Abzu is beautiful and surprisingly deep

Ocean life and strangeness are the intertwined themes of Abzu, a soulful submersion into a place of beauty, movement and color.

Abzu is also an illusion, offering the promise of free exploration while gently guiding players along a predestined path, lured along by music, light and flow. First shown at E3 in 2015 and due out later this summer on PlayStation 4 and Windows PC, Abzu was widely feted as an underwater version of the beloved adventure Journey. Big at E3 2016 For this year’s show, we’re diving deep into some of the biggest games on display. To see all our features from the event, check out Polygon’s Big at E3 2016 hub. Both games feature the enormous talents of artist Matt Nava and composer Austin Wintory. Both are third-person stories of an individual, searching for answers in a prettily organic world of shallow puzzles and deep mysteries. And both fix themselves on that part of you yearning for a sense of wonder and loveliness. But whereas Journey told its story in mostly emotive hues, Abzu attempts a more traditional narrative of loss and discovery. Unlike Journey, there are no fellow travelers to encounter along the way, no sense of other people on a shared passage. This is about one woman and the sea.

GOLIATH GROUPERS In a pre-E3 demo, publisher 505 Games offered up about 20 minutes of the game, which is likely to come in at a few hours in length. Abzu begins with a diver at sea. There are no clues as to her identity or why she is alone in an ocean. A far-away kelp forest demands exploration, and so Abzu begins, the first chords of Wintory's score accompanying us as we learn the basic controls of swimming. The diver swishes through underwater plant-life, while following all manner of fish, turtles, sharks and sea creatures. Schools of fish move in musical shoals, parting whenever a predator appears in their midst. "You have this almost religious, beautiful experience." According to Nava, his development team at Santa Monica-based Giant Squid — which includes enthusiastic divers — wanted to create a realistic environment in which different species are in a constant battle to eat or be eaten. "We’ve added a cool food chain simulation, which lets all these predatory fish eat the little guys," he explains. "So you'll see goliath groupers chase after the little guys and eat them." At first, the developers forgot to create a self-sustaining and ecology. "Very quickly, all the fish were just eaten," laughs Nava. "But now, whenever a fish gets eaten, we teleport them behind the camera and they keep swimming over there. The population of fish in any room remains basically constant all the time."

BLUE WHALES The swimmer has a few special moves, such as rolling and looping. She can also grab onto the back of larger sea creatures and follow them as they seek out lunch. These journeys take us through coral reefs, dappled with sunlight and contrast, great rays beaming through underwater foliage. The diver is on a quest, which soon reveals itself in the form of an underwater drone, a machine that can ping out sonar waves and highlight progression and story clues. Seeking out the drones reveals basic puzzles that then open up new areas to explore. "There are magical spaces. It becomes this surreal adventure." "All the puzzles are encouraging players to explore," says Nava. "We want you to find the secrets in that space, and then you’ll be able to progress. There are no cut-scenes or narration. Every player should have their own interpretation of what happens and who the diver is." These puzzles also lead the player to big story beats including ancient underwater structures as well as others that seem futuristic. In the early demo, there's also a mysterious underwater 'lake' that takes the player on a short mystical journey. Other special moments include joining a rapid stream teeming with a disorientating array of sea life. "There are magical spaces in the game and it becomes this surreal adventure," adds Nava. "I think that's going to be surprising to people who might have perceived it so far is as kind of this serene, meditative underwater experience. But what’s exciting to me is that there are several moments in the game where you’ll have these unexpected areas to discover."