Sword of the Sea is what is happening when Matt Nava returns in the shadow of Journey

Sea sword is a game on letting go. Its main mechanic consists of surfing large dunes of the desert on a thin blade, cutting through sparkling sands and widening the old towers in a quest to find the secrets of past civilizations. He plays best when you completely forget the controls, and just go to smooth physics and let your little character sink. With enough exploration, you will naturally discover brilliant orbs shiny gold gems, and the sands will transform into deep crystalline seas with fish swimming in the air, sculpting wet paths through dirt. Your character, dressed in fluid dresses and a gold mask, rolls on the orange hills and blue waves with the same easy athletics, instantly reacting at each entry of the controller.

Load a jump, then complete the sick tips with a few quick starters, or release a bubble of sound energy to break the vases nearby, discovering pieces of money in the broken parts. The protagonist moves in the direction you push, stopping immediately when you let go of the analog stick. There are giant grinding chains, an overview capacity in certain areas and half-tuyaux generously positioned in the environments. Control prompts appear when you are presented for the first time to a capacity, but the text fades quickly and that you are left alone in the desert. There is no waypoint in Sea swordBut the environment tells a clear story, inviting you to solve puzzles in the mysterious temples sprinkling the landscape. Find shredd orbs on the roofs and secret hidden passages to unlock the secrets of the buildings, opening up new areas.

I played about 20 minutes of Sea sword At the Summer Game Fest, but I wanted to surf its dunes longer. It is the kind of game that makes the real world disappear, no matter how chaotic or intrusive. It is built on pace and vibrations, and it encourages a state of meditative flow of its first executives. Learn orders and forget them; Play with pure intuition and it will probably be the right blow.

“The game concerns surfing, and it is really the process of learning to surf and getting comfortable with surfing, then trying things that are a little beyond your abilities, failing, then understanding and accomplishing them,” said the creator of the Matt Nava sea on the SGF show. “And in the process, you somehow realize that surfing is to exploit the power of something bigger than you.

Nava is the creative and co-founder director of Giant Squid, the studio behind Abzaire And The path without path. Even with these two successful games to his credit, Nava is always best known as the artistic director of JourneyThe GameCompany Pivot Multiplayer Experience which struck PlayStation 3 in 2012. Nava has spent the last decade trying to build explicitly noJourney– type games with giant calmars, and while Abzaire And The path without path both have its distinctive visual stamp, they are the opposite of Journey in many ways. Or Journey was located in a dry and desert landscape, the follow -up of Nava, Abzairetook place in an underwater world. After that, The path without path was mainly green, rather than dusty orange.

With Sea swordNava loose taken. He dropped all the preconceived ideas of what he should do and mentally says kiss. He finally allowed himself to demonstrate the game that came to him naturally.

“In this match, it’s really taking, accepting and proclaiming it’s me,” said Nava. “I did it Journey. I’m going orange again. And I go back to the desert because I have many more ideas than we could not do in this game … It is as if I had lived in my own shadow for a long time in a strange way. It’s like, why am I doing this? I should be fair who I am and continue to explore the art that is my art. »»

Sea sword is a specific and special game, and even if it takes place in an orange desert, it does not have the impression Journey. The game also includes music by Austin WintoryThe composer nominated at Grammy Journey,, Abzaire And The path without path. Together, Nava and Wintory form a formidable base.

“Lots of video game scores, they just make a piece of music for the region,” said Nava. “If you are in the city, you hear the city music, and then it is repeated. But that’s not how it works here. Music advances as your story advances, it reflects where You Are on your surf adventure, what you learn how, how far your character went to this character arch. And this is where the music of a video game As ours should be.

While Nava and I discussed, someone sat down to play Sea sword On a screen nearby, and when I launched my eyes, I saw that they slipped into an area that I did not find in connection. A giant animal skeleton was half buried in the sand, shiny white vertebrae dotted with gold jewels so that the player can collect. There are a lot of secrets in Sea swordNava assured me. The best way to find them is to let go and play.

Sea sword is due to hit PlayStation 5,, Steam and the Epic game store August 19.