saying (although some of you basement dwellers I’m sure would disagree), but there’s no doubt that if any medium is ever to rival or replicate it in the future, it’ll be video games.
AR, VR – recreating “reality” might be the surface-level key word to entice the masses, but it’s more about enlarging our experiences, pushing boundaries to a point where it both resembles our real world, but also expands horizons.
It might be a while until that future is fully embraced, but Abzu will no doubt stand as a precursor to that stimulating potential. Available for the PC and PS4, on the surface the game is nothing more than an ocean diving simulator, a stress-free experience that has you swimming through magical, stunning underwater worlds populated with incredible deep-sea life. And for the most part, that’s about it – and if that were all there was to it, we’d still wholeheartedly recommend the game.