Sword Of The Sea review – Journey for a new generation

From many of the same creators behind PlayStation classic Journey comes an enchanting new game that may be the best indie title of the year.

Where free-to-download mobile apps create cynical psychological hooks to keep you playing, and role-playing games reel you in with a drip feed of incremental upgrades, there are still video games that make you feel good just by playing them. The feeling of moving Mario around 3D environments never gets old, while the pinpoint exactitude of Dead Cells is as richly addictive as a perfectly judged drift in Gran Turismo 7.

Then there’s Journey’s sense of calm momentum, as you glide across its sparkling dunes – a game which has clearly been a major influence on Sword Of The Sea. It features a similar mix of twitch gameplay and quiet serenity, because unlike most swords, the one in this game also double as a jet-powered hoverboard, coasting inches above the landscape, while propelling you across it at high velocity.

Exploring its landscapes you notice that the sands’ undulation is more like an ocean than a desert. Even when you’re standing still – something that happens fairly infrequently – there’s a noticeable swell, the dunes beneath you rising and falling like waves on the sea. That starts to make more sense when you come across nodes you activate, which spill water and sea life into previously arid vistas.

These moments see crystal blue waters suddenly turning the ground transparent, so you can see the colourful coral and darting fish beneath, as you surf over them on your hover-sword, a jet spray of foam kicked up as you fly past. It makes the relatively mundane process of triggering switches into something consistently magical.

You’ll also discover fields of unlit lanterns, which illuminate as you fly across them, also unleashing changes to the landscape when they’re all lit. They’ll release shoals of glowing jellyfish into the air that bounce you up to previously inaccessible roofs and ledges or mound the water in unlikely ways to create a surf-able slope up previously sheer cliffs.

The larger sea creatures are also interactive, so you can leap aboard orcas, sperm whales, or great white sharks, riding them as they swim majestically through the air, letting you explore what feels like a surreal but coherent ecosystem. As you find new nodes to trigger, you’ll open fresh pathways into blissfully different biomes, with secrets hidden everywhere.

Each time you’re released into a new environment, you’ll search the most obvious parts first, but just swishing around the place on your sword, you’ll start noticing niches in the walls or rocky arches that look as though they might lead somewhere interesting. Often, you’ll only be able to reach them after completing a lantern fields, but it’s astounding quite how many hidden areas there are at every stage of Sword Of The Sea.

It’ll have you hopping up ledges, or riding glowing half-pipes, each landing increasing your momentum as you reach higher, until you’re finally able to jump out and onto a tiled roof or clifftop. Fans of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater will be relieved to learn that as well as getting from A to B, your sword also lets you pull off gnarly tricks.

Holding a trigger while you’re airborne, the face buttons let you do grabs and flips, which multiply into combos when you muster enough airtime. There are even special time trial high areas, where your only job is to shred against the clock, trying to beat your own high score; a process that gets easier as you unlock new special moves.

Those are bought with tetra, the game’s currency, which you’ll find secreted all over the place. It’s initially quite hard to come by, but towards the end, gets doled out in vast quantities, and will give you access to both more tricks and significantly enhanced possibilities for traversal, including the ability to ride a tube of water, Silver Surfer-style.

Rather prosaically, the game’s lore is spelled out, its story delivered in poetic, glowing inscriptions carved into obelisks you find. There you can read stories about an ancient battle between gods and mortals, and a hero who will rise against evil and take up the Sword of the Sea. It doesn’t take all that much deductive reasoning to figure out who that might be.

Fortunately, that doesn’t undermine the sense of wonder, which is continually renewed as you enter a new area, which then changes out of all recognition as you release riotous waterfalls of colour into it, and start getting to know its every curve and nook.

The reason all this feels rather like your first play through of Journey, is that the games have multiple development team members in common. Most notably, developer Giant Squid’s Matt Nava, who worked not only Journey, but also ABZÛ – which while not quite as accomplished was certainly as whimsical.

That explains the wonderful atmosphere, the enchanting qualities of just moving around its world, and the artifice with which its secrets are hidden. The soaring music is just as evocative, coming from long-time collaborator and multiple BAFTA-winner Austin Wintory.

Our first play through lasted less than fours hours, but with a high score at the end and a lingering sense that we’d only unearthed a small portion of its secrets, there’s an implicit invitation to play again, making fresh discoveries and more insane trick combos, and to simply re-experience its wonders.

There’s no pretending Sword Of The Sea is a long experience but it is a completely unforgettable one and after decades of Journey wannabes and would-be spiritual sequels, there’s a finally a game that may be better than its inspiration.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (tested) and PC
Price: £19.99*
Publisher: Giant Squid
Developer: Giant Squid
Release Date: 19th August 2025
Age Rating: 7

*Included free with PlayStation Plus Extra

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