While there are plenty of dangerous creatures swimming around the depths there is no death or fail-state in Abzu.
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Their use seems limited to cutting away webbing that blocks your way to the next area or acting as shark bait. You can also uncover and activate numerous little robots that will follow you around. There are 12 of these statues in the game and you can mediate on each of them while scanning the surrounding area and locating all the clusters of various undersea creatures. In each area there are discoverable items such as fountains that spill forth a new species of fish as well as the numerous hidden conch shells and of course, the giant shark statues. The game is divided into four main areas along with an opening and ending section that are all environmentally themed and contain some fairly simplistic puzzles required to proceed to each new chapter. Of course those craving to uncover all the hidden secrets submerged beneath the depths can add another two hours to that estimate. There are no real quests or objectives aside from making it to the end, which can be easily done in 2-3 hours if you plow through. Of course that’s assuming we are even on Earth, but seeing as how the developers have gone to great lengths to include and call out by name a majority of known sea life, that’s a safe bet.Ībzu isn’t as much as game as it is an adventure of discovery. Even by the end of the game there are no clear-cut answers only possibilities that you may be the sole survivor of some ancient alien race somehow linked to the Egyptians. Our genderless hero could even be an alien. The rest of your attire could be a wetsuit of sorts, a suspicion backed up by a pair of elongated swim fins…assuming that’s not his/her real anatomy. You are this mysterious and strange looking swimmer wearing something that looks like a helmet that contains a black face and cat-like eyes. Much like Journey, Abzu begins with no introduction and no story relevance. Juxtaposed against the desolate barrenness of the desert, Abzu is a world teeming with life, both plant and aquatic, yet somehow manages to instill that same level of character/player isolation throughout most of its four-hour run.
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You're not treated as a tourist but as part of its world-and for a little while, you feel at one with the ocean.If anyone was wondering why the classic PS3 game, Journey was so dry and sandy we can blame art director and Giant Squid studio founder, Matt Nava who was apparently hoarding ALL the water for use in his new game Abzu. It transports you to one of the few wild and mysterious places left on this planet, and embraces its strange and wonderful nature. It's the story of a diver discovering where they came from, but instead of telling us with words, Abzu makes you feel like you belong. This underwater empire makes you feel like you're a part of its world.
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There's a sense you're directly influencing the world around you, and a strong connection is built. Dolphins, manta rays, whale sharks, manatees, jellyfish, and more besides will interact with you in different ways. Trees of kelp will sway in reaction to you gliding through, and if you rush past a school of fish they'll disperse in a flurry of colour. This thriving underwater community completely embraces you as every fish and plant directly responds to your movements.
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Abzu's world actually feels like it's a full simulation of a real-life ecosystem, contained on your screen. There are hundreds of different species to gaze at, each one having its own set of rules to follow. The way the fish look, move, and interact is how they would in real marine ecosystem environments, making them captivating to watch.
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The world has vibrant energy because it's in a constant state of movement. The fish and plants in Abzu have all been programmed to follow sets of procedural rules that make them as life-like as possible.