Vibes, aura, atmosphere, spirituality, Zen… Whatever you want to call it, Sword of the Sea has it. It’s such a meditative experience to cruise around the oceans of sand, water, snow and other terrain — hitting jumps and tricks as you sail through the air, exploring awe-inspiring environments and bringing them back to life. It’s been the relaxing break I needed from more intense and punishing games.
Atmospheric Adventure
You play as a long dormant soldier, awoken by a droplet of water, and immediately begin restoring the barren world back to its once oceanic glory. There are numerous poetic tablets scattered around the world that reveal lore and legend about the world, but other than that, the storytelling is very atmospheric — it leaves you to work most things out for yourself.
While there’s no real combat in the Sword of the Sea, there is an epic series of events that conclude the game, ending the calm meditative gameplay with an exciting flourish.
Stunning Serenity
Sword of the Sea has a gasp-worthy, eye-bulging world that inspires wonder. Riding out into the ocean of rippling golden sand for the first time stopped me dead in my tracks, an event that happened multiple times when exploring the numerous biomes.
My favourite thing was restoring part of the world’s dormant oceans; a shockwave pulses outward, turning the opaque land into glassy seawater teeming with life. The creatures bring swirls of colour and movement as dozens of species of all different sizes swim through the air and water around you — fish, sharks, dolphins, whales… You can even ride the bigger creatures!
The game also has very minimal UI; for the most part, you’re left to drink in the scenery.
Skating DNA
Sword of the Sea focuses on exploration and platforming, asking you to solve environmental puzzles to advance to new areas. It’s a game that rewards curiosity; there’s always some sort of reward or collectible waiting for you when you head down a hidden passage or up a particularly tricky platforming section.
Zooming round on your hover-sword is exhilarating, especially after you’ve unlocked ‘boost whisps’ that propel you forward at break-neck speed. You can unlock tricks to perform when in the air, which mainly just look cool, unless you’re doing one of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater inspired high-score challenges. There are also areas where you can wall-ride, grind, or drop into a half-pipe — the game wears its skating influences on its sleeve.
Should you buy Sword of the Sea?
Sword of the Sea is every bit a culmination of its Director’s, Matt Nava, previous works. This new game takes the Zen-like atmospheric adventure of Journey, fills it with the swirling schools of magical sea life from ABZÛ and connects it all with high-speed traversal, like in the The Pathless. For me, it’s the best of the bunch.
To my surprise, my six-year-old also absolutely loves the game. The colours and sea life drew her in, and the gameplay kept her hooked. The controls are very easy to pick up and with no combat and few “scary moments”, it’s perfect for kids. Though mum or dad might need to help out with some of the trickier platforming.
Quest Daily scores Sword of the Sea:
9/10
Sword of the Sea is out now on PC, PlayStation 5, and as part of the PlayStation Plus Extra catalogue.
