$19.99Is ABZU worth it?
ABZU is worth it if…
- you want something calm and beautiful to unwind with, with no pressure and no fail states
- you enjoy games that tell their story through images and leave the meaning to you
- you like short games you can finish in an evening or two
- you ever dreamed of diving among whales, sharks and vast schools of fish
- you loved Journey or Flower and want that same wordless feeling underwater
Screenshots
Swimming with the sea, not against it
The whole game is built around how it feels to move through water. You steer the Diver with fluid, acrobatic controls: dive, turn, drift with the current, and grab onto larger animals to swim beside them. Schools of thousands of fish react to you, to each other and to predators, parting and reforming as you pass. You can ride a manta ray or trail a shark, and the sea keeps responding. It is less a game of tasks than a place to be in, and moving well through it is the pleasure.
A story told without a single word
No one speaks and nothing is written down. The story comes through what you see: sunken temples, murals, hieroglyphs and brief wordless cutscenes that hint at an ancient civilization that worshipped the sea, and at the strange machines that helped end it. You piece the meaning together yourself, and the game leaves room for your own reading. It stays vague on purpose, which some find frustrating, but the ruins and the ocean around them carry a clear feeling about nature and what we build.
Made for unwinding
There are no timers, no punishing failure and no combat to sweat over; the few dangers in the deeper chapters are light and mostly avoidable. You set the pace. Linger in a seascape, follow a turtle for a while, or hunt for hidden shells and meditation statues that let you watch other creatures hunt and interact. The whole thing runs two to three hours, calm from start to finish, with a soundtrack that carries it, and the final chapters are worth the swim. A good game for emptying your head after a long day.
How long is ABZÛ?
How long does it take to finish?
Around two to three hours for a first run, a little more if you stop to find the hidden shells, fish schools and meditation statues. It is short by design: one complete, self-contained journey rather than a game that asks for weeks.
Is there combat or can you die?
No combat, and no real fail state. A couple of deeper chapters have light hazards, mostly avoidable, but nothing that punishes you or sends you back to a checkpoint. The game stays calm throughout.
Is it good for kids or family play?
It is family friendly: no violence, no text to read, no fail states, and sea creatures instead of enemies. Younger players can just enjoy swimming with the fish, and the wordless story needs no reading skills. The short runtime also makes it easy to share.
