Big Squid’s upcoming title, Sword of the Sea, is a well-crafted union of all of the titles the studio and Recreation Director Matt Nava have labored on. The aquatic marvel of Abzû, The Pathless’s sense of journey, and Journey’s lovely desert world. Sword of the Sea weaves these influences collectively so skillfully that it looks like this atmospheric browsing journey was the purpose all alongside.
I acquired an opportunity to go hands-on with Sword of the Sea and discuss with Big Squid in regards to the new recreation, coming day one to PlayStation Plus Recreation Catalog on August 19.
Browsing throughout the sands and sea
The sport begins because the participant awakens as The Wraith, a vessel ready to be stuffed, who’s given the duty of bringing the oceans again to the world. Showing to be the final being left alive to get the job accomplished, you obtain a mystical surfboard and hit the dunes.
The beginning space is an unlimited playground the place you may get accustomed to the board, carry out tips, and learn to work together with the world. As you zoom throughout the desert, you come throughout totally different nodes generally known as Ocean Seeds that permit you to cleanse the land and restore elements of the ocean and marine life.
Past pleasing aesthetics, water and sea life immediately affect gameplay. The Wraith is considerably quicker on water, resulting in larger velocity for greater jumps and extra tips. Some sea life create new paths, like buoyant jellyfish that make nice leap pads and lengthy strands of climbable seaweed. Watching the panorama terraform was a spotlight, as was trying to find all of the land’s secrets and techniques.
“Sword of the Sea is basically all in regards to the religious magic of browsing,” Nava explains. “ It’s impressed by my very own experiences snowboarding, skateboarding, and browsing all through my life. If you consider these excessive sports activities, the very first thing that involves thoughts might be the excessive velocity and the hazard. However there’s extra to it than simply an adrenaline rush. When you’re browsing on waves within the ocean, you might be actually on the boundary between our world and the world beneath the waves, a world past our understanding.”
Golden triangles generally known as Tetra populate the world, performing as forex you’ll be able to commerce to mysterious distributors to be taught extra tips, purchase abilities, and open new paths. Wish to see all of it? You’ll must detour off the principle path to see and afford all of it. Completely different distributors, triangles, and Trick Assault arenas are hidden all through the world.
Exhibit your tips and really feel the terrain
Pulling off fashionable strikes in Sword of the Sea is easy. When browsing, when you leap you’ll be able to press X once more to carry out a wide range of double leap tips. When you purchase superior tips from the seller, you maintain L1 and press Triangle, Sq., Circle, or X to do particular grabs, flips, and spins. They rating extra factors, and mixing grabs and flips in numerous methods create new tips. Whereas the timing is slightly trickier, you can provide your self a much-needed leap enhance and rating high-point combos when carried out excellent.
Sword of the Sea always retains rating of the tips you pull and the way superior they’re. Hidden Trick Assault arenas allow you to put these abilities to good use. What does racking up a excessive Trick Rating result in? One more thriller we’ll have to attend to uncover.
Although the sport takes place within the desert, there are many totally different objects to grind on in addition to sea and sand. I got here throughout ruins, ceramic tile roofs, and useful aquatic life. The staff at Big Squid takes full benefit of the DualSense controller haptics to make sure each floor feels and sounds distinct. As I surfed alongside rooftops, I may hear the melodic tones of tiles beneath and the tingle in my fingers. The sand gives a rough sensation, and you’re feeling and listen to the speeding water as you velocity by means of on the makeshift highways elements of the ocean create.
“The haptic suggestions of the DualSense controller reacts to every floor in another way so you’ll be able to really feel it if you cross from one to the subsequent,” says Nava. “Mixed with particular sound results that play from the controller, it offers a really sensible sense of touching the surfaces you see within the recreation. We’re very excited by the additional layer of element the haptics provides to the expertise of browsing in Sword of the Sea.”
You’re free to discover in any given course, and hard-to-reach locations often reward you with one thing acceptable for the time and ability it takes to succeed in them. Nonetheless, as you discover, you’ll uncover murals and different environmental components that maintain the story ever-present. A story of loss and destruction, and looking for out the way you match into all of it is an intriguing thread to comply with. Particularly since on the finish of my session, it was clear {that a} mysterious character was following me. It gave the impression to be one other wraith, however whoever the pursuer was didn’t give vibes of excellent intentions.
It’s straightforward to match Sword of the Sea to its predecessors, however the recreation really looks like an evolution of all the pieces the Big Squid staff has labored on so far. The sport’s sights, sounds, and really feel linked me with the land, and I can’t wait to hop on the board once more and see what’s actually on the market.
“Our video games have a extremely recognizable and distinctive artwork type, and inform atmospheric tales with their daring shade and music,” says Nava. “We begin with a sense, an expertise, and a message that we would like the participant to really feel. Actually, all our video games are all about motion, and the way it can join you with nature and the world in numerous methods. Sword of the Sea builds on the concepts in all our earlier video games to create one thing that’s each very Big Squid and an thrilling new journey.”
Seeking to reel in additional Sword of the Sea particulars? Try the most recent trailer and extra particulars from State of Play.
