Sword of The Sea Review
SSX, 1080, Coolboarders, and Amped have all failed where Sword of The Sea succeeds. These games are all iconic for a reason as the gameplay was exhilarating, but they failed to capture the spirit of the sport. That outer-body experience you get carving down the mountain. That moment when your feet become one with the board and you become one with nature.
Sword of the Sea manages to bottle this phenomenon and does for snowboarding what Journey did for hiking and what Abzu did for diving. If you’re familiar with the previous work of Giant Squid and to some point thatgamecompany, there is very little here in the way of surprises. The experience is short, the gameplay is light and the narrative is extremely abstract, but there are few studios who are able to create beautiful and atmospheric experiences and Sword of the Sea is another breathtaking adventure.
Sword of The Sea Review
Sword of The Sea is an obvious open dialogue about environmentalism, but it could also be about finding shared ground with your enemy or even overcoming emotional challenges as oceans and seas have long stood in as a metaphor for navigating personal grief. It’s also very possible that Sword of The Sea is just an esoteric game about snowboarding that captures the spirit of the sport in a unique way that no other game has. Sports like mountain biking, surfing and snowboarding aren’t about chasing adrenaline highs, they are about reconnecting with nature in a way that just isn’t possible on two feet.
Adding even more complexity to the abstract nature of Sword of the Sea, you play as an unnamed wraith, which has long been defined as a spirit or soul that hasn’t crossed over yet due to unfinished business. The quest is to restore vast oceans that have dried up and become massive deserts devoid of life. There are no waypoints, no quest log and nothing to guide you, but thanks to the wonderful world design, you always know where to go, especially if you slow down and listen to what nature is telling you.
Searching for purpose, you have the ability to transform flowing oceans of sand into waves of sparkling emerald water teeming with marine life. Your journey takes you from the dunes of a majestic desert to the tops glacial mountains and to the underground caverns where magma flows freely.
The pacing of the Sword of the Sea is fast, as you move from one area to the next and never feel stuck. The gameplay loop involves exploring the environment, solving light puzzles to restore life to the lifeless areas and then moving on to the next biome. The gameplay is inspired by skate and snowboard classics like SSX and Tony Hawk meaning that these colossal environments are not only beautiful and begging to be explored, but also to pull of flips, spins and grabs.
Of course, you don’t have to do any tricks as Sword of The Sea is incredibly accessible to everyone. If you just want to have a meditative and fluid boarding experience, you can. However, there is currency floating around the world that you can collect and exchange for new skills, but also underneath it all, Sword of the Sea is keeping track of your score. Even though there are no elements or numbers on screen, you realize after finishing the game, that your tricks were being tallied the whole time. Completing Sword of the Sea unlocks new game plus, which displays your score and your speed, which allows you to grind for maximum score as you explore every nook and cranny.
The world of Sword of the Sea is one giant skatepark, which makes returns visits inviting especially when combined with the frictionless gameplay. With most skateboarding and snowboarding games, momentum can come to these weird, abrupt and almost shocking moments that take you out of the immersion. By the power of black magic, Giant Squid is almost always able to keep the movement and momentum going so that you are constantly immersed.
Sword of the Sea features all of the Giant Squid essentials you could want. The art style is timelessly gorgeous and will age like a fine wine. The gameplay is almost therapeutic as you constantly tap into flow states as you speed through these colossal environments and once again there is the collaboration with Austin Wintory, who is at his best when working with Giant Squid. There is something about the pairing of his scores and with the vast environmental scapes of Giant Squid that is sublime.
GNARLY STUFF
Criticisms for Giant Squid at this point are almost like a broken record. The experience is very short at just over a few hours. Gameplay takes a minimalist approach as elements are quite thin with the exception of a few light puzzles and “boss” fights that felt counterproductive to the flow Sword of the Sea had established. The narrative, just like their previous games is abstract, leaving the meaning open to interpretation, which might not be for everyone.
Moving from Journey to Abzu and then The Pathless, it felt like Giant Squid was slowly incorporating more traditional gameplay elements and trying to find the balance between experience and game. With Sword of the Sea, the studio has tipped the scales slightly back towards experience over gameplay and embraced the formula that has proven to be more successful for them.
Is Sword of The Sea Worth It?
At this point, there are no surprises with Giant Squid and the games they create. They are fine tailors of interpretive environmental experiences. Journey was about hiking and Abzu was about scuba diving. Giant Squid possess the ability to encapsulate what makes these experiences magical and Sword of the Sea is no exception, as it’s another love letter to nature and reconnecting with it through the power of a board beneath your feet.
Sword of The Sea is essentially a greatest hits from the studio classics with a combination of sand, sea and speed merged into one experience. It might be short in length, light on gameplay and abstract in meaning, but at the moments when you crest the summit, adore the stunning vista and then descends downwards as the wind howls past your ears as the score plays in the background, the experience of Sword of the Sea is transcendent.
