PaigeFTW: ‘ABZU’ Review: An aquatic daydream
You can always pick out the “artsy” games in an instant: minimalist, wordless adventures with barely clarified controls, plots and menus.
And ABZU, released last week for PC and PlayStation 4, which finds you as a nameless, voiceless diver traversing a wide, wonderful ocean packed with sea life and unexplained mysteries, fits the mold established by titles like Flower and Journey perfectly. It’s a little slip of a game, barely more than 2-3 hours from start to finish if you power through. Even having finished it, I don’t really know what the game is about, precisely (saving the ocean?), but damn, if I didn’t enjoy it.
I just felt … so at peace while playing. The diver never moves faster than a cool, languid crawl, but you never felt impatient to swim faster. The ocean teems with wildlife — everything from luminescent jellyfish to massive blue whales — that just swim around you. You’re part of the landscape — none of the wildlife, not even the sharks, is interested in eating you.
Without overt conflict, you’re left with just … exploring. You’ll be swimming through the thick kelp forests, wiggling through crevices, even flashing a single faint light down through the dark sea abysses. You’ll find fish you recognize, and some you don’t. You can even sit and meditate and watch them swim and eat one another.
It’s a game that knows the joy of doing nothing and hones it to a fine point.
Of course, it has flaws: the controls are, at times, a bit clumsy when it comes to more precise navigation, and the title’s insistence on minimalism makes it obtuse towards the end, when its unspoken plot points start to coalesce.
But these are all minor quibbles in light of the quiet wonder of ABZU’s coral reefs, hidden caverns and seaweed forests. It’s a little moment of aquatic zen, transported to your TV.
