Maybe you'll find other "paintings" you will actually like and there isn't a problem with false expectations in the future. If you can't appreciate the "painting" you can walk through, then there is nothing else for you to find. It is quite clear that Abzu isn't like that. If you expected game mechanics like somekind of challenging movement, levels and even some enemies you were misguided by something else. Then I think of Soma which lacks in-depth game mechanics as well but its focus is on narrative, atmosphere, creating an authentic universe and story-line and some puzzles which fit to the overall story. Games which are focued on game mechanics, games which are focused on narrative, games which are focused on atmosphere and graphics, even more and a mix out of it all.Ībzu is game which is focused on atmosphere, artstyle and the emotions which it can transfer to you. What did you expected? No, seriously what was your expectation? I left this experience quite bored, despite the fact that the game is under three hours in length, simply because there isn’t anything really to do in it but swim around and look at fish while going through a linear experience. There’s some achievements, but they’re all pretty trivial apart from the collectibles ones.Īnd… that’s it, really. There’s some collectibles, but they’re nothing really interesting, and certainly aren’t challenging, just being “spot the object” throughout the whole game (and if you miss one, good luck figuring out which one – I missed at least one of each on my playthrough of the game, but I certainly can’t be bothered to play through the whole game again to find them). The controls are functional but not very good – you can flip your character entirely around while swimming, but you can’t flip your camera entirely around, which makes for some awkwardness. That’s… really the core of the game, as far as I can tell, trying to look pretty, but it isn’t really anything special in that regard. Mostly, the game exists so you swim around and look at the stylized fish and whales and other things swimming around you. What little “plot” there is happens entirely within the last three chapters, and isn’t terribly interesting. The game doesn’t have any real story to speak of – there is no speech or text inside the game. What this game really lacks is… much of anything, really. Sometimes, when the game is going really crazy, there will be TWO such objects. There are a few “puzzles” which consist of “follow the power lines/chains from the gate to an object, then press the use key on the object to open the door”.
However, there is very little actual gameplay to be had here there are, in principle, hazards, but in practice, they can’t actually hurt you, just stun you momentarily they provide no barrier to your progress.
Rather than walk, you swim your way through the game. You play as a nameless diver and swim through a linear underwater environment towards the end of the game.