[game 651]
Far: Changing Tides
Adventure
Playstation 5
Frontier Foundry (2022)
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I may be tiring of forlorn and cozy games, friends.
Indie adventure-puzzle-platformer Far: Changing Tides should have been a home run for me. But I already have played a couple water-based cozy games (Dredge, Dave The Diver) and Far really needed to ramp up the sadness or give me something other than running around a ramshackle steampunk boat to start or put out fires. Don't get me wrong, the art is pretty great and the vibes are correct (as the kids say). I must have missed something at the start because I didn't understand the main character's journey and really felt no emotional tugs other than some brooding tunes and muted tones.
Gameplay was moderately repetitive but well-crafted for what it is, I think. Essentially the boat is your platform game and you have to constantly adjust bits to make it go. As you progress, you earn new features for your ship and it does more things but still you're running around pressing buttons or throwing things in the fire. You can stop the boat and rummage around for trash or solve puzzles as well. Everything is well-executed and I rarely got annoyed with control choices other than I had to do that jump-on-a-thing thing too many times. It plays fine, it looks good, it sounds good... it just doesn't have that punch of story or killer feature to set it apart.
I think folks new to the sad/cozy genre will appreciate Far but for an old-time like myself, there are better options to get the experience you're going for.
Indie adventure-puzzle-platformer Far: Changing Tides should have been a home run for me. But I already have played a couple water-based cozy games (Dredge, Dave The Diver) and Far really needed to ramp up the sadness or give me something other than running around a ramshackle steampunk boat to start or put out fires. Don't get me wrong, the art is pretty great and the vibes are correct (as the kids say). I must have missed something at the start because I didn't understand the main character's journey and really felt no emotional tugs other than some brooding tunes and muted tones.
Gameplay was moderately repetitive but well-crafted for what it is, I think. Essentially the boat is your platform game and you have to constantly adjust bits to make it go. As you progress, you earn new features for your ship and it does more things but still you're running around pressing buttons or throwing things in the fire. You can stop the boat and rummage around for trash or solve puzzles as well. Everything is well-executed and I rarely got annoyed with control choices other than I had to do that jump-on-a-thing thing too many times. It plays fine, it looks good, it sounds good... it just doesn't have that punch of story or killer feature to set it apart.
I think folks new to the sad/cozy genre will appreciate Far but for an old-time like myself, there are better options to get the experience you're going for.