Far: Lone Sails is one of those games that people will either love or hate with no in between. The game had a staggered release with PC in May of 2018, PS4 and Xbox One in April of 2019, and then finally the Switch in August. I, myself, played the game on the Switch.
Let’s see. Far: Lone Sails is a tough game to categorize. The game mashes up a bit of platforming, a little exploration, a dash of puzzle game, and a pinch of management sim. Otomotive mixes everything together and puts out an absolutely beautiful 2.5D side scroller.
You start off your journey not knowing what is going on or what you’re supposed to do. You wake up in your house and just start walking. The game does a great job of not holding your hand and letting you figure things out yourself. I made a point not to read a whole lot about the game before I played it.
Eventually, you’ll come across your machine. That’s where most of the game takes place. Again, I had no clue how to start the thing or what to even do once I got it running. After a few minutes of pulling levers and pushing buttons, I kind of got the grasp of what to do and off I went…..
You can zoom in and out while your driving. Zooming out shows you what lies ahead, while zooming in shows you inside of your machine. I’ve got to say. This thing is a monster! There’s several floors of buttons, levels, gauges, etc. And you have to keep an eye on everything while still zooming out to make sure that you don’t hit anything! It was only a matter of time before I ran out of fuel. I ended up jumping off my vehicle and walking back to my house when I ran across some barrels. I thought to myself, “could these be fuel?”. So, I carried one back and started pushing buttons again. All of the sudden, the light came back on! EUREKA!! I’ve figured out how to move again!! And off I went….again.
That’s exactly how you feel throughout most of this game! I don’t want to give away too much, but there was another time where I was caught in a hailstorm and kept catching fire to the engine room. You had to make it to an awning to cover up and I just couldn’t make it without breaking down. I started getting frustrated until I happened to notice a fire hose upstairs. I thought, “maybe I can put the fire out with the hose when I catch fire?”. EUREKA! (again) It worked!!
There’s tons of little stories I have from my adventure. And that’s with just the vehicle itself. Eventually, you’ll get new addons and upgrades that completely change up the gameplay. There’s little tricks you’ll learn like watching or listening to the wind so you can use your sails to move instead of using fuel. I found myself hoarding fuel like I was never going to see it again. I had barrels stored in every room! You’ll even have to get out of your machine several times to complete different puzzles.
As fun as things are, I did have issues with playing the game in handheld mode. Your character is so small compared to your machine, so it was tough seeing the little guy at times. It wasn’t enough to frustrate me, but I’m sure the game would look a lot better on the big screen.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and my journey lasted only about 4 hours. Albeit short, Far: Lone Sails is still a great game. The visuals are absolutely beautiful and I loved the fact that I had to figure everything out on my own. I just wished it had lasted a little longer. As soon as I felt like I was getting the hang of things, it was over. Regardless, I had a lot of fun and that’s all that matters. Far: Lone Sails is a mashup of everything……as you explore the big nothing.
NOEN (@hashtagNOEN)
