If you enjoyed ThatGameCompany’s seminal Journey, and you loved Giant Squid Studios’ Abzû, then you might very well like the latter developer’s newly announced Sword of the Sea, which looks like both of those games lovingly squished together into a brand-new whole.
Sword of the Sea is Giant Squid’s third release – following on from 2016’s deep sea adventure Abzû and 2020’s The Pathless – and its announcement trailer, aired during Sony’s latest PlayStation Showcase, focuses on a lone explorer, known as The Wraith, sand-surfing their way through a strikingly rendered desert, all undulanting sands and ancient temples, that suddenly gives way to roaring waves and flying marine life.
Giant Squid’s creative director Matt Nava (who served as art director on Journey, in case you’re wondering why the art style looks familiar) calls Sword of the Sea the studio’s “most ambitious game to date” on the PlayStation Blog, noting its “Hoversword” traversal sytem – a mix of “snowboard, skateboard, and hoverboard all in one” – is core to the experience.
As players make their way though “sinking tombs, mysterious shipwrecks, and petrified battlefields”, they’ll find skatepark-like ruins enabling them to “achieve great speeds and catch big air”. That’s all in service to Sword of the Sea’s main goal of restoring life to the Necropolis of the Gods, bringing back fish and other animals while dealing with terrifying leviathans.
Sword of the Sea – described as “meditative, exhilarating, and introspective” – doesn’t have a release date yet but, following tonight’s PlayStation Showcase unveiling, Giant Squid confirmed it’ll be coming to Steam alongside PlayStation 5.
