Sword Of The Sea is a gorgeous new desert-surfing adventure from the devs behind Abzu and Journey
Look familiar?
If you loved Journey's shimmering deserts and fluid sand-surfing, then let me draw your attention to the newly announced Sword Of The Sea. Revealed during Sony's PlayStation Showcase, Sword Of The Sea comes from Giant Squid Studio, the folks behind 2016's Abzû and 2020's The Pathless, and sees you play as The Wraith, a lone explorer on a quest to restore submerged cities that have been buried beneath a sea of golden dunes. You're able to slickly travel across the sandy terrain thanks to a rad-as-heck hoversword, a traversal tool that's described on the PlayStation blog as a "snowboard, skateboard, and hoverboard all in one." You can witness some major sand-shredding and see what else Sword Of The Sea has in store by watching the lavish announcement trailer below.
The trailer is a sight to behold. The sand-surfing looks incredibly fluid and the possibility of pulling off an epic flip while launching your hoverboard off some gorgeous ancient architecture holds massive appeal. Together with that giant monster tease at the end of the trailer, expect some run-ins with giant leviathans.
Giant Squid's creative director is Matt Nava, who was also the art director on Journey, so that explains all the beautifully rendered sand. The Journey comparisons aside, Sword Of The Sea is also very in line with Giant Squid's work. The studio has always found interesting ways to create the feeling of freedom through movement - such as the graceful underwater diver in Abzû and the wickedly fast archer in The Pathless - so The Wraith looks like they'll complete the studio's trilogy of super smooth stars.
Sword of The Sea will release on PC and PlayStation 5. It doesn't have a confirmed release date yet (or even a Steam page) so until then you'll find me in my attic searching for my old skateboard.