A big fan of Firewatch, the first-person adventure from Campo Santo, took a trip to my homeland of Montana, and found some surprisingly accurate real world representations of pivotal scenes from the game. The game scenes were already real enough, that it didn't take much more than pointing a camera and throwing in a track from the Firewatch soundtrack. It's a short, entertaining watch, and its actual scenic vistas are highly evocative of virtual vistas I last saw nearly six months ago.

The video goes to show the research and work that went into making Firewatch's art direction feel authentic despite its stylized distance from realism. It's one of the reasons I liked it so much, having camped in those fire lookouts on occasion growing up. (You can too.) Firewatch mostly uses a saturated palette, which captures the quiet energy of a lush forest and dry heat of a mountain summer all without the use of a haptic feedback bodysuit. Fancy that.

Watch the fan video and trailer back to back, and note the similarities for yourself.

Eidos Montreal released a pile of new concept art for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided today, designed to showcase the appearance of "some of the major cities around the globe" in the game's unhappy near-future. The gallery includes shots of Barcelona, Berlin, Cologne, London, Paris, Rio, and several others, but it's the Moscow image which has caused controversy. Specifically, the presence in it of an "Augs Lives Matter" banner held by protesters.

That of course is a reference to Black Lives Matter, the highly-charged political movement protesting the systemic racism and abuse faced by African-Americans. The negative response to the adaption of the slogan, albeit in a futuristic setting, is that Eidos Montreal and publisher Square-Enix are borrowing the imagery too lightly, and being tone deaf to real world issues. Here's a sample of some of the criticism.

The response to the game's handling of politics in its marketing has been skeptical because trust needs to be earned, and it hasn't been.August 2, 2016

So it looks like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided has abandoned any pretence of understanding the social struggles it's appropriating.August 2, 2016

maybe I'm wrong! Maybe the new Deus Ex actually does take a stand on something. But only *the game* can do that. Not the marketing.August 2, 2016

This isn't the first time the game has generated heated debate. Eidos Montreal's use of mechanical apartheid, another politically loaded term, to describe the segregation of augmented humans in the Mankind Divided game world also led to complaints that the game was appropriating real-world horrors for the purposes of PR.

Executive art director Jon Jacques-Bellet te told Polygon at the time that people weren't giving the game enough credit as art, saying at the time that ...when we're dealing with serious subjects suddenly we re treated as little kids that are just doing videogames again. This whole thing is completely ridiculous. But as Austin Walker notes above, something being art doesn't absolve it from criticism. Quite the opposite.

It's possible that Mankind Divided will contribute meaningfully to the conversation about entrenched racism and the real-world violence it drives, but history tells us that's far from a given. On the one hand, gamers have fought a long-running battle for their medium to be taken seriously, and from that perspective difficult subject matter shouldn't be off limits. However, if developers treat raw, real life issues ham-fistedly, they should expect the same criticism that films and books receive.

Clearly this is a complex issue, and one which warrants greater discussion. I've reached out to Square Enix for comment, and will update if and when I receive a reply.

It's no secret that Overwatch takes quite a bit of inspiration from Team Fortress 2, but thanks to the efforts of Serbian modder Srpski eki (which translates to "Serbian Hammer") Team Fortress 2 is now taking a page from Overwatch's playbook. Srpski eki has recreated a version of Overwatch's escort map, Watchpoint: Gibraltar, that can be played in Team Fortress 2 through Steam Workshop and while it's not a perfect imitation, it comes pretty damn close.

As explained by Srpski eki , his version of Watchpoint: Gibraltar is in an alpha stage and is in dire need of some actual art as most of the level is comprised of featureless geometry. Despite its early state, eki 's map is still a fully functioning recreation and is surprisingly good at imitating Overwatch. Just about every mechanic of the escort game mode is carried over thanks to how similar Overwatch's escort mode is to TF2's payload mode. Even though the recreation isn't perfect, you'll hardly notice once the fight starts.

Because I have no friends, I went ahead and loaded a server with bots to play alongside me. They're far from a perfect substitute for humans but still do a great job of illustrating just how similar the DNA between Overwatch and TF2 really is. On offense, we were able to quickly push through to the final objective without much resistance because the enemy bots were too busy getting lost running around the level which was a bit disappointing. On defense, however, the round played surprisingly like Overwatch to the point of even having the same stalemates in certain parts of the map. Even despite the fact that TF2 differs from Overwatch in some fundamental ways, like needing ammo for your weapons, it's pretty amusing to see how the two are similarly structured. I captured a short video of a round against bots so you can judge for yourself. Also check out the gallery below for some close side-by-side comparisons between the Overwatch and TF2 version of the map.

The only real frustration would be the fact that, ultimately, Watchpoint: Gibraltar was built with Overwatch's heroes in mind. As similar as many of them are, I doubt that the map will be as balanced for Team Fortress 2's classes. Also, getting shanked by an enemy spy has made me wonder if there might be room for deceitful shenanigans with a new hero in Overwatch.

Right now there doesn't appear to be anyone hosting the map on the community servers, so if you want to give it a spin you'll need to round up some friends to play with or load up bots like I did. If you're unfamiliar with setting up bots in TF2, you can read this short guide on how to add them in your game. Because this is a custom map, you'll also need to generate a navigation mesh so the bots can move around, which isn't nearly as intimidating as it sounds. After you get the bots loaded, pop open the developer console (default is the '~' key) and type in "sv_cheats 1" and then type in "nav_generate". This will freeze the game for a bit while it does some calculations and then reload the map, allowing the bots to move around just be warned it's not perfect.

Now that I've played Srpski eki 's Watchpoint: Gibraltar, I'm honestly a bit surprised to see that modding Overwatch features into Team Fortress 2 hasn't been more of a thing, what with the two being so similar. The only other Overwatch mod I could find was this highly questionable haircut for TF2's Scout. Who said that people from Brooklyn couldn't be posh?

The CS:GO skin gambling controversy that kicked off in June seemed to come to a head a couple of weeks ago when Valve issued a cease-and-desist letter to more than 20 gambling sites, including CSGO Lounge, one of the first and biggest websites in the questionably legal industry that grew around Valve's game. It was a fairly straightforward proposition: Commercial use of Steam accounts is unlicensed and in violation of the SSA [Steam Subscriber Agreement], Valve wrote, and could lead to penalties of various sorts, including the loss of the account outright.

The general expectation was that gambling sites would be forced to shut down, although once such site, CSGOBig, said the closure was only temporary and vowed to return. But CSGO Lounge has taken a different tack by embracing its gambling heritage, even as it denied that it was ever actually a gambling site at all.

From the very beginning, the lounge service was intended as an entertainment service for the esports community of Dota2 and CS:GO, and we have never considered it as a real money betting. Virtual items in CS:GO and Dota2 have no monetary value and any community interaction with the virtual items is meant only for entertainment, without any profit interest, a recently-posted notice explains. We did not collect any commission or similar until June 2016, where we started doing it in order to improve our items drafting and quality of winnings, compensate items losses due to issues related to our product or issues with Steam community trading, to enable giveaways for the community and add more features to our service in near future.

After all the recent events around virtual items and the official letter by Valve, which we have received as well, we were left out alone without any additional information or communication by Valve on this matter. We had to make a decision on how to proceed with Lounges as community place and entertainment service. The situation is highly confusing we are not offering games of luck, we are not offering any transactions with real money or equivalents. Despite those facts, in order to avoid or reduce the confusion, we have decided to acquire a license to legally operate in most of the countries and be able to accept the esports bets by our community, as if it would be real money, it says.

Gambling laws differ significantly across the world and even within individual countries, and essentially Lounge is only now making an attempt to implement systems that comply with them. As Evan explained in his breakdown of the CSGO skin gambling scene, Lounge itself has been operating for about three years without any meaningful checks against a user's age or location. To me, Lounge's rapid move to implement these systems is a tacit admission of wrongdoing.

Starting from Monday, 1st August 2016, we will start limiting the access to the betting functionality for users visiting us from countries and regions, where online esports betting is forbidden. We will add additional registration and verification process and we require you to comply with our new Terms of Service if you want to keep using our service. We also remind that our service is only for users who are at least 18 years old, it continues. We will be operating according to the new terms and any transactions related to the items betting functionality will be handled accordingly to the new terms of service, and only on the territories, which do not forbid it by law.

The betting feature will be disabled in the following countries and regions, although users will still be able to withdraw any existing winnings and deposits:

• United Kingdom
• United States
• Belgium
• France
• French Guiana
• Guernsey
• Gibraltar
• Ireland
• Isle of Man
• Jersey
• Martinique
• French Polynesia
• Reunion
• Mayotte
• Turkey
• Spain
• Scotland
• Israel

The ban on betting from the US, UK, and parts of Europe in particular should severely impact the number of CS:GO items that are bet on the site. CSGO Lounge said it is trying to come up with ways for people in those regions to stay engaged with its site, although it also warned that it can't guarantee the safety or sanctity of items on the site if and when Valve decides to drop the hammer.

That's the big question mark hanging over this whole thing. CSGO Lounge appears to be making moves toward legitimacy, but Valve's C&D specifically cites the unlicensed commercial use of Steam as the problem here not that these are gambling sites, but that Steam and Steam services are licensed for personal, non-commercial use only. Even if the Lounge gets squared away as a proper, up-front gambling site, in other words, if it's still making use of Steam, it will presumably still be in violation of the SSA. Theoretically, it could disentangle itself from Steam and operate independently, but given how tightly integrated it, that seems unlikely or at the very least, unlikely to succeed.

I've reached out to both Valve and CSGO Lounge for comment.

It was the day of the Great Hunt. The refrigeration chamber of Corpse Town, usually stocked with fresh meat, was empty. So all ten residents of the town got up and went to the plains where deer and boar roamed in huge numbers. There they killed as many of the animals as possible. Until the deer, furious at their mistreatment, rose up against their masters in a vast rebellion and began goring everyone to death with their hooves and antlers. And then the pirate attacked. But the town would still eat tonight.

RimWorld is a colony management sim that puts you in charge of a handful of reprobates marooned on a planet and laughs as you slowly fail to keep them from eating raw meat and vomiting on each other. While the vanilla mode sees you drop onto a planet with three random people, there is a powerful scenario editor that lets you piece together your own story right from the start. This is what I used to create the cannibal clan of Corpse Town.

My scenario is called All Hail the Spider Lord. Ten acolytes of a cannibalistic spider god a terrifying alien creature called 'Jack' crash land on the planet and have to abide by their lord's commandments. Scenarios like this let you roleplay and put limits on your own people. For instance, the founders of Corpse Town cannot dig graves or build sarcophogi. On the editor, these buildings are marked 'disabled'. As the player, however, this translates as a tribe's tradition. They simply don't understand the custom of burying the dead. It would be a waste of ingredients.

It was also the custom of Corpse Town that those who died during the Great Hunt (or at any moment) were themselves stripped, butchered and consumed. The Spider Lord demanded it. But since everyone in this scenario begins with the "cannibal" trait, they don't feel bad about this. When Stephen, the mohawk-sporting clansman responsible for mining operations, died fighting pirates on the auspicious Day of Great Events, and was subsequently cut up, fried, and packaged into a ready-made meal, nobody in corpse town wept. It was just their way of life.

Setting your people limits and characteristics like this poses a challenge on top of the game's already nasty AI storytellers (you can set these to an easier 'base building' setting but you'd be missing out on all the best drama). For example, the Spider Lord forbids the clan from using ranged weapons a cowardly form of warfare. To simulate this, I simply gave the colonists a boost to melee damage and a penalty when using guns or ranged weapons.

Of course, you can't make things too hard for yourself. You have to find the right balance, like any game designer would. The cannibals land as a group of ten not to make the game easier (although more hands do make light work of construction) but simply because no food is included in the cargo pods when they first land, unlike a 'normal' colony. The idea is that worst comes to worst the weakest among them can be transformed into breakfast at any moment. Like Stephen. Poor, delicious Stephen.

All this just adds to RimWorld's characterful story-making. One of Corpse Town's residents a giant idiot called Zen was incapable of violence. This made him a complete anomaly to all the other warrior-citizens, who continually insulted him at the dinner table. When he tried to flirt with one of the women a 59-year-old criminal surgeon called Toni, who had already taken a partner Zen was rebuffed multiple times. When a pair of innocent visitors arrived in the town looking to trade, the entire clan descended upon the merchants with steel knives, like Caesar's assassins. Everyone except Zen, who just stood by in the pouring rain and watched, saddened by the deaths of these strangers.

When the clan walked away from this crime, leaving the tradesfolk for dead, I noticed that one of them was still alive. I ordered Zen to kill him, but he could not would not do it. He was just a dumb gentle giant. Hanna, the hardest, meanest, cannibal among them, walked past Zen and stuck a knife into the twitching victim multiple times over, eventually killing him. Zen spent the rest of the day sulking and hammering at a wall.

I pondered having Zen butchered and put in the fridge. But as time went on even he proved himself. When the Great Hunt went wrong, angering the deer population into their populist uprising and resulting in the incapacitation of four colonists, Zen had been cooking at home. What was left of the hunting party limped back through the gates and went straight to the medical dungeon. Only Hanna came back unscathed. That's when the pirates struck (and the alphabeavers came) (and the heatwave hit).

Together, Zen and Hanna put aside their differences in character and worked in shifts to build two turrets. They lured both the rampaging herd of deer and the pirates into the centre of the village, where the turrets distracted the pirates long enough for them to be harassed by the ungrateful mob of angry bucks. It bought time for the the wounded colonists to recover slightly, and when they slumped out of bed and attacked only Scrumptious Stephen died in the chaos.

After the fighting, as Zen helped stitch up his clansmates' wounds in the medical ward, he saw how ugly the walls where and how dirty the floor was and he finally snapped. He took out a club and went berserk. It took three bruised and bloodied clansfolk to restrain him. Everyone was very proud of him that day. The citizens of Corpse Town lined up to visit his hospital bed, cheering him up and talking to him without insults. The Spider Lord, Jack, rested easy in his chamber.

Stories like this in RimWorld sometimes take a while to get cooking. But when everything goes wrong and the game reaches boiling point, all the facets of your own scenario fall into place, giving everyone more character. If you too want to play under the gaze of the Spider Lord, feel free to download it here. But more than that I recommend creating your own scenario be it peaceful hippies or murderous Viking warriors. In RimWorld, it pays to be creative.

Ark: Survival of the Fittest began life in mid-2015 as a mod for Ark: Survival Evolved in which players, individually or in small teams, compete in a Hunger Games-like, last-man-standing tournament. It proved popular enough that Studio Wildcard spun it off into a free standalone game earlier this year, adding cash prizes to the mix just to keep things interesting. But yesterday the studio announced that it has been re-integrated into Survival Evolved, in order to give it full Steam Workshop support.

We think that Steam Workshop support for Survival of the Fittest is a significant addition it's pretty much the most-requested feature for the game at the present time, Studio Wildcard co-founder Jeremy Stieglitz said. We can now support unlimited modding with both games and modders have instant access to work with new content as it drops into either game.

For purposes of technical functionality, Survival of the Fittest will continue to operate as a standalone game, separate from Survival Evolved, and it will remain fully accessible to anyone who downloaded it while it was free, even if they don't own the game from whence it sprung. But it will be considered part of the ARK: Survival Evolved product group from here on, meaning that it will only be available with the purchase of Survival Evolved.

Studio Wildcard said in the latest Survival of the Fittest Steam update that the main reason for rolling the two into one was to ensure that modders making new material for Fittest have full, unrestricted access to Evolved content. But supporting Survival of the Fittest as a free game was also a challenge, and the team decided that it didn't want to fall back on conventional free-to-play options like in-app purchases in order to pay the bills.

We don t know much about monetization, and quite frankly we aren t interested in hiring an economics team to take over that process, it is much more in our and your best interest for Wildcard to solely focus on the development of a game, the studio wrote. We just aren t cut out for free to play mechanics. With SotF being part of Ark: Survival Evolved, it ll be able to draw from Survival Evolved resource pool directly, and enable us to continue operating the title.

A large-scale Survival of the Fittest mod contest will get underway in the near future, to help give the SotF creative community a boost to get out there and make cool stuff, Studio Wildcard said. It also announced that the July Survivor League Championship, in which the top Survival of the Fittest teams square off for a share of more than $65,000 in prizes, will begin at 8 am PT on August 6, and be broadcast on Twitch.

Picture how your city might look in a world post-Aug Incident. Grim, right? Well, so long as you live in Barcelona, Berlin, Cologne, London, Moscow, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Stockholm, Sydney, or seaside town Blackpool (featured in the image above) rest that simple organic brain, because the Deus Ex art team has done the imagining for you.

As a means of showcasing their skills, members of the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided art team have envisioned the Aug Incident (where the world's augs were simultaneously driven to vicious insanity) via some neat dystopia-inspired artwork. Observe:

Apologies if your hometown isn t covered, but that might be for the best. I live in Glasgow, so my city isn t up there either then again, the art might actually be an improvement. For more Deus Ex: Mankind Divided artwork, check out Andy's look at its grim vision of the future.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is due to launch August 23.

Dark and sinister Diablo 2-a-like Grim Dawn welcomes its The Crucible DLC tomorrow.

Dubbed a harsh battleground filled with waves of Grim Dawn s deadliest fiends, the incoming expansion dumps players into four different arenas and tasks them with fending off 150 enemy waves all for the amusement of the titular Crucible s enigmatic overlord Lokarr.

But he is not a cruel master, says the action RPG's developer Crate Entertainment. Endure his trials and be rewarded with vast wealth; fail, and know only his scorn. So, um, don t mess up, yeah?

Tributes act as currency to craft defence structures, while Celestial Blessings call upon the gods to see you right. More on the specifics can be read this way, however here s the general idea as told via the game s site:

The Crucible will test your characters like nothing has before as you battle through its three difficulty modes. You will begin as an Aspirant, untested and unscarred by the ravages of the Crucible. But once you defeat the first 100 waves of the Crucible, you will earn access to the Challenger difficulty. Likewise, defeating 100 waves as a Challenger will allow you to play on the Gladiator difficulty. Each difficulty presents tougher challenges, but also greater rewards.

If you picked up Grim Dawn via its website prior to or during its Kickstarter or via the Kickstarter campaign itself The Crucible DLC comes free-of-charge. If you didn t, it ll cost 4.49/$4.99 on Steam and GOG with a 15 percent release discount during its first week.

Last week we talked about how to best use HE grenades and firebombs. Knowing how to deal damage and control areas of the map is great, but before you can make use of that knowledge you need to know how to take control in the first place. That s where smoke grenades and flashbangs come in.

One-way smokes

Is there anything more annoying than to get killed by someone you can t see? A well placed smoke screen will result in what s called a one-way smoke which basically means you can see through it but no one can see you. Spread across the maps are a few known one-way smoke-spots. If you see a smoke in one of those spots it can be a good idea to fire a few shots just to be sure no one s hiding behind it. Here are a couple of examples of one-way smokes:

Pop flashes

A flashbang that pops as it enter a player s field of vision is called a pop flash. The purpose of pop flashes is to give your opponent as small window to turn around as possible. Often you want to stand just behind a corner and call for a teammate to flash you in. By doing this you ll either find your enemy completely flashed or with his back facing you if you time it right.There are also a few really good pop flashes that can be used without the help of a teammate. A lot of those flashes are used to take control over areas on the map. This flash on Cache is a basic one but really effective as you don t have to turn around: you can just push.

Another spot that can be hard to push without using at least one flashbang is short on Dust2. Aim at the slope right next to the stairs and run in a straight line as you throw it. If you succeed it doesn t matter where they re peeking from they re gonna think it s Christmas.

Play around on empty servers and try to find flashes like these two. Watching pro matches is probably one of the best ways to find new throws that you didn t know about. HLTV.org is a great resource when it comes to pro demos.

 Smoke grenades and timing

It takes 15 seconds from when a smoke grenade detonates until it has completely evaporated. Knowing this is key when you want to time plays or just want to delay your opponent s attack.

Let s say you re defending B on Dust2 and you ve saved your smoke. They have 40 seconds left on the clock and your teammate on long just saw an enemy. You know the terrorists need four seconds on the clock to plant the bomb. In this scenario you have to make a decision. Do you hold on to the smoke for a few more seconds or do you use it? I d say you should wait and see what happens. If it turns out the terrorist over on the other side of the map didn t fake, you still have your smoke. If it on the other hand was a fake, it s highly unlikely that the rest of their team will push at the exact same time. You can also use firebombs or flashbangs in order to delay the push even further. There are no right answers to these questions. Play the game and eventually you ll find what works for you. Just make sure to pay attention to what usually happens when you do a certain thing and try to learn from it.

Another thing that s important when it comes to using grenades is that you don t want to stand out in the open when you throw them. If you peek a spot and want to smoke off that spot you should always back off a bit before you throw it. Most of the times I ve died with a grenade in my hand could ve been avoided and it s really frustrating when it happens. Try to stay focused when you practice. Sloppy play during practice will result in sloppy play in those games that really matter. After all, we are creatures of habit.

Strategic use of utility grenades on attack

The true beauty of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is found in how well a team coordinates their plays. Watching teams like fnatic or SK Gaming execute their attacks is like standing before the Mona Lisa. If you ve played CS:GO in a team environment you know just how difficult it is to time your smokes and pop flashes perfectly with your teammates. Even if you ve planned all the grenades you re going to use you still need timing and move like a single organism to make the most out of your strategy.

Spend some time with your team tightening up your timings. If you don t already have a team I strongly recommend you to try it out if you want to take your game to the next level. You can either try to join an existing team or form one with friends. Both are super rewarding in their own way. Here s a great example of how to execute a strategy as a unit:

Na Vi not only shows us the strategy as a whole, but you also get to see what each player does from their point of view. Watch and learn.

Find all of our other Counter-Strike: Global Offensive guides here:

Inferno Counter-Terrorist guideInferno Terrorist guideCache Counter-Terrorist guideCache Terrorist guideOverpass Counter-Terrorist guideOverpass Terrorist guideCobblestone Counter-Terrorist guideCobblestone Terrorist guideTrain Counter-Terrorist guideTrain Terrorist guideMirage Counter-Terrorist guideMirage Terrorist guideDust2 Counter-Terrorist guideDust2 Terrorist guideSupport role guideEntry fragger role guideLurker role guideAWPer role guideTeam leader guideSMGs guideSniper rifles guideAssault rifles guidePistols guideWorst weapons guideHE grenades and firebombs guide

This giant squid isn t the kind of kraken who d take down a ship or duke it out with Moby Dick. Still, it s huge, roughly three times my length from tip to tentacle. Its massive glassy eyes look me up and down. They re as big as a pancakes with pupils like balled fists. I m getting sized up by an intelligent, curious creature. Something I heard on a science doc years back floats up, Take it out of the water and their eyes deflate like limp plastic grocery bags. Be well, giant squid.

We swim together for a minute, and then I do a little somersault to signal I m off. The squid doesn t seem to care and continues to do cool squid stuff, which is fine. But for a moment, I was up close with an impressive, abstract being, thinking about what it might be thinking about. I wasn t worried about solving puzzles or a health bar or where to go next I was only concerned with swimming and seeing and understanding, a major accomplishment.

Underwater journey

Abz is an expertly directed psychedelic marine tour without a single UI or text prompt telling you where to go or what to do, purely driven by curiosity. You play as a nameless diver with an infinite lung capacity (or no lungs at all) where you move on a linear path from one big underwater environment to the next at your own leisure. You might have to pull a lever here and you re encouraged to steer clear of certain objects later on, but your progress is never gated by puzzles or actual danger. Go on, take that shark for a ride. You re invincible.

With no clear, pressing goals, Abz is about movement and observation, and enables both in expansive, satisfying ways. You re encouraged to do as divers do and thoroughly explore each vibrant ocean environment, populated with actual creatures from the marine biosphere.

I never want to stop moving because swimming feels so great. The diver cuts through the water, frictionless and easy to control. One button does a powerful dolphin kick, propelling the diver forward, and another, arguably one of my favorite button assignments in a while, performs a somersault in whatever direction you re pressing. You never need to use it, but it s a flourish that encourages movement for the sake of it. Whether turning a corner in a jetstream or just trying to chain together two consecutive flips to impress the dolphins, throwing a somersault in at the right time is a satisfying way to maintain momentum while feeling and looking cool. I wish there were more frivolous maneuvers to play with, but swimming, in combination with exploration, is fun enough as is.

I lingered in the environments for a long time, following schools of fish to get a better look, piggybacking a hungry grouper, or trying to keep pace with a manta ray fleet. I skirted the sandy floor, looking for skittish octopi and bright blue lobsters. I reenacted the iconic scene from Free Willy with my orca pals, tried to hug a giant squid, and did a barrel roll on a humpback whale through a torrential cyclone of silvery fish. They dynamically parted around us, spinning off in erratic patterns, and returned to their flashy tornado. It s one of the most beautiful, bizarre things I ve done in a game, and it felt like my idea. Feel free to use it.

Environments can look comically overloaded with life, but we re meant to see the ecosystem squished tight and exploding with color. They re microcosms of a larger system, signifying an ideal abundance and exchange of energy a pretty perpetual motion machine. Deeper environments turn down the brightness in exchange for mood, scarcity, and stranger creatures, but the sense of wonder never left me.

To really soak it in, you can meditate on statues in each environment, which let you leave the perspective of the diver and use the camera to select any present organism to follow them around for a bit. It s an easy way to observe the individual animations and behaviors of the dozens of species a single area might have, and the camera follows the food chain. If you re watching a small fish while a bigger fish snaps it up, the perspective will then shift to the big fish. If a hungry shark comes along, the camera chain continues. It s like bouncing around in a psychedelic marine documentary all that s missing is some Attenborough. But in place of David s narration, the journey is elevated by an amazing score from Austin Wintory.

I emerge from a cave and into a bottomless abyssal oceanic trench with almost no visible life but for the silhouette of a pod of whales below the music follows suit, falling from an orchestral swell to nearly imperceptible ambience. It s never jarring, and merges with the exploration and environment into a singular entity if it sounds sentimental, well, it is. It works for the music. The story though? Not so much.

Moral reef

Abz s story peaks in what s meant to be a grand catharsis, but I was tempted to roll my eyes. It works better as an impressionist piece than a directed experience, which is where it clams up for me. The story is simple: a ruined underwater civilization that once lived in harmony with nature lost sight of that relationship and started exploiting the creatures it once worshipped. Technology rolls in, cast as an industrial menace and does its destructive thing it s a story I ve heard many times before and a familiar one for a studio with the same creative director behind Flower and Journey. Personally, I agree with its argument yes, let s be better to this earth but any direct attempt to say something feels hamfisted.

But when Abz doesn t paint silly expositional hieroglyphs on the wall, when it presents me with beauty and behavior and lets my mind go where it will that s when I felt most affected. Who knew doing a barrel roll on a humpback whale through a fish tornado would choke me up?

Despite the forced narrative, there are few games quite as curious and beautiful as Abz , and fewer of its kind on the PC. It s a short, dense journey filled with intense wonder and inherent beauty, and every inch is worth seeing.