FAR: Lone Sails

This game charmed me from the start. A simple and timely story about loss, adventure, and the cost of progress. This would be great to play with a younger player who is new to games. It provides very little guidance aside from the occasional blinking light or splash of red. This approach respects the player's intelligence, and also lets you empathize with and inhabit your lonely little avatar. Puzzles are relatively simple, but they encourage experimentation and imagination. Every solution provides a tiny dose of accomplishment before you're forced to once again fire up your engines and plow ahead. It clearly belongs in the "Games that are also Art" category. Highest High - Surprisingly, my favourite part about this game is the scenery and overall atmosphere. I regularly found myself zooming in to take in a detail, or zooming out to appreciate the stark beauty of the landscape. Certain notable weather events in the story really made an impression on me. A feeling of mastery comes when you get the Okomotive up to full speed and keep her going for a while. Dad would be proud. Lowest Low - Default keyboard-based controls are entirely one-handed, and somewhat cramped around the usual WASD area. I would recommend trying with a gamepad / hand-held controller instead. Try it, you'll be done in one solid session, or you can split it over a few days. It's relaxing, beautiful, and forces the player to think, not just about the simple puzzles, but about what might have gone so wrong on this failed world.

It's really hard to come up with what I feel is a fair score for this. As a game, it's about 1 or 2 stars. You shouldn't really expect much as you just move your character around pushing buttons and managing your giant land-yacht. As an artistic endeavor, it's about 4 or 5, giving a unique spin on a post apocalyptic world. +Beautiful art style. +Great music. +Manages to tell an interesting story without any words. +Excellent world building. +I didn't encounter any bugs or glitches of any kind. -Gameplay mechanics get old really quick. -Micro managing your vessel distracts from the interesting stuff that's going on in the background. -Puzzles are simplistic and easy once you figure out what the game wants you to do. -It's sometime very vague about what it wants you to do. -No replay value that I can see. I finished this in 2.5 hours, so there's not really a lot of content here. Given how tiring the gameplay loop gets, that's not a bad thing. I know that I'm being pretty critical here, but I just feel like the best parts of FAR, that being the art style and world building happening mostly in the background, is being ruined by the "game' part. This product would work much better as an animated desktop background or something similar. It's just not much of a game. Still, if you're a fan of artistic games, don't mind a short experience, and can purchase it on sale for single digits, then I'd recommend it. Otherwise, you're not going to find anything to love that you can't get from watching a video of this on YouTube.

If you are looking for excitement, extensive gameplay and hours spent on the storyline then you can skip this title straight away. Even if it is at a very discounted price. But still, if you decide to spend the equivalent of a cheesburger at McDonalds on it then you will either love it or hate it. This game filled me with more and more sadness with every minute I spent. I decided to buy it on a cloudy and rainy Sunday evening as a mental break. And as it turned out, even half an evening was enough to complete it - in silence, reverie and nostalgia. And it was a hit. I declared the Anonymous Depressants Club open. The game itself is very pretty. Simple, even minimalist. From the controls, the mechanics to the simplest logic puzzles. The game tells practically no story - unless you draw one yourself in your head. Just a journey through a post-apocalyptic wasteland in a heavily steampunked steam locomotive-like machine. Alone, zero interaction throughout the story. Nothing and nobody. And this is probably one of the greatest strengths of this micro production. Our main task is to push the locomotive forward, take care of the fuel, the operation of all the mechanisms, and occasionally put out a fire or repair something. On the way there are only blockages, which we have to remove or open in a very simple way (I wouldn't even call it puzzles). From time to time a small workshop and some upgrade to the vehicle. And that's really it - we reach the end of our voyage and the adventure ends. Why 4 stars though? Because the game most simply did not bore me. It ended almost as quickly as it started, so that I felt a tastelessness - as if someone suddenly turned off the electricity and told me to go to sleep. There was something in all this ‘nothing’ that kept me entertained. It's staying the course - just to keep going, going and going. If my review didn't help you make up your mind don't worry - I still don't know where I ended up.

Consider this as a visit to an interactive art exhibition: see the scenery, listen to the music and try to understand the background of that world for yourself through.

I just finished my Journey in about three hours and I really enjoyed it. What can u expect: A short atmospheric ride through a lost world in your steam-sail-vehicel. Why do I think other videogames should by more like Far: Lone Sails? 1. In this game is u got no tutorial or explanation what to do or how to do it. But you always understand how to proceed. That is a really good gamedesign! No annoying tutorial boxes or repeated advices what to do when, u can just enjoy the atmosphere and be as fast/slow as you want. 2. Playing this little experience I realized that I am often looking for fast ways to proceed in other games, so I was here. But Far: Lone Sails slowed me down and remembered me: You don't play this game for gaining xp, lvls or any other kind of incentive. This audiovisual and interactive experience is the reward itself. I recommend to play this game instead of watching a movie, its nearly the length and also not challenging, but really enjoyable and supportable videogame art.