Deckard Chapel
Banned
So far they only list it for the PS4.
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ABZÛ |OT| A Journey into an ocean of wisdom
- Thread starter Deckard Chapel
- Start date
So far they only list it for the PS4.
FINALLY finished this game after proceeding through it an absolute
snail's pace. What an amazing little journey it was, no pun intended.
While I have a couple of small criticisms, it did what it set out to do so well that I can't really fault the overall experience. The music and visuals obviously speak for themselves so I won't harp on that, but I will praise the unobtrusiveness of the game itself - it never put you in situations that were stressful or ran counter to the overall mood of the environments.
I did, however, take some issue with the abundance of sections (especially later on) that took away degrees of control from the player - namely the on-rails swimming sections that funnel you from one open area to the next. In a game so focused on the freedom of movement and the beauty of its setting, I don't think pushing the player forward in a one-directional manner was always the best move. I understand at some point they have to cut you off, but I would have preferred if it only happened in the ruined mosaic sections that capped each chapter. Oftentimes exploring a foot or two in the wrong direction would kick off a sequence that, while beautiful, sealed you off from returning the way you came.
In a similar vein, I did feel that the later chapters were the weakest in terms of scenery and sense of space, as well. In the beginning the transitions felt very organic, and you could freely swim around just observing the aquatic life. Later, levels led to one another through increasingly game-like and contrived situations, seemingly more concerned with showing you the path rather than letting you explore on your own.
Again though, these criticisms are minor and on the whole the game is extremely unique and worth experiencing, if for nothing else than its soundtrack and a few truly sublime moments. It's certainly something I'll return to, maybe in the dead of winter or after an exhausting and terrible day.
sea
While I have a couple of small criticisms, it did what it set out to do so well that I can't really fault the overall experience. The music and visuals obviously speak for themselves so I won't harp on that, but I will praise the unobtrusiveness of the game itself - it never put you in situations that were stressful or ran counter to the overall mood of the environments.
I did, however, take some issue with the abundance of sections (especially later on) that took away degrees of control from the player - namely the on-rails swimming sections that funnel you from one open area to the next. In a game so focused on the freedom of movement and the beauty of its setting, I don't think pushing the player forward in a one-directional manner was always the best move. I understand at some point they have to cut you off, but I would have preferred if it only happened in the ruined mosaic sections that capped each chapter. Oftentimes exploring a foot or two in the wrong direction would kick off a sequence that, while beautiful, sealed you off from returning the way you came.
In a similar vein, I did feel that the later chapters were the weakest in terms of scenery and sense of space, as well. In the beginning the transitions felt very organic, and you could freely swim around just observing the aquatic life. Later, levels led to one another through increasingly game-like and contrived situations, seemingly more concerned with showing you the path rather than letting you explore on your own.
Again though, these criticisms are minor and on the whole the game is extremely unique and worth experiencing, if for nothing else than its soundtrack and a few truly sublime moments. It's certainly something I'll return to, maybe in the dead of winter or after an exhausting and terrible day.
Deckard Chapel
Banned
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Beat it last night. Good game. Probably like a 8/10 for me. Great music and art. Only wish the story was slightly more clear. That and some online component like Journey would have made it perfect.
Oh well, I have PS4 too so I could double dip...
Deckard Chapel
Banned
I'm hoping they add things to the physical edition like extra levels, content, etc.
Maybe it will be the Special/Collector's Edition that Matt Nava mentioned!
tell me they are planning a first person/vr mode. i will pay $30 again for that. this is the only thing missing from making it my perfect/ideal/dream game.
Deckard Chapel
Banned
A first-person mode or a VR mode would make this game incredible!
A good game though I really do think its aping Journey a bit too much. Even the "story" felt very similar even if there are differences. The overall progression of everything and even visually it felt similar but of course underwater instead of a dessert.
Its weird but I rarely ever say this but man this game would have been great if it was open world or had some more gamey aspects to it. I loved the laid back feeling and the focus on just exploring, meditating and so on but man this is the kind of game with the right tweaks and additions could be like the next Echo the Dolphin.
Its weird but I rarely ever say this but man this game would have been great if it was open world or had some more gamey aspects to it. I loved the laid back feeling and the focus on just exploring, meditating and so on but man this is the kind of game with the right tweaks and additions could be like the next Echo the Dolphin.
Finished grabbing all the goods and trophies, was fun playing through the chapters again but it's kind of a reminder of how painfully short the game is, even if you take the time to stop and appreciate everything. Steep price for a game that is short and has little actual gameplay, but it sure is the prettiest thing I've ever seen.
Just grabbed this game and oh my, haven't been impressed with a game in a while. Props to the composer/s, love hearing all the different woodwinds and the choir in the nexus is a beaut. My only complaint so far is the transition to the pause menu is a bit jarring because of the music. A fade out I think would make it a lot nicer.
Got it yesterday for PC and my reaction after few opening minutes would be:
How?? It looks fucking a-m-a-z-i-n-g! I can only imagine what will i see later. What developers did here is really special.
Abzulutely gorgeous
Has that joke been made?
Deckard Chapel
Banned
NeoRaider
Member
I finished it in 3 hours and i can say that... it was a nice experience. But sadly that's all. I wasn't blown away, and there wasn't one scene/part of the game that i will remember in few days.
Don't get me wrong, game is not bad it's just that i expected little more maybe, something to happen... and it didn't. Ending was also nothing special.
Graphics are amazing! Game can be so beautiful in some scenes and music was also very good, tho. i felt like audio was very LQ for some reason, it's sounds heavily compressed or something.
Don't get me wrong, game is not bad it's just that i expected little more maybe, something to happen... and it didn't. Ending was also nothing special.
Graphics are amazing! Game can be so beautiful in some scenes and music was also very good, tho. i felt like audio was very LQ for some reason, it's sounds heavily compressed or something.
jim2point0
Banned
Sometimes the number of fish on display boggles my mind.
Damn, great pics!
Hope this get patch with HDR support.
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
Gave this a one-session first playthrough today after buying in the Steam sale and came away very impressed. Amazing graphics and art design. Atmosphere and music were fantastic as well. I'll definitely play again as I'm sure I missed a lot as I only found about half the meditation spots.
Stoffinator
Member
Just got an update for this game. It includes Pro enhancements.
Version 1.01
PlayStation 4 Pro Support and enhancements.
Meditation mode UI update which includes fading out cinematic black bars for better scene viewing experience.
Fixed various minor issues in levels, collision and controls.
Sadly I was hoping for HDR support.
Version 1.01
PlayStation 4 Pro Support and enhancements.
Meditation mode UI update which includes fading out cinematic black bars for better scene viewing experience.
Fixed various minor issues in levels, collision and controls.
Sadly I was hoping for HDR support.
Nice to see there is Pro support (although i don't have a Pro). I wonder what it adds to the game. Also, it's nice you can remove the black bars during meditation. I went through the game twice but i feel i'll revisit it again sometime in the future. It's a rather lovely experience. I can't wait to see what Giant Squid does next.
Via Purifico
Banned
Game looks good but the framerate hasn't really improved, there are still some large dips in the final area
https://youtu.be/ppjrmZ6_VFo
https://youtu.be/ppjrmZ6_VFo
Jelle
Member
I wanted to revisit this game after completing it a few months ago, but then I discovered it doesn't have cloud save and I lost my save. Does anyone have a 100% complete save file? It should be in %LOCALAPPDATA%\AbzuGame\Saved\SaveGames\
/edit: got a save from a fellow member, thanks!
/edit: got a save from a fellow member, thanks!
Picked it up and I'm at the second to last area according to the meditation screen.
I knew it was going to be a short game but I feel like they dropped the ball a bit. I was expecting more awesome areas like the first few to swim around in...but not all the areas are that good.
It also reminded me of flower with its on-rail sections and how it goes through this lame loop between new areas.... that kinda sucked really. There are like 4 nice areas I like swimming around in but at least 30% of the game didn't feel as creative as the rest of it and wasn't a satisfying experience going through it.
Had great expectations after the first 30 minutes which I enjoyed greatly, but the more I played to find new awesome areas to soak in the visuals, the more I felt the game rushing me to an ending in a linear and repetitive way, without delivering those new areas I wanted, instead trying to focus on some weird story-telling...which wasn't why I was playing the game but seemed to occupy too much of the short content.
Maybe the last section is an ocean utopia....I hope so. If not I'll still replay the game sometime because where it's good it's really a great experience and works fantastically. I just wish more of it was like that without the bits in-between.
I might have rushed the second half too much, looking for nicer areas than where I was previously...but only because there were some stellar areas in the first half and I wasn't getting that same feeling as I progressed later.
Got it in the sale and am happy with the purchase as there are great moments and it's really different... but I think I was expecting a bit more of those moments.
I knew it was going to be a short game but I feel like they dropped the ball a bit. I was expecting more awesome areas like the first few to swim around in...but not all the areas are that good.
It also reminded me of flower with its on-rail sections and how it goes through this lame loop between new areas.... that kinda sucked really. There are like 4 nice areas I like swimming around in but at least 30% of the game didn't feel as creative as the rest of it and wasn't a satisfying experience going through it.
Had great expectations after the first 30 minutes which I enjoyed greatly, but the more I played to find new awesome areas to soak in the visuals, the more I felt the game rushing me to an ending in a linear and repetitive way, without delivering those new areas I wanted, instead trying to focus on some weird story-telling...which wasn't why I was playing the game but seemed to occupy too much of the short content.
Maybe the last section is an ocean utopia....I hope so. If not I'll still replay the game sometime because where it's good it's really a great experience and works fantastically. I just wish more of it was like that without the bits in-between.
I might have rushed the second half too much, looking for nicer areas than where I was previously...but only because there were some stellar areas in the first half and I wasn't getting that same feeling as I progressed later.
Got it in the sale and am happy with the purchase as there are great moments and it's really different... but I think I was expecting a bit more of those moments.
TheMissingLink
Member
Fun little game! I hate comparing it to Journey and Flower, but have to, and it probably is the lowest of those.
I played these games in order, so Flower had a special place in my heart. And Journey blew me away...
I guess this game felt like a natural continuation of those games. I liked the story the least with Abzu, but absolutely appreciate the detail and work that went into creating this world.
The music, also, was stellar.
I played these games in order, so Flower had a special place in my heart. And Journey blew me away...
I guess this game felt like a natural continuation of those games. I liked the story the least with Abzu, but absolutely appreciate the detail and work that went into creating this world.
The music, also, was stellar.
Zomba13
Member
Finished this a few days ago and wanted to gush about it but couldn't find the thread. I loved it. Such a beautiful game too, all those fish... I think I'd put this up there with Journey, maybe just a smidge behind because the use of co-op in Journey was fantastic. It would have been interesting to see something like that here but then again, I think it works out fine with you alone.
Only thing I think the game needs is a photo mode.
Only thing I think the game needs is a photo mode.
ABZÛ is ridiculously beautiful, the visuals, the flow of animation, the sound design, it's all stupendously magnificent. They worked the Unreal4 engine hard, tons of particle and swarm effects. It's a joy to go with the flow of the experience. The emotional impact isn't as insane as in Journey, but moments of scale were equally staggering to me. Big ups for the PC release, runs like greased lightning on my 1070, 60 fps, downsampling, buttery smooth frame pacing, the whole 9.
SunhiLegend
Member
Brought the game earlier today as it was cheap and the impressions were really positive. I've spent just under an hour with the game so far and it looks gorgeous, spent most of the time just soaking in the visuals, performance is not too bad as well.
Dai Kaiju
Member
JSince this was on sale for cheap during the holidays I bought this on a whim without knowing ANYTHING about it other than assuming it was under water because of the picture. I just finished it and WOW. This game is an incredible work of art. It's such a shame it didn't get the same hype as Journey because I feel like ABZU trumps it in every way.
HowardRoark
Member
I really liked my time with ABZU, but I just cannot agree with this.
Dai Kaiju
Member
To be fair it has been a really long time since I played Journey.
Zomba13
Member
I love both and I think they are as good as each other. The edge might go to Journey because of the multiplayer and how masterfully it was implemented but both are amazing and beautiful. Journey is great at being this isolated experience, where finding another person is this huge thing and something you jump around and sing with in celebration and Abzu is like the opposite, no people or other players but it's bursting with life.
Both games are just super similar though in the art style, concept, music and even levels (sand surfing/jet stream, Dark dangerous depths, flying through the sky/super saiyan shark riding). Even the 100% reward is the same!
Both games are just super similar though in the art style, concept, music and even levels (sand surfing/jet stream, Dark dangerous depths, flying through the sky/super saiyan shark riding). Even the 100% reward is the same!
HowardRoark
Member
Keep in mind, I absolutely loved ABZU, it's gorgeous and had many great similarities to Journey (as Zomba13 mentioned). There's just nothing that beats the emotional beats of Journey for me. "Apotheosis" blaring during the climax of Journey = shivers
Just finished Abzu.
One of the most beautiful and mysterious games I've ever played. Floored me. Touching. I'm an ocean man in real life and this really connected with me. What a fantastic soundtrack, what color and what a zen like transcendental meditative experience.
10/10.
PS. I've never played Journey but have it in my library. Booting it up now. Played Flower.
One of the most beautiful and mysterious games I've ever played. Floored me. Touching. I'm an ocean man in real life and this really connected with me. What a fantastic soundtrack, what color and what a zen like transcendental meditative experience.
10/10.
PS. I've never played Journey but have it in my library. Booting it up now. Played Flower.
Abzu wins best original score for a video game or interactive medium from the IFMCA.
http://filmmusiccritics.org/2017/02/ifmca-winners-2016/
http://filmmusiccritics.org/2017/02/ifmca-winners-2016/
spacemonkeynation
Member
This game is incredible. I would gladly buy it all over again if they released it for VR.
Chrizzy_81
Member
Love this game! I suffer from anxiety on occasion and nothing chilled me out more than just swimming around or meditating in this game.
Melchiah
Member
Well deserved. The best one out of the half dozen quality games I bought from the holiday PSN sales.