It’s going to be a good summer for fans of games where you get to surf and skate around. In July, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 will remaster to iconic, more realistic skateboarding video games with a modern sheen and coat of paint. Then, in August, Sword of the Sea will take that core concept of skating or surfing around while performing tricks and graft it onto a gameplay formula more similar to Journey or The Pathless. It’s from developers who worked on those games after all.
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And I have to say, I think I prefer Sword of the Sea over Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4. I played Giant Squid’s new game at Summer Game Fest Play Days this year, and it was personally my favorite game from the show. It was simple to pick up and play, but quickly became absolutely exhilarating as I surfed around a wavy desert, slowly bringing the water and life back to it. Sword of the Sea is now one of my most anticipated games of the year, and shows the potential extreme sports game mechanics can have when you dare to go beyond more realistic interpretations.
In Sword of the Sea, players control a being called the Wraith, who is awakened by a single drop of water and sets out to explore a sandy world that has buried a civilization. The Wraith has the power to restore this world, and by interacting with certain objects scattered about can bring water and life back to it. The Play Days demo appeared to begin right at the start of the game, with the. Wraith awakening and instantly setting out on this adventure.
In line with games like Journey, Abzu, and The Pathless, there isn’t any dialogue or overt attempts at spoon-fed storytelling. Sword of the Sea is content on just going off vibes for its story, letting players get immersed in its world by exploring every nook and cranny of it. And even played the game for just under a half-hour, I already feel quite immersed in it. There’s a simple beauty to seeing life return to a desolate desert.
Sword of the Sea’s immaculate vibes really come through because of the gameplay, though. As I’ve teased, this game plays a bit like an extreme sports game as players are moving around while riding their sword. The Hoversword feels like some combination of skateboard, surfboard, and snowboard, and the world of the game is constructed accordingly. Sand dunes are wavy, there are natural half-pipes, walls, and grind rails to ride around on, and players can easily build speed, gain lots of air time, and perform tricks while in the air.
A true comparison to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 is a bit unfair because Sword of the Sea is a very different game. Players don’t have a limited time to hover around and aren’t going for a high score. Instead, the goal is to explore and restore. And I did just that during my time with Sword of the Sea, following two chains to where they were rooted and using the Wraith’s power to interact with any objects I found there. By doing so, water would come rushing back, as would the fish and different wildlife that can exist within it.
Playing on a DualSense controller, a nice touch was that the vibrations would feel a bit different whether I was moving across sand or water. That finely tuned vibration feel just shows the massive attention to detail that developer Giant Squid put into this game. I was genuinely sad when I had to put the controller down at the end of my appointment to see the game, the true mark a fantastic game. As such, I’m chomping at the bit to play more of Sword of the Sea, and now looking forward to it more than any other game like it.
Sword of the Sea will be released for PC and PS5 on August 19, and will be part of the PS Plus Premium and Extra game catalog from day one.
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Image courtesy of Marvel Studios
