E3 2016 has featured some incredible blockbuster announcements, but some indie games - like Giant Squid’s upcomingABZU- look breathtakingly beautiful as well.
WhileSony’s E3 2016 presentationmight have stolen the show during Monday’s lineup on the Twitch stream, there were a number of games discussed and demoed in between the big demonstrations that deserve some discussion as well. To the gaming giant’s credit,Sony’s E3 2016 pre-show focused largely on a lot of the indie games that were being developed exclusively for the console, and during that segment Giant Squid’sABZUdebuted new footage of its gameplay. The result was something truly special.
ABZUisn’t an entirely new IP, and it isn’t even a stranger to the indie game hype train, as it was nominated for aE3 2015 Game Critic Awardlast year for Best Original Game and received some media coverage as a result. Gamers haven’t really had much to go on since then, however, and Giant Squid’s brand new gameplay trailer featured the most in-depth look at the deepwater diving world that will come to define how players experienceABZU.
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Judging from the video above, it appears that gamers will play as an unnamed diver protagonist who is alone in the huge oceans ofABZUsave his constant drone companion. That isn’t to say that the rest of the ocean will be empty, however, as fish of all kinds and bright and colorful coral and other ocean elements will be on prominent display throughout each player’s journey. If the mention of a journey brings to mind an obvious comparison, that’s because the art director behind thebrilliantJourneyis also a prominent member of the dev team behindABZU, and it definitely shows (in a good way).
The new gameplay video also makes mention of the fact thatABZUwill be a relatively short game, but one that is a delight to play and will draw more comparisons toJourneyand other games fromindie super studio thatgamecompany. That’s becauseABZUis all about exploration, and players will have to unlock different areas of the ocean by examining different elements of where they are and learning more about the sea they inhabit.
Gamers looking forward to some undersea exploration will not have to wait much longer. After a long development period of over two years, Giant Squid announced that fans can finally get their hands onABZUin August of this year.
What do you think ofABZU? Will it continue the strong series of releases for Sony exclusive indie titles? Let us know in the comments below.
