FAR: Changing Tides Review - Slow And Satisfying Adventure

thegamer.com:

The bellows let out a satisfying hiss as I launch my whole - although admittedly tiny - body onto them. I can almost feel the orange heat of the engine flames as I fan them. The ship lurches forward under my feet, humming with energy and rumbling with exertion. I can’t stop and take it all in, though: there are more jobs to do.

I load the engine with more fuel - bits of junk and flotsam I’ve picked up along my way - I grab the hose and spray the engine with a quick jet to cool it down, I give the bellows another pump for luck, and I head to the top deck. There, I have to manage the sails and mast to keep us heading forward full throttle. Both have seen better days, and it feels physically harder to pull the tattered sails taught to best capture the wind. If only I’d pulled the mast down before that low bridge, I’d have an easier time right now. But there’s no time to ponder the would haves and should haves - the engine is faltering, and the bellows call.

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It’s a good job that doing chores aboard your ship in FAR: Changing Tides is satisfying, because that’s all you really do. The bulky ship is a noisy companion in what would otherwise be a lonely adventure, filled with hisses, rumbles, and most satisfying of all: clicks. As you clip a hose into place, close a pneumatic door, or secure your winch to a piece of ancient and possibly arcane machinery submerged at the bottom of the ocean, you get immediate satisfying aural feedback. It’s as if the game is saying ‘good job’ and rewarding you for completing a mundane task with a lovely noise.

Your job is to make boat float, and the rest of the game is incidental. The only ‘story’ of sorts is