Underwater Journey-like Abzû out August 2

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Here's a lovely new trailer in the meantime.

Abzû is a game about underwater exploration, from appropriately named developer Giant Squid. If it reminds you of Journey, that might be because I mentioned in the headline; it might also be due to the fact that Giant Squid was founded by Journey/Flower art director Matt Nava, and that Journey composer Austin Wintory is doing the soundtrack. Like that majestic experience, Abzû looks to be a game of exploration and discovery, and I'm looking forward to donning my wetsuit in early August.

Oh yes, that's the headline news: Abzû is releasing on August 2, on Steam. There's a new E3 trailer, to whet our whistles:

"ABZÛ is an epic descent into the depths of the sea," reckons the YouTube description, "where players explore beautifully rendered ocean environments with fluid swimming controls. In ABZÛ, the user embarks on a nonviolent, 3rd person adventure with no fail states so users can’t die. They can only explore and discover new things about the underwater world as they progress along the emotional spectrum of the game".

Immature child that I am, I am now imagining an emotional spectrum, heartlessly discarded after a rock gig—but yes, Abzû looks very lovely indeed.

Tom Sykes
Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.