Simulation games can be a fun pastime for people who are really into the subject matter and also don’t want to leave the house to enjoy their hobby. Sidescrolling and platforming isn’t typical for a simulation game, but usually these aspects would serve to add depth to something monotonous or otherwise heavily grounded in reality. FAR: Changing Tides has shown me that this is not the case, and turned a boat captain simulator into a tedious mess of micromanagement and platforming simultaneously. Slow burn games can be enjoyable, and environmental storytelling is something I really enjoy and look for in many titles. In FAR: Changing Tides, this is not the case, and I felt more engaged keeping myself awake than managing the boat.
The start of the game sees you playing an unnamed child awakening underwater, only to realize he is now alone in a flooded world. The post-apocalyptic setting is par for the course, and the washed out colors don’t really change for the majority of your time with the game. Quickly the player is introduced to swimming and general platforming, and is then given a propeller hat to swim quicker in the massive flooded areas. Eventually you stumble upon your ship, the only possession you consistently have in this game, and simultaneously your home and platforming hub. The ship has a bunch of mini-functions that expand throughout the game, and this is the main gameplay loop the player is set to perform for the entirety of the game. There are some platforming and puzzle segments that take place off-ship, but generally keeping the ship in motion and managing how it moves is the main gameplay loop. This starts off simple enough, but as more methods of traversal get introduced, it can get hectic. The most frustrating part of this was the layout of the ship, where a ladder from one off your main entryways drops you into a cellar area instead of where you need to be, and a mistimed jump can burn away your resources if they’re hooked up to the conveyor.
The environmental storytelling in this game is barebones at best. What is usually something to look forward to and draw intrigue from in these sorts of games takes a backseat to tedious boat management and lots of waiting. Every bit of this game feels tedious to experience, mainly due to the lack of incentive and drawn out traversal times for everything. A ladder won’t just be a ladder, it’ll be five ladders stacked on top of each other to get up to a building to hit a switch. The only form of speeding up is in the water, as the character can’t sprint. Small things like this might leave you to think about the environment or force the player to look around, but the most movement in the background is some deer or the occasional storm. Moving from one platforming and puzzle segment to the next is boring too, as the gameplay itself is just a loading screen. While this is meant to be a calm, introspective game, FAR: Changing Tides has such a lack of things to do between segments that sleeping feels like the optimal option. I do have to give credit to how pretty the game can look in certain areas, as the murals were some of my favorite parts of the game. The music can be equally whimsical and stressful, with a looming cello that echoes in the opening level. There were elements that could have made this an engaging experience, but were sidelined by overall tedium and forcefully slow pacing.
There was a decent concept present in FAR: Changing Tides that I feel could have been handled a bit better. While the gameplay loop is nothing fancy, certain elements are so drawn out that it makes the game feel like a chore. Design features in levels made to be frustrating when a game is so centered around a singular hub and moving the hub around makes them seem twice as bad. This type of game is for people looking to have a very laid back experience and have a particular fondness for resource management and boats, which is a very strange target audience. Games have executed concepts like this better, and I would recommend giving something like Little Nightmares or Limbo a shot before picking up FAR: Changing Tides. A slow burn to say the least, but a generally functional game.
Score: 5 out of 10
Reviewed on Windows PC