Abzu Review - IGNShare. By emphasizing freedom of movement over survival, it gave me all the time I needed to soak in its gorgeous art direction, marvel at its fluid controls, and listen to its epic orchestral score. During the course of this fascinating three- hour adventure full of deep- sea mysteries and discoveries, its moving melodies ebbed and flowed with my emotions and fueled my curiosity to reach the finale, even when the story lacked context. What you actually do along the way is a little light on gameplay, but it’s still a spectacular journey worth taking.“Each area shows off Abzu’s fantastic art direction and attention to detail. Abzu’s intriguing underwater world is presented with little introduction – you’re a mysterious diver who awakens and begins to explore – but it generates enough mystery to propel you through a series of stunning locations. From seaweed swaying in the current to mysterious sunken shrines, each area shows off Abzu’s fantastic art direction, attention to detail, and an impressive sense of scale as you swim through enormous chasms under the sea. Click to play this video published on 2016/10/30. Deep Blue Sea FULL.MOVIE. Between the Devil and the deep blue Sea (Full Demo) 2015/01/07. We use cookies to offer an improved online experience and offer you content and services adapted to your interests. By using Dailymotion, you are giving your consent to our cookies policy. The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (original title) PG-13. Coming Distractions: Maisie Williams builds a boat of emotions in this Book Of Love trailer 22 November 2016 5:09 PM. Official Clip - Blue Pill or Red Pill. Movieclips has the biggest and baddest collection of official trailers. Office Christmas Party - Added Trailer 2 Director: Josh Gordon, Will Speck Cast. Abzu Official Trailer - E3 2016. Abzu Official Inspiration Trailer. Abzu relishes in giving you freedom to simply enjoy exploring the fascinating deep blue sea. Watch the New Beauty and the. This journey feels remarkable because of the way it constantly dangles the next intriguing area in front of you. I found myself traveling through its underwater rabbit hole into a strange, unfamiliar world full of cryptic iconography and ambient life such as fish, turtles, and whales. I was constantly wondering what I would find around the next bend, and each new area I discovered kept the surprises coming with fantastic architecture and some incredibly large spaces to swim in. And while nothing (including some intimidatingly large sharks) wants to actually eat you, it’s still a fish- eat- fish world down here, and you can observe the convincingly recreated circle of life by meditating at a shark statue if you want. Continuing on my journey I slowly waded into ancient ruins or completely lit- up, cathedral- like structures, and enjoyed the leisurely pace. In certain places it speeds up, and high- speed channels function like highways that pick up the pace and push you into beautiful new territory. One of the more memorable speedways had me swimming alongside a pod of incredibly large whales. It made me feel like a small fish in a very large pool. Even during the most spectacular moments the framerate was almost always consistent at 3. I noticed it slow down slightly a handful of times, like when ultra dense schools of fish would swim in a tight loop.“The rousing orchestral melodies that stayed with me hours after I put down the controller. Abzu’s journey into the deep is conveyed primarily through pretty graphics, but its rousing, evocative musical score really steals the show. Each new area you explore is bookended by music from Journey composer Austin Wintory, and his contributions sound absolutely wonderful. The stirring ensemble of strings and flutes bounces back and forth between soothing tunes and rousing orchestral melodies that stayed with me hours after I put down the controller. The orchestrations are carefully used to punctuate emotional moments in a way that I’ve seen few games do, with the tempo rising and melting away into the background appropriately. And whenever the music dissipated, the ambient sounds of the sea served as a constant reminder that I was mostly alone in this world. It all makes Abzu the closest thing to a playable version of Disney’s Fantasia that I’ve seen produced by a video game. But what are we actually doing here, other than taking in the sights and sounds? Abzu never makes that clear, either from a story perspective or with gameplay depth. I did enjoy my time swimming from the start because simple controls make is easy for almost anyone to pick up and enjoy moving around. Abzu uses a familiar control setup that resembles a driving game: holding the R2 button dives deeper and constantly moves you forward. You can boost to push through through areas quickly. Within minutes I could effortlessly maneuver in the water, do loop- the- loops, or break through to the surface and pull off a quick mid- air trick like a dolphin. And what limited interactions there are with the environment focus on helping you get around: you can grab onto fish when you want to move faster or slower.“Abzu's simple puzzle are designed to keep you moving ahead. It’s just a little disappointing that Abzu’s smooth movement isn’t really put to the test by any form of challenge, like a race through the environment. You avoid a few hazards, but that’s about it. Nasty underwater landmines are the only attacker you encounter, and outside of a worrisome warning bell when you get close their scary zaps are nothing more than a momentary hinderance. Abzu has some puzzles, too, but they’re little more than quick flip switches that don’t require a ton of thought. They’re only meant to open up the next breathtaking location and keep pushing you forward. The mystery Abzu presents at the start is intriguing, but the end of story is a little too abstract – even relative to other wordless storytelling adventures like Journey. There are a few cutscenes, but it mostly leans on environmental storytelling to fill in the gaps of what happened to an ancient, alien- looking civilization we find here. But what happened and why were very unclear, and on my first time through there wasn’t enough context to give the ending the power it seemed to aim for. I couldn’t quite place what Abzu wanted me to feel, so it just left me puzzled because I wasn’t entirely sure what had happened. But considering the entire thing is just three hours long, it’s short enough that I didn’t mind diving back in for another swim through to piece together the story, which revealed significantly more meaning now that I knew what to look for. The Verdict. Abzu takes the graceful feel of movement and subtle push toward discovery that I’ve enjoyed in similar exploration games like Journey and Flower and builds a refreshing- yet- simple underwater adventure around it. The colorful settings, beautiful soundtrack, and basic controls made it a great experience that constantly piqued my interest, even if it never challenged me to master it other than deciphering its cryptic environmental clues. Instead, Abzu relishes in giving you freedom to simply enjoy exploring the fascinating deep blue sea.
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