Sword of the Sea evaluate — Everyone’s gone surfin’ – GamingTrend

An attractive explorative expertise with some memorable moments
If you happen to’ve performed Large Squid’s earlier titles (Abzu, The Pathless), you seemingly have a good suggestion of the vibes you’ll get with Sword of the Sea. The place their earlier titles accentuated peaceable ocean exploration and fluid open-world motion accordingly, Sword of the Sea adopts and grows each these elements to create a peaceable, memorable sport you’ll need to absorb like a sponge.
In Sword of the Sea, you’ll tackle the position of the Wraith, a warrior resurrected within the Necropolis who takes up the Hoversword on their quest to show arid deserts and frozen wastelands into vibrant oceanic landscapes teeming with life. As you discover every setting, you’ll activate factors that beckon the ocean beneath the land to spill forth, reworking the world into a fantastic, colourful world stuffed with fish, turtles, and extra. 
Alongside your *cough* journey *cough*, you’ll discover tablets with historic writings that provide you with a greater understanding of the world, in addition to historical past and lore to elucidate extra totally the character of the battle the Wraith has been introduced again to unravel. You’ll encounter another characters in your travels, and the thriller of their roles is resolved in time. For a sport with no spoken narrative or dialogue, Sword of the Sea tells an enchanting story with some poignant twists that handle to ship actual emotional affect.
From a gameplay perspective, Sword of the Sea is easy. You’ll transfer round on the Hoversword from place to position, leaping to succeed in new heights. As you play, you’ll have the ability to choose up shiny collectibles that may be cashed in for varied upgrades. Your objective will typically be to activate completely different mechanisms to open the trail ahead. This typically concerned reactivating nodes that open the barren floor to overflow of the ocean, which in flip transforms the panorama in significant methods.
Whereas I largely take into account Sword of the Sea to be a comfortable exploration title, it’s value noting that the sport classifies itself as half browsing/skateboarding sport as properly. That is evident with the inclusion of tips, which may be carried out while you bounce, in addition to ramps and half-pipes. It even retains observe of your rating behind the scenes. Whereas it appeared like performing tips gave me a little bit of a pace enhance, I truthfully didn’t see a lot purpose to do it all through the sport other than the truth that, properly, it’s enjoyable and appears cool. Which may be a fairly good purpose to do it, however I discovered myself annoyed with issues just like the half-pipe on a few events as a result of a number of the mechanics simply didn’t play properly with my discovered historical past of tips in gaming. Let’s take Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater for example. In THPS, you’ll maintain the bounce button, releasing as you get to the lip for additional air earlier than executing your sick strikes. With Sword of the Sea, doing the identical factor will trigger a small hiccup that utterly disrupts your circulation and momentum. It’s jarring and in the end disincentivized me from spending an excessive amount of time within the half-pipe. The sport undoubtedly feels extra in its ingredient while you’re simply flowing across the environments.
There’s one factor I wish to name your consideration to. Whereas PlayStation went out of its approach early on to showcase the DualSense controller with video games like Astro’s Playroom and Returnal, not a lot has been achieved to focus on the controller’s haptic suggestions. Sword of the Sea is a notable addition to that listing. Whether or not you’re browsing over sand, gliding throughout the water’s floor, or sliding throughout ice, each bump and glide may be felt with constancy that borders between jarring and immersive. I say jarring solely as a result of it’s so immersive; it took my mind just a few moments to regulate to it. If you happen to’re taking part in on PC and have entry, I’d strongly encourage you to plug up a DualSense controller for the most effective expertise.
I love Sword of the Sea’s aesthetic vibe. The soundtrack is low-impact and immersive, letting you benefit from the on-screen expertise with out distraction. The sport’s artwork design can be simply unimaginable. Whereas it isn’t pushing out loopy geometric numbers like a few of at present’s prime technical powerhouses, Sword of the Sea has jaw-dropping visuals. Animation is clean and fluid, and environments are vivid and attention-grabbing. There’s nothing fairly like watching the Wraith activate a node and experiencing the ocean burst forth with varied wildlife swirling about. All of it integrates so seamlessly into the expertise, it gives one thing few video games have delivered. It’s exhilarating. I audibly hooped as playful dolphins joined me on my rounds for just a few pleasant seconds. It’s attractive and joyful in a particular approach.
Sword of the Sea is an expertise that efficiently combines lovely artwork, clean gameplay, and ludonarration in a approach few titles can. It’s a feel-good sport with some superb moments and enjoyable, fluid gameplay that may go away your jaw open and your eyes wanting extra. Whereas it makes a few minor missteps, that is an expertise nobody ought to miss.
Sword of the Sea is a fantastic, almost-cozy expertise that, like Large Squid’s different titles, stands as a robust argument for video games as artwork. The sport has chill vibes and a stunning, atmospheric aesthetic whereas nonetheless delivering an eloquent narrative. If you happen to’re on the lookout for one thing quick and candy, Sword of the Sea is the low-friction journey for you.
This evaluate is predicated on an early PC copy supplied by the writer. Sword of the Sea comes out on August 19, 2025.
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