Quick Look: Abzû

Oh, baby.

The looks, they are quick.

There is water at the bottom of the ocean.

Darling it's better down where it's wetter.

*deep sigh of contentment*

I hear Peter Brown beat this game in like 2 hours?

It's lava time!

I love the look of it. Also the way you gain speed and the myriad of fish following you reminds me of how you create flower petals behind you when running around in Okami.

@humanity:A duder I chatted with said he/she beat it in around 100 minutes. So seems very short. EDIT: But sounds like it can stretch to 3 hours if you are willing to explore more.

What the heck Aliens directors cut is the way to go!

To be fair, 15 min is about 1/8 of the entire game. While the game is absolutely gorgeous and has some "wow" moments, I was a little disappointed to have finished it as fast as I did, even while taking my time exploring. I'm probably one of the biggest fans of Journey out there which probably messed up my expectations for this game. I think it's great but it didn't have an emotional impact like Journey left on me.

Lots of people like it, but personally I prefer not knowing anything about the colony before the marines get there. I don't want to see what it was like before, I just want to wonder.

Exceptions to this rule: the turret sequence in Aliens is pretty rad, and the chip extraction in T2 is a marvel of moviemaking. But definitely do NOT need a scene where everyone sings country music over the radio (Abyss).

Man, Brad is brave. I'd be scared to set Phish to ULTRA.

Call me a monster but nothing about the visuals is doing it for me. I'm also not a fan of the character animation, a bit too robotic for me.

After watching a little bit further I can see where this game becomes visually appealing but I'm still not a fan of the character animation.

I still think Abzu is a really cool name for this.

If you're not into ancient mythology, Abzu was the primeval sea in the Ancient Mesopotamian Religion. I think it's roughly cognate with "abyss," which is why they're pretty similar words.

I'm down to clown with an underwater Journey

Game seems like "Journey...but in the ocean!" and I can't really complain. Looks like a neat game to just chill and explore.

@two_socks: clown fish you mean?

I never understood games like this. If wanted to relax and look at nice things I'd go for a walk outside.

Wow, Drew knows his fish!

Also theres a black/thrash metal band from texas called Absu, I have almost completely forgotten about this band since I first heard them back in the ´90s I think. So thanks for the QL. This looks great will definately check it out.

For those interested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJmKsebV8bI

His consort, Tiamat is also cognate with "abyss" "deep" etc and sounds like "tumult" like a whirlpool. The Babylonian mythology is all about water since it was a precious resource in the desert.

ANY YALL MFERS FIND DORY YET?

Very strong contender to the throne of best art direction in a video game, along with Journey and Rez. Holy shit.

This is by far my favourite game of the year so far. It's mesmerisingly beautiful. I finished it last night and couldn't stop thinking about it: had to play it for another or two today just to continue to experience it and show it to my sister. Sensational game.

ABZU coalesces some of my favourite feelings from Journey, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Okami and SOMA into a single game. Stunning!

@dixavd said:

Every game you listed is another muscle group. Sold!

If I found Journey to be a boring "experience". Should I not bother with this game? Or is there more to this game than Journey?

@drewbert: Well I hope you will at least agree that Aliens 3 directors cut (assembly cut) improves the movie considerably.

@i_against_i: Yeah, those games are so memorable to me - so a game which reminds of them without feeling inferior is impressive.

I edited Okami in as well (because the world revitalisation is similar to in this game where you see happen around the midpoint of this quick look).

I'm getting just as many echoes to Flower as I am to Journey, which is alright by me.

What an utterly beguiling game.

(The last time I remember Fish getting set to Ultra, he quit Twitter...)

I bought this immediately after watching the QL. This scratches an itch i didn't even know I had.

Honestly you would probably find this boring then in my opinion. Personally I loved Journey and beat the game several times. I bought Abzu last night and love it. I got the same vibes as I did with Journey so they're very very similar.

Very short but an amazing experience. Played it with my 5 year old daughter, had a lot of excited moments trying to spot Finding Nemo fish.

Priceless

Looks like an impressive experience, the work that's gone into it is incredibly impressive. Not enough of a game for me though.

It's nice to see the recent return of real Quick Looks.

What a beautiful game.

Im curious to see WHAT is this game? :D Ive not seen anything about it but the ocean is so interesting.

Every time this game name pops up I've wondered if I was the only person going, 'Oh, like the Absu album'.

Oh great, another Cod game.

Yup, this is a definite buy for me. Looked a little TOO like Journey during the water current section, especially with Wintory's score in the background, but really, I think I'm okay with that. Wintory writes beautiful music, and this game has some incredible art direction.

I am...so fucking chilled out right now....

Enjoyed the stealth UHF comment by Drew at ~5:16

I've been waiting for that Blu-ray release of Abyss for so long. It was announced more than five years ago, but still isn't out, at least not in EU. I haven't seen it since the early 90's, and I feel like buying the DVD version now wouldn't do it justice.

Also, when it comes to deep puns, my favorite is probably how the third upcoming Aquanox game is named Aquanox: Deep Descent. A perfect title for an underwater Descent style shooter.

I'm with you, Drew.

says trumpetfish on the screen

drew: I love trumpetfish

brad: these long eel looking things....wait you know what fish these are you know your fish!

I know that if we were in the same seat we may not notice all these things too but still made me laugh

Oh no you didn't!

I wouldn't just compare it to Journey. It's like you take Journey, Flow, and Flower, and mash it all up.

That fish AI is real impressive. Must've got Infinity Ward to help out.

"Caret" is a mark used to indicate a point where text is to be inserted in editing. When the similar-looking glyph is used as an accent mark over a letter, it is called a "circumflex". How exactly it affects the pronunciation depends on the language, but in this case, it indicates a long u.

@drewbert@brad For your edification, the symbol on the û is called a circumflex! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumflex

I don't think this looks anywhere near stunning enough to warrant the gasps from the beginning of the QL... It looks nice and serviceable, but it's hardly groundbreaking stuff.