This is an ongoing list where I attempt to do the following: Play, Complete, and Rank every video game in the known universe in order to finally answer the age old question "What is the greatest game of all time?" For previous entries find the links on the attached spreadsheet.

How did I do?

I have been busy playing a bunch of long ass games recently that I have been craving short games for my “not always weekly” series. I am still working on playing through all of the Hitman Collection, I am playing through Final Fantasy 15 with my wife, and I recently decided to board the hype train and start Baldur’s Gate 3. All 3 of those games are going to take me months to finish, especially the way (explore almost everything) and the amount of time I can dedicate to those games (almost nothing). So if you are anxiously waiting the placement of those games on the official list, you might want to check back later. However, what I can talk about today is a little game called Abzu.

It is going to be very difficult to discuss Abzu without drawing a lot of direct comparisons to a similar game called “Journey.” Journey is very much it’s own game and we can discuss that when I spin the wheel to rate that game (note: I have already played Journey, but I’ll gladly play it again), however there is a connection between the two as the founder of the company that made Abzu, just happened to be the art director for the game Journey. Abzu also shares a composer in Austin Wintory, who.. won a Grammy award for… Journey. I will do my best to speak about Abzu independently, but just know that there are lots of points where I want to shout, “Just Like Journey!” but I refrained from doing so. Obviously no matter how you slice it, Journey was very successful and influential in multiple games, but Abzu especially…. And no, we don’t need to talk about Flower or Flow and how that influenced Journey and then bring it all back to how Pong influenced all video games.

Abzu is a game about the deep blue sea and the inhabitants that call it home. While there is a story here, it is 100% interpretational, as there is no dialogue and no text in game that can be read to infer what is going on. I don’t want to use the old trope about the amount of energy you put in will inform what you get out, but it’s kinda true in this essence. However the actual genre of this game skews closer to a meditative adventure game. You control a diver who just starts the game already in the water. We don’t know where they came from or what their purpose is, but damn if they aren’t great at swimming. The controls are relatively brief, there is a dive/swim button that needs to be held down in order to propel you forward in the direction you are pointing. There is a boost button that can be used up to three times to speed up your characters swimming (and if angled correctly can have you jump out of the water), and an interact button that has your character make a little chirping sound, but will also be used to turn cranks or dust off robots.

From when you start to when you finish the game progresses in roughly the same way. Each area you find yourself is freely explorable but has a single pass through section that is blocked off that you have to figure out how to get through. In some instances these require you to find a crank that will open it, a robot friend to help you, and in other instances you might need to navigate other smaller puzzles to solve the issue. How quickly you go through these puzzles is based on how much enjoyment you are getting by being in a certain area. If you were to bulldoze your way through the game, I imagine that you can complete this game in an hour and that is not using any speed-run strats. This is by no means a long game, but the length is determined by how intrigued you are by the environmental storytelling and how much enjoyment you are getting by just being in the game.

The game is absolutely beautiful to exist in. You are spending nearly 100% of your time underwater and they have spent a lot of time crafting your surroundings and the inhabitants around you. This might not have the fidelity of Flower, but I don’t think a lot of people can argue that the game is not amazing to behold. In some areas, you can dive for what seems like miles underwater, swimming below whales and sharks and find hidden ruins on the seabed. This won’t net you anything but some environmental story-telling, but its nevertheless fun to deep dive and see what the game has to offer. In some areas bigger fish will allow you to hitch a ride by holding on to them, and in each and every area is a meditative shark stone where you can stop and watch the fish around you. It may not seem like much, nothing more than an old windows screensaver, but you can flick between watching different fish and just watch them exist which can be fascinating. They might get eaten, or even eat other fish, and while I know they are nothing but 0s and 1s, it can still be relaxing to just watch them. I did not verify every single fish, but these are all recreations of existing or extinct real fish and perhaps you will find your new favorite. Pair the meditative mode and the soundtrack from Austin Wintory and you can sit back and take a load off.

As you progress from peaceful enclosure, you will eventually start getting to the more sinister aspects of Abzu. Gone is the singular threat of a rogue shark, and instead it is replaced by ancient technology that is existing in the ocean that can do real harm. These are navigable obstacles that act like proximity mines that explode when you get to close to them, and while you can’t actually die in Abzu (your character is just stunned for a few seconds), it can be annoying to be hit by these things. Once you have a grasp for the controls and understand the proximity these things explode at, you can navigate past them with some ease, but obviously this can cause frustration. While these obstacles only exist in a few chapters of the game, they are short lived and the game will go back to regular exploration moments.

There are collectables on your journey that serve two different purposes. Outside of the meditation stones (which can sometimes be hidden), there are mysterious pools that when activated will release more fish into the water, but there are also hidden shells that can be found in each chapter as well. While there is a unlockable suit for collecting all the shells in the game, it probably wont be something that you get upon a first playthrough, as some are very well hidden and one particular nasty one only gives you a single chance to collect. So unless you are using a guide on your first playthrough, you will just have to get them on future explorations. There are a few in-game lore walls, that will show you how many shells you found in each area, and presumably have something should you collect them all.

All that is really left to discuss is what is the interpretation and theme/moral of the story here, because it is so ambiguous. The answer is, I don’t know.. Unlike another game that shall not be names again, which I had a fairly good grasp on my interpretation, Abzu seems even more ambiguous. Sure I could tell you that the theme here is about the mysteries of the deep and how wonderous and magical the ocean world truly is, but I think that is surface level stuff that I could have told you before I played the game. Who put the ancient technology in the ocean, or was it made by aliens? How is the diver connected to that technology, a rogue agent, or a robot designed for research that went too deep? Does humanity exist outside this ocean, or is this an entirely new planet/civilization, etc? I think the parallels are there between how this world/ocean etc. is being ruined by the proximity mines, robots, and factories, and how in the real world we are destroying nature and the oceans by our consumption and growth into nature.. and perhaps that is all there is. There are certainly some fascinating takes online, and people smarter and more dedicated than me have looked over the murals and done far more research into the findings, and that’s ok. Abzu is a game that if you give to a regular bro, they might miss 100% of the lore and just beat the game and call it easy, and someone who dedicates dozens of hours exploring all its environment can call it an amazing piece of narrative. Abzu is what you make it.

Is this the greatest game of all time?: No

Where does it rank: I truly like Abzu, but I also know that it isn't the greatest game in the world. It's a memorable quick trip and it is absolutely beautiful to behold, but for all its beauty it is a shallow game experience and after a few trips to the deep you might be content to just put on the soundtrack and remember the game. I think this is a game certainly worthy of your time, considering the small amount of time it would take up, but only those willing to let the world envelop them will really get enjoyment out of it. I have it ranked as the 60th Greatest Game of All Time.It sits between Pathway (60th) and Kinect Sports (61st) out of 166 games.

Anyone looking for it: here is the link to the list and more if you are interested in following along with me (this is not a self promotion).Here. I added links on the spreadsheet for quick navigation. Now if you missed a blog of a game you want to read about, you can get to it quickly, rather than having to scroll through my previous blogs wondering when it came up.

Thanks for listening

Future games coming up 1) TBD 2) 1978 Revolution 3) Hitman: World of Assassination

As someone who desperately wanted to be a marine biologist as a kid, this is one of my most beloved games of all time. The atmosphere and artwork are absolutely incredible.

@stealydan: yeah I bet this game hits differently for you. Especially seeing the wide collection of creatures you get to see.