FAR: Changing Tides is a small game with a lot of substance – Review

gamepur.com:

When a game is set in some sort of post-apocalyptic future, it’s usually a brown and bleak landscape filled with death and hopelessness. Some titles, such as Horizon Forbidden West, manage to bring hope through their portrayals, but they’re few and far between. Rarely does a game manage to make you experience joy, closeness, loss, and friendship in such a setting, but FAR: Changing Tides does that and so much more.

The sequel to FAR: Lone Sails begins the same way as its predecessor. You are a lone human left behind centuries after some catastrophic event came along to cause everyone to up and leave Earth, killing most of those who stayed behind. This part of the world is completely flooded. You swim through it endlessly in search of something that doesn’t become clear until the final quarter of the story.

When controlling the nameless protagonist, you can jump, pick up items, and run. However, when you stumble across a boat, things change. Suddenly you have the ability to sail across this flooded world at speeds you’ve never dreamt of. All you need to do is manage the sail, keeping it close to the wind so you maximize your speed.

Each time you reach optimum speed, the music swells as if to reward you. The soundtrack really is astounding for such a short title, including an entire orchestra of instruments, all of which have been used to great effect.

Over the course of the story, which lasts for roughly five hours, you’ll find upgrades for your boat that make it faster and provide you with new abilities, such as a hook for pulling treasures from the ocean floor. Each one provides you with a new way to explore or progress. More upgrades mean more to manage though, and this is where the