12 2016 Video Game Gems You Totally Missed

11. Abzû

Now for something altogether more positive-feeling. Abzû is the first game from newly-formed studio Giant Squid, who are headed up by Journey and Flower art director, Matt Nava.

Nava was cited as stating that the sand dune-filled Journey was a game devoid of life, and so he sought to make the opposite. As such, Abzû is absolutely teeming with a vibrant sense of interaction between species that will occasionally completely take you over. You'll swim through schools of what feel like thousands of fish all swirling in unison, float alongside a turtle and - if you're like me - start busting out the Finding Nemo quotes.

You'll learn how to cut and weave through the sea like the perfectly athletic swimmer you are, and can even latch onto the occasional dolphin before bursting out of the surface, pulling off a few mid-air flips and plunging back down again.

Abzû does have some twists up its sleeve, and the overall progression of the campaign is a delicious mix of mostly highs with the occasional low, but as a companion piece to Journey - the other side of its coin, if you will - it's fantastic.