ABZU Reveiw

ABZU

PS4, PC

Giant Squid Games

5/5 Stars

             ABZU is one of those games that cannot be easily described.  In my Youtube video I described ABZU as a exploration game.  Which it is, but there is more to it than that.  There are lots of secrets in ABZU.  The depths of which may or may not be apparent to the average person watching videos on Youtube, Twitch, etc…  The problem with this is that the game is not exactly a slow burn in all things.  It can take as long as you are willing to move.  But if you move straight to the end like an arrow; you will be missing almost all of the game.  I would venture that the faster you move through the game the less of the game you see.  I would say that the critical path, if you can say that there is ACTUALLY a critical path.  The game will probably obfuscate around 60% of itself.  If this is the kind of game you like, underwater exploration, make sure you do a through job of exploration.

 

       If you don’t like underwater exploration then this game will probably be a pass for you.  There is something else in there of course.  But not enough for you to appreciate if you don’t like this sort of thing.  I really loved this part of the game myself.  I could have scarcely imagined a better game than the one Giant Squid put together here.  I really loved riding all of the large undersea life; the game gives you an incredible mix of control or lack there of in many cases.

         ABZU does work as more than an undersea exploration game.  But without the exploration there really is very little point in playing.  It took me slightly less than two hours to complete the game.  Not finding all the secrets and not in some cases doing a very good job of exploration.  I will probably play 90% of the all the way through at least one more time to pick everything else up.  There is a chapter select once you finish the game, so you can move back through previous sections to get secrets and find anything else you might have missed.  Which considering I’m missing two hidden trophies, I’m guessing I missed something big.

         By this point you can probably imagine that I REALLY like this game.  I would say that not only do I really love this game it is definitely in the top 5 of my games for this year.  I would say that you should buy the game for either PS4 or PC.  That’s about all I can say without unnecessarily spoiling anything for you.