"Abzu" Review

It tends to be a running theme in my reviews, and I will not be breaking form here. I'd like to start this review off with a note about my history with this game/saga/developer. Unless I am very sorely mistaken, some folks from That Game Company, the folks behind the legendary experience, "Journey", broke off to form a new company called "Giant Squid". "Abzu" is the first project by this new company, and if I am wrong about the origin of this game, then I'll have to dock extra points from this game for blatantly ripping Journey off. When you are a developer with a particular tried and true style, comparisons are going to happen. One can try to judge a game by its own merits all they want, but in the end there will always be comparisons. Journey was one of my favorite games of 2012, and I was looking forward to another stunning, emotional project from this team. With that in mind, however, I knew that there was no way that Abzu could be as good as Journey, so I went into the experience knowing that. Here is what I was expecting: A stunning experience that would perhaps touch the hem of Journey's garment. What I was not expecting was a relatively lukewarm experience that was holding onto a little piece of string that Journey's garment lost a number of steps ago. In case that wasn't clear enough, I left Abzu disappointed, even having lowered my expectations in the interest of giving Journey its space. It is by no means a bad game, but it was definitely a disappointment.
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Abzu is a simple game, so there isn't really a lot to talk about. You are an unnamed diving entity, and the game takes place in the ocean. There are basically two mechanics: swimming and interacting. Interacting is pressing a button on your controller when you are close enough to an object you can interact with, so that is that. It can be used for a number of things: releasing creatures, picking up shells, freeing robots, meditating, and riding creatures. I'll be talking a little more about these aspects in the next section.
Swimming in Abzu is pretty good. If I had used that sentence in a paper, I would have failed without a doubt, but that is really the gist of it. Most of the time, swimming mechanics are lackluster at best and game-breaking at worst. The swimming mechanics in Abzu are not perfect, but they are much more fluid (no pun intended) than in other games. There are times when you will have to fiddle with the controller a little bit to go the direction you want, but it isn't very often.
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One more thing before we get into the negatives. Without a doubt, Abzu's biggest strength is how alive the world feels. At a steady 30fps, the underwater world of Abzu is completely filled with ocean life, and the fact that the framerate remains constant throughout despite the density of the ocean life is quite commendable. Schools of fish swim freely, sometimes mimicking your movements, whales swim in their pods, sharks swim suspiciously behind the schools of fish, etc. Each creature is something that actually exists, so one can tell that a lot of research was put into this project. If a creature is larger than you are, then you can ride on them for a while. It is a small thing, but I know for a fact that I giggled like a child on christmas when I got to ride a manatee. If you, like me, are an animal lover who dreams of getting to ride on whales and the like, then you owe it to yourself to play Abzu for that reason alone.
Another piece of the game that adds to the living nature of the world is meditation. Basically, there are shrines scattered throughout the world, and you can interact with them and mediate. When you mediate, your consciousness follows some of the fish around. There you can learn the name of the fish and start to identify them. Like the riding, it is a small thing, but it does make a difference. In a way, though, this is part of the problem. Abzu does the small things very well, but the big things tend to falter. For the first half of the game, the small things I have mentioned were at the forefront, but in the second half Abzu abandons its strengths.
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I really, really don't want to spoil anything, so there isn't much I can say to clarify why Abzu starts to suffer after the halfway point. I guess one way to do so would be to say that they change up the gameplay. In the first half, the gameplay was basically "go-here, look-at-this, occasionally-do-a-puzzle," and that was fantastic. However, in the second half, the gameplay was entirely doing puzzles. The puzzles are all the same: You find two of something and interact with them to open a door. They just felt like padding for this hour and a half long game.
In addition to the gameplay in the second half being lesser, the exploration and beauty is also lesser. In the first half, the locations are breathtaking open ocean areas that feel enormous and make you feel like a tiny thing indeed. Without spoilers, the second half takes place mostly in claustrophobic environments that are just plain ugly. It goes from breathtaking open ocean views cluttered with life to narrow corridors of ugly green.
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Speaking of ugly...there is the soundtrack. This breaks my heart because it was by Austin Wintory, the man who composed the soundtrack to Journey. Once again, the two halves of the game are at odds with each other. In the first half, Wintory's soundtrack works at full force, but here is the thing: Abzu manages to dull the good bits of the soundtrack as well. At the best moments in the soundtrack, Abzu is filled with intolerable droning sounds in the lower registers that ensure that you can't enjoy it. What the hell, Abzu? You had to choose to do that! Then, in the second half, Wintory decided to get a little bit too experimental. In the second half, the soundtrack is Austin Wintory by way of Eric Whitacre. Whitacre's music, though often dissonant, works. Wintory's attempt at it, however, does not. Moments that are supposed to be powerful and touching are just painful because the music just doesn't sound good at all. I hate to criticize people for trying different things, but I feel that I must here. Leave the dissonance to the Whitacres and Vaughan Williamses of the world and keep it out of anything that is supposed to be beautiful in a conventional way. Know your material and tailor the soundtrack accordingly. I shouldn't have to say that in the context of an Austin Wintory soundtrack.
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One last thing before I conclude: the story. Journey, of course, told its story with no words, and it did a fantastic job of communicating through the environment. Abzu tries this, but ultimately fails. I'm now going to show my nerd colors. The text of the ending music of Abzu is from the Enuma Elish. For those of you who did not major in Religion like I did, the Enuma Elish is the holy text of Ancient Babylon, and it is believed that it was the inspiration for the structure of the Genesis narrative. In the Babylon text, however, the creation of the world deals with a water serpent named Tiamat and there is a male and a female God and there is perhaps a flood involved. The actual details of the Enuma Elish creation narrative are a little fuzzy at this point, but it is always nice to see my major at work. The point is that I can kind of see parallels between story aspects in Abzu and the text from which the lyrics to the music are taken from. But, I mean, come on. What are the odds that anybody playing this game happened to major in Religion?
Of course, the story doesn't demand that you know about ancient texts. I get the sense that that is more of a nice little side thing that one can notice. However, I am ashamed to admit that the storytelling is too vague. I watched the IGN review of Abzu before I played, and I thought the reviewer was an uneducated neanderthal for saying that the story was too vague. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is why you don't judge before you experience for yourself, because if I was correct in saying that, then I too am an uneducated neanderthal. The story is too vague, and we aren't given any real reason to care about whatever stakes there are. The developers simply do not do a good enough job of telling the story by way of the environment. The ending was made out to be this absolutely wonderful, life-changing thing while it was happening, and I was just sitting there, unaffected because I had no investment in it. Whereas Journey endeared the player to their little hooded figure and gave us a clear goal that was almost always in sight, Abzu does no such thing.
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Though I knew ahead of time that Abzu would not be as good as Journey, I had no clue that I would leave it disappointed in nearly every major aspect. In the small things, Abzu excels. The world feels alive, there are plenty of wonderful underwater creatures to interact with, and the world is legitimately beautiful and breathtaking in the larger segments for the first half of the game. However, these small aspects are just that: small aspects.
So, let us review:

Poor Soundtrack -1
Vague Story -.8
Second Half Locations -.5
Second Half Gameplay -.2

So, the final verdict for Abzu is:
7.5/10 - Acceptable
Better luck next time, Giant Squid, better luck next time.

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