I like walking simulators. I loved exploring in Subnautica. I once lamented that it was a shame Destiny 2 didn't have a ghost mode that would just let you explore freely. So you'd think this would be the game for me, right? Nope.

The problem with Abzu is that it is a bunch of nothing. There is no story. The ""gameplay"" is just doing the same exact things a bunch of times. The environments aren't very impressive. It mostly comes across as an early beta where they haven't implemented the actual game part yet.

The thing that sets games apart from other media is interaction. In Papers, Please you really feel the oppressive nature of an authoritarian government. In Dear Esther you explore this (for its time) beautiful island where someone went crazy, trying to figure out what happened. In any game the interactive elements have to add to your enjoyment. If they don't, you may as well watch a playthrough on YouTube.

Normally a pointless game that doesn't make me feel anything might get two stars. However, Abzu also features a bare-bones options menu, weirdly clumsy controls that can't be remapped and constantly constantly takes away your control. Worst of all is that moving requires you to hold a mouse button while sprinting requires you to tap the other button every 5 seconds. Both of these should have been toggles or keyboard keys. No one wants to hold the right (!) mouse button for two hours, christ.

Well geez this is quite a game. Note that this is the first game i played on my Oculus Quest. It's not a VR game per say, but I knew it would be great if i could get it working (I talk a bit about how to do that at the end of the review)
Abzu is a minimal and artistic game with lots of weight on visual presentation. It's very similar to the game journey in the lack of speech or text, UI, and a short length. It's also a walking sim / adventure type game with very light puzzles.
Everything is very pretty in this game. the fish, the shadows and light, the textures of every surface.

I think the main reason I loved this game is how there are tons of fish in this game it's really like swimming in an interactive aqaurium! (It's great to do this in third person camera on a wide screen with slight blurry things on your face it's like looking out of a mask or into a fish tank.) You can identify fishes and find these stone statues where you can sit atop them and 'fish watch'

If this game sounds boring, you are gravely mistaken. A lot of thought and effort was put into the narrative sequences and the whole thing has managed to have a very cinematic feel, as you are constantly advancing from one sequence to another. Plus the experience of swimming alongside fishes gives it a dynamic feeling. (I find a faster movement like, driving/flying/swimming more dynamic than merely walking)

Perhaps its because I played it in VR I had a better experience. I've made an effort to play more games like this, and it's very suitable.

The neat thing about VR Headsets is there are a lot of options to play things in virtual desktop type interfaces, some are natively supported and some are third party. (I even found a way to do a remote desktop type connection, but this was hardly ideal as there was lots of input lag, this isn't stadia!) Playing non-VR games with headsets isn't something that I knew much about because my friend who had a headset never did show me you could (and i'm not sure if he explored it really). But it's hard to describe just how much it does enhance ANY game to have it take up your entire field of view and be in a completely isolated plane of reality. Brawlers, shooting games, side scrolling games are all amazing! But it isn't the easiest thing to set up. It took quite a bit of troubleshooting and dickering about to get things working proper. At first I had a bit of blurriness then fiddled with settings in SteamVR. Next I had audio issues that were fixed by telling windows I had a stereo sound system instead of 5.1. Then I had these terrible black streaky screen tearing that took me a very long time to figure out how to fix: the solution was to enable to in-game in oculus 'home' to enable a setting under high qulaity panelling "enable vr layers" I could never really get BigScreenVr to be lag free with a game for whatever reason (I think it has to do with a discrepancy between Vsync or refresh rate between a PC and another device, as it isn't because the thing is underpowered) I wound up launching steamVR through the oculus software and in the simple 'vaporwave' type background (I disabled the SteamHome aka SteamTours because it is a resource hog) I got pretty much perfect response, visual quality and framerate, and geez was it worth it. Would easily reccomend this game to just about anyone. If you like artsy casual type games,or stuff to play on a VR headset this is top, if you like fish, scuba or snorkeling or sunken civilizations this is definitely a must play.

I am not sure that I will be able to do this title justice in a review, but I thought I'd give it a shot. As almost every other review out there, this one will mention Journey, which is a fair comparison as the transition one has between different states of curiosity, awe, fear, despair and finally pure joy is very similar. It is almost insane that a game manages to take you through all those emotions in such a short time.

The first time I played Journey, I was blown away that such a simple game could engage me as it did. This time around I was somewhat more prepared with respect to what to expect, and I was in no way disappointed.

This is one of those few games where I turn off trophy settings and simply sit down and relax. I explore the nooks and crannies, not because a trophy compels me to, but because I want to see, and to experience. It is very rare that a game manages to bring out my childish sense of curiosity.

The scenery is breathtakingly beautiful, and although it is all set underwater, the developers make use of the full colour palette. Most people will probably agree that water levels in games are more often than not executed poorly, but you will find none of that here. Swimming around is a joy in and of itself, and there is nothing quite like grabbing hold of a shark and compelling it to leap through the surface like a dolphin. It controls great, and the game really knows how to give you a sense of speed whenever you decide to dash off towards something unknown hidden in the depths.

The story itself I will not spoil, it is simple, yet rewarding. I would at least like to say that the payoff is fantastic. The final 15 minutes of the game is probably the best way they could end it, and I sat there playing through it with a huge grin on my face.

To sum up; if you ever find yourself wanting to relax with something simple, something where you don't have to worry too much about what a game expects from you, then ABZÛ is perfect. It is appropriately paced — takes around 3-4 hours to complete — meaning that it never outstays its welcome. It is one of those games I could easily show my family, who aren't gamers, and I am positive they will enjoy it as much as I did.

I really wish I took some pictures for this review, but I was too busy loosing myself in the awe inspiring scenery to be bothered.