Recent reviews by Daggobond

This game is really good with some pals, progression is a bit slow though if you're a 3-4 sessions every 1-2 weeks kind of crown. For us, I know that promoting (a feature that unlocks a lot of the content) took a while.

Another thing to note is that hazard 3 is a cakewalk and we've never lost a mission, but hazard 4 is incredibly overwhelming. We've only one a few with very experienced players. I wish there was a difficulty between them.

Game slaps though. I love that I get all the hooks of battlepass-like aeshetics progression by just paying for the game once. Devs are super active too, lots of community posts for how old this game is now

Excellent Game, would LOVE more levels or a level editor type of thing. Modular space ships would be real good.
Highly reccomend.

Also when playing it, I recommend playing at the max number of people before it adds another imposter. Best with a lot of crewmates

Really enjoying it. Think of a really high-mobility MOBA with a destructible landscape. Excited to see it once more maps are in. It's enjoyable solo but really shines with another player working in tandem. Getting a buddy and ganging up on someone split from the team is much more exciting than just going rogue

Honestly a super fun game, IF you really lay into it.

Lets talk realistyically, it's in early access and for that reason there are still some issues you'll find here and there. Anywhere from animation bugs to multiplayer having connection issues at times. These can put a minor setback on your play experience.

But heres the thing.

Almost every time I find something that's an issue, a patch is soon released that fixes it. The support for this game by the team is phenominal. This isn't one of those games feels like an early access scam where you are hyped and ready for updates that never come. This game is even updated often by some really good early access standards.

The creature building feels like a real spin on the crafting genre. At the very least, it's worth a good laugh with some friends for a while to create the most heinous abominations to top each other

I was reccomended to play ABZU by a friend and honestly, avoided it for a while because I was never a fan of water based games. Man, was that a silly choice. ABZU redefines the possibilities with which we can use a landscape. It makes a statement to show the beauty that an almost all-water environment can hold through the lens of the ocean, and explores all corners of that setting. You'll be exploring anywhere from brightly lit coral reefs to dark abysses.

The studio has achieved excellent level design. Each area doesn't feel claustrophobic as water levels are so often connotated, but feels really open like the ocean should without feeling like the area is so massive that you would get lost.
Admittedly, I got lost in a few of the areas, but never for long, and in those moments you still get a feeling of drifting exploration to keep you enthralled.

The creative director for ABZU was also the art director for Journey and it really shows. The world has the same whimsical feel and grandure. ABZU also follows journey in using a narrative concept called The Hero's Jouney from Joeseph Campbell's "The Hero With A Thousand Faces." Now this still makes the narrative compelling and draws us along an intriging narrative path, but it does feel a bit too much like Journey in the narrative.

Honestly, what I reccomend most about this game is the experience devoid of the narrative. The environment your player is in, the places you'll see, and the apotheosis segment of the journey at the end are truly incredible gameplay moments. The smooth and juicy feedback of the controls helps you stay immersed in these moments.

As a developer myself, I really reccomend this to level designers specificaly. Again, it just really nails the water environment on the head in a really effective way. Tech artist would also be bewildered by the schools of fish that really feel full of life. There was a talk on it during GDC 2017, so if you have access to the GDC vault, look up The Art of ABZU, excellent talk.

For the best playing experience, do a one session runthrough of this game on a day that you have time too. I got through it in 2 hours from my playtime on record, so it's a nice sitdown game. Don't have any distractions around either, if you are talking with a friend, have them be viewing the game with you. Just try to stay in the moment and really get everything you can out of this world.