Far: Changing Tides Review
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need to know
What is it? An atmospheric puzzle game in which you ride a boat through a submerged world.
Expected payment: $20/£15
Developer: rush car
Publisher: Frontier Foundry
Comment on: Intel Core i7-10750H, 16GB RAM, GeForce RTX 2060
multiplayer game? Do not
Association: farchangtides.com
Its predecessor was about traversing dry seabeds, Far: Change Tides gives you the opposite problem: There’s really so much water here that civilization seems to have been washed away by the tide. All that’s left is you and your ship, which you acquire shortly after the game starts. When you get the hang of the chimeric nature of the ship — it’s actually several different vehicles, including a steam train, crammed together indecently — Far keeps rolling out new surprises that open up its lateral Scroll the extent of the world. By the end of the game, I knew every nuance of this ship. This is the most valuable boat I’ve ever piloted in a video game ocean.
When you liberate the boat – by jumping on the body, raising the sails to a vertical position – the only things you have to worry about are the wind and natural or man-made obstacles. The latter are usually cleared by jumping off the boat and solving (mostly intuitive) mechanical puzzles, while the wind is something you manage on deck. It’s a pretty simple system – you can drag the sails to deal with changing breezes – but the way the water actually pitches as the wind changes makes it feel like you’re really fighting the current.
(Image credit: Okomotive)
I don’t think there is a way for the game to fail, die, or completely run out of fuel.
Many times, Changing Tides pulls back the puzzling questions for simple fun on surprisingly long voyages. The soundtrack fades away, and beautiful vistas of sunsets, floating towns, and polar wildlife skim in the background. Just you and the ocean, with one eye on the horizon and one hand gently stroking the wind. In between hectic ship management, and after the occasional headache, these pure sailing moments are a just and very satisfying reward.
Soon your ship is equipped with a giant clanging steam engine that you can start with some junk found in the world. You pour this fuel into a furnace and bounce it on a bellows to ignite it, allowing the mechanical paddles to propel the boat forward without the need for wind. It’s here that Changing Tides approaches a ship management game like FTL or Sea of Thieves, but with an overworked captain taking on every role that gets blown up on board.
At times, all the back and forth darts have pressure – work the bellows too hard and the engine will overheat, meaning you have to run to the hose and use it to cool the engine – but I don’t think there’s a way to game fail, die, or completely drain Run out of fuel. You might be stuck for a few minutes as you hunt around for loose bits of junk — laboriously hauling them one by one to the inside of the boat — but they always seem to pop up when you need them.
(Image credit: Okomotive)
Of course, just when you get the hang of it, the Changing Tides will pull the rug away from you.The next upgrade after the steam engine turns the ship into a submarineallowing you to dive under islands, icebergs, and other colossal things, continuing your relentless journey to the right side of the screen.
Mechanically, it’s not a huge change, but it means you now have to make time to move the boat up and down in order to pass underwater caves and facilities. While it’s true that you can’t fail, such as damaging your boat on a rock, if you hit an obstacle and crawl slowly, it can be a pain to reverse the boat or restore power. In Far Away: Tides Change, you usually pay for these setback mistakes.
However, it wasn’t too much of a game. You may have a lot of characters on board, but important switch locations are close together. All the manual work creates a strong bond between you and the rusted metal and wood, which is what makes those open sailing moments so rewarding.
(Image credit: Okomotive)
Every once in a while, you’ll need to dive deep to find supplies, or hop on some massive structure to pull switches, push boxes, and do other puzzling things. It’s here that Changing Tides turns into a more traditional puzzle platformer, and a slightly less fun one. I’d say the puzzles are correct, not that challenging, you’ll be stuck for days, or it’s easy to feel like a waste of time, but the commitment to minimalism can make it hard to figure out what you’re aiming for.
It does feel like a journey, more so than many games with bigger worlds and greater freedom to explore.
There’s no text in the game (except for some very early tutorial info) and no nudges in the right direction if you do get stuck. While I generally appreciate the lack of hand-holding, sometimes it’s hard to decipher exactly what Changing Tides wants from you. Is this giant tube a battery? I think I need to power it up, I guess? It’s helpful that things you can use or move are dyed blue, so trial and error usually gets you there, but many puzzles only make sense after the fact.
But while these puzzles aren’t special, they do a good enough job of clearly being placed there: breaking the action while giving you a chance to stretch your legs. When I finally got back on the boat, I couldn’t wait to start the engine and push the boat forward.
(Image credit: Okomotive)
By the way, you’ve been in there for a long time. Whenever I thought I was nearing the end, the tidal changes kept surpassing themselves, giving me one surprise after another. It’s a game with multiple peaks, like the moment you dive underwater for the first time, or the moment you lift an entire city from the depths. At one point late in the game, I opened my mouth. It’s only when the end finally comes that you’ll understand why you’re doing this, why you’re embarking on this journey.and it Do It feels like a journey, more so than many games with a bigger world and greater freedom to explore.
It all went back to those moments, those open spaces of sailing on the high seas. Just you, the boat, some beautiful scenery and changing winds. It’s an emptiness that makes this peaceful post-apocalyptic world feel much bigger than it really is.
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