4/5 ★ – hfhow's review of ABZÛ.

New years resolution maybe? Idk. I am pretty decent at getting letterboxd reviews done whenever I've watched a movie so I kinda want to do that with games from now on too. We'll see if I stick to this(Probably not) Gotta say. Pretty dope start to the new year. Heard about this one for years at this point, so I felt on new years day was a pretty solid time to get through Abzu. A gorgeous game made by a lot of the creative team from the 2012 game Journey. No longer working at ThatGameCompamy, now at Giant Squid, who recently released The Pathless, which I'll definitely play when I finally track down a PS5. Saying Abzu is Journey underwater is a simplistic, but kind of accurate way of describing it. Where Journey was about finding a connection with strangers, Abzu is about connecting to the environment, in this case the ocean. Traveling down into the water in the beginning of Abzu is first confucing, unknown and scary. As you continue traveling it subtly but truly impressively turns to where what you think is your friends seem more like they are your enemies, and your enemies can be your friends. And all of this with zero dialogue or text telling you anything. The way you connect seemlessly with both the ocean itself and seemlessly discover your own way of traversing through it is really cool and special. And it's impossible to talk about this game without discussing the beautiful score written by Austin Wintory(Composer for Journey, and The Pathless). The ocean itself has a musical quality, and the way Austin managed to find a score that almost feels diagetically connected to the ocean and your journey through it is very impressive. The controls aren't super, it never really pushes back to make you think in how to progress. And the final ending does not have the same punch as Journey. But Abzu is definitely a worthy successor, and I will play whatever Giant Squid makes next, starting with The Pathless!