ABZU

An astonishing, relaxing and beautifully crafted experience. It's not as thrilling as it pretends, but is able to link us with the ocean the same way Journey linked us with total strangers.

If you go into Abzû knowing what to expect, you won’t be disappointed. Few games have such capacity to draw the player in with beautiful artistic direction and subtle environmental storytelling alone.

For me, Abzu came off as beautiful, but empty. And while it certainly had parts I loved and would revisit, its entirety as a package was overall lacking.

Abzû successfully copies the most important and much-loved features of Journey, but it misses that polish to make it just as memorable as Journey.

Scouring Abzu's marine paradise opens an argument for emotive communication and softened storytelling. Too often, however, Abzu is less a defense of its beliefs and more a negotiation out of a cornered medium.

I did enjoy being in the water, but I can't help but feel the beautiful visuals and music were jamming pictures of places and emotions in my face instead of earnestly telling a compelling story. There's an unshakeable air of falsity about Abzû. As a treat to the senses, however, it's hard to beat.

I don't even know if I'd necessarily recommend ABZÛ even if I did enjoy it. It's one of those games where you have to list a ton of caveats off when discussing, to the point where many people will be turned off. But if you regularly partake in walking (swimming?) simulators and artistic endeavors merely for aesthetic value, it might be worth the...ahem...dive.

Audio-visually this is a gem. An atmospheric composition of sounds and images that reminds you of Journey. But storytelling, mechanics and exploration are not nearly as elaborate as in the PlayStation classic.

Abzu is clearly a labor of love, but its heart is missing. It has all the trappings of a universe that we long to inhabit, which makes the lack of depth all the more bewildering. By introducing intriguing images and wonderfully strange encounters, we are invited into a fascinating world. The problem is that it's never clear what we are there to accomplish. Plunging into Abzu is ideal if you're there for the scenery, but not so much if you're looking for more.

When it tries to be something beyond an aquarium, Abzu is as inscrutably intricate as a black light poster from your neighborhood head shop. That’s not necessarily a criticism. Besides, sharks really are misunderstood.

Giant Squid Studios clearly wants Abzu to be as evocative of an experience as Journey, and while I enjoyed how calming it was, I ultimately found myself unsatisfied after my three-hour playthrough. The game’s world and setting is incredibly beautiful and atmospheric, but there just isn’t enough meat to the game to really sate your hunger.

A disappointingly direct copy of Journey that offers an incredible audio and visual treat, but lacks the deeper meaning of the original.

Does beauty alone justify a game? Can the novelty of swimming through majestic oceans teeming with life overcome an otherwise fairly by-the-numbers experience that never quite achieves the creative heights it so earnestly aspires to? I suppose that's down to the player, but as much as I wanted to love Abzû, the end result fell just short of brilliance. It's worth playing for the incredible presentation, but don't expect something profoundly new here.

In the best sense, it’s a game for tourists more than travelers.