With the exception of the fact that it is now fully set on water, FAR: Changing Tides is essentially more of the first game. That would sound condescending, but given how great the original game is, it's actually not a terrible thing. Despite this, however, Changing Tides isn't nearly as daring as Lone Sails was.

In fairness, the necessary changes were made to the sequel in regards to the puzzle designs and overall, they feel much more intricate and rewarding than they did before. On the flipside, though, traversing the waters, which, again, is the bulk of what you'll be doing in this game, isn't nearly as exciting or intriguing as riding across dunes and marshes was in Lone Sails.

It's bizarre that this is the case, given that you've got a lot more to do moment-to-moment in order to keep your boat's engine running than with the vehicle in the previous game. Like last time, you have to feed the engine, make sure it doesn't overheat, make necessary repairs, and now you have to keep watch of the sails and prevailing winds.

However, this starts to feel like busywork in a way that Lone Sails didn't, and the reason for that is two-fold. For one, during the second half of the game, you'll be doing a lot of transitioning between above-water and underwater, depending on the obstacles in your path. This does make sense and in theory, it shouldn't cause any frustration, but it does become incredibly tedious when that becomes the majority of what you'll be doing, particularly for the last segment of the game's story.

Speaking of story and world-building, the environments you travel through aren't nearly as interesting as they were in Lone Sails and as a result, your investment in the mystery of the story and world takes a backseat.

There's one moment early in the game where the tide lowers out of nowhere, only for a gargantuan tidal wave to come hurtling towards you and throw you way off course. These are the kinds of set pieces, like the volcano eruption, that made me enjoy Lone Sails so much. Here, however, apart from this one moment, there aren't really many at all. There are some heavy storms, sure, but they don't really disrupt the usual gameplay routine other than having to make a few quick repairs.

Overall, Changing Tides isn't a bad sequel. However, it feels like an experience more befitting of an expansion to the first game to bridge the gap until a bigger, more ambitious follow-up. Of course, ambition doesn't always equal better, but here there could have been a little bit more of it employed in certain parts. As it stands, though, it's a decent entry to this series, but perhaps not one that would make you wildly prefer it over its predecessor.

6.5/10

Bigger doesn’t always mean better. A cliché to kick off the review but it’s a fitting single line summary of how I feel when speaking about Lone Sails sequel.

FAR: Lone Sails was a special experience for me, both in just watching it streamed as mentioned in my review of that title and playing it for myself.
To this day I still play the OST while writing journals for my education, and occasionally depending on mood and my writing subject the music takes me to a place that I find myself getting very glassy eyed.

To hit that high again with a sequel was probably an impossibility and it pains me to say that in fact, it was.
Changing Tides is still a fantastic game in its own right, cleverly keeping the formula of controlling a vehicle, exploring an interesting unknown land and going on a journey, whilst changing up the types of scenery and the vehicular partner enough to be fresh.

Every review I write may be the first of mine that someone has read and I can only apologise if I lack the words for explaining this game, but rather than repeat myself I feel that as important as it is to play these games in order, it is to read my thoughts on them.

Changing Tides, rather than having a “car” like the first, you have more of a “boat”.
You’re still collecting junk which can be used for fuel or saved if you like, you still have nature as a pushing force as well as engineering and the places it goes in terms of travel are arguably more interesting and diverse.
However again, bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better.
I found this vehicle a lot more hassle, this not only gives some unwanted friction but doesn’t help build the bond I found myself having in the first FAR title.
What also doesn’t really help with this is I felt like I spent much more time away from my motorised-mate in this game than I did the first.
Swimming beneath the sea and doing some mild puzzles and platforming isn’t bad, but it isn’t great either. Puzzles are predictable, some reveals are astounding and that scale is one place where Changing Tides does trump Lone Sails but the emotional connection to the journey feeling less didn’t help those moments stick.

Joel Schoch returns to play another beautiful, lonely, sometimes sad and sometimes uplifting OST and much like Lone Sails I can see myself listening to this when writing in the future.
An issue though, not of the music itself, is the weird lack of it in places.
There are points where silence is powerful but it felt too often, almost as if maybe the game was broken.

FAR: Changing Tides may not hold a place in my heart like Lone Sails did, but I had a lovely time and the ending, which I will not spoil, will at least be something that does stick with me. Powerful stuff.

Changing Tides is worth your time, but sadly it does almost everything worse than its predecessor, not terribly so but enough that it loses some magic.
I can only theorise that perhaps the four year gap between games gave the studio time to overthink what they wanted to do, what they wanted to say and what they were making.

I will take a FAR 3 though. Please and thank you.

Sights & Sounds
- As with its prequel, this game's art direction is excellent. Every frame is a photo, kinda like a Kubrick film. Seriously, just about any screenshot you take of the game will look fantastic. It's not graphically intensive, but it is very pretty
- Traveling along presents you with several scenic environments for eye candy. For most of the game, you'll also have your cool steampunk ship to keep you company, which grows and changes as you find new parts to attach to it
- Even though I only beat this game yesterday, I don't recall any of the music. I'll assume that means it was passable but certainly not memorable
- The sparse sound design is appropriate for the ruinous post-apocalyptic seascapes you traverse. Most of what you hear is the machinery of your ship, crashing of the waves, and the whistling wind
- Regardless of the size of the screen you're playing on, it can be easy to lose sight of your character when the view zooms out. There's fortunately a zoom-in function that helps smooth over this issue

Story & Vibes
- If you played Far: Lone Sails, you're already well-prepared for this experience. Neither game in the franchise is story-heavy, but it still makes more sense to play the prequel first (otherwise the end of this game will make little sense)
- The story mostly boils down to two words: Go right. Well, until the end of the game at least, which features a brief period of leftward travel
- Like the prequel, very little is furnished to you by way of explanation. There's just you, your ship, the way back, and the way forward. You don't know why you're going right or what's over there
- Despite the game's linearity, the mysteriousness of its objectives and the main character's motivations still lend it some sense of mystery. It somehow still feels like you're exploring even though you're only heading in a single direction
- The overall tone is somber, lonely, and morose, yet peacefully so

Playability & Replayability
- The main gameplay loop is to manage your ship's sails and/or engine to keep it moving forward. Sailing is pretty easy, but running the engine is an exercise in multitasking. You'll be bouncing back and forth stoking the fire, refilling fuel, handling boiler temperature, setting the gear, raising/lowering depth, and toggling overcharge while occasionally tending to repairs. Hell, even stopping the ship is a multi-step process (stop pumping bellows, change gear to neutral, turn on hose, put out fire). Believe me when I say that you'll be happy when you see wind and can raise the sails.
- Some people may find this sort of micromanagement a little tedious, and I would agree with them
- There's enough puzzles sprinkled throughout to offer at least a little change of pace. Puzzle design is difficult enough that the game managed to stump me for several minutes on a couple of occasions, but more careful observation got me out of both jams. Don't be afraid to test possibly wrong solutions
- I'm never going to go back and get all of the achievements, frankly. Managing the engine was annoying enough at times that the thought of having to do it quickly for a time-based achievement is a non-starter

Overall Impressions & Performance
- I started out on the Steam Deck, but switched to a bigger screen after only a few minutes. While "playable" is technically an accurate description, I don't think I'd recommend that amount of eye strain
- It ran perfectly on my slightly dated (2019) hardware
- It's only a 5-7 hour experience (less if you're attempting to speedrun it), so the price tag seems a little steep. Probably best to wait for a sale

Final Verdict
- 6.5/10. I liked it a little bit less than its prequel, but only because the experience is so similar. You're just on water instead of land. That said, the core gameplay and visual style are both good, so it's worth picking up if you want a short, relaxing experience and the price is right

Nothing offensively bad about the game, but it just never really grabbed me or made me want to see it through to the end. Its a left to right scroller where you do various puzzles to keep your boat moving past obstacles. The puzzles were fairly uninteresting and didn't really excite me. Game looks pretty nice, but the default distance is too far away, I had to change it in the options to close, and even then I was zooming in to see what the hell was happening on screen most of the time. A seemingly small thing like that can make a huge difference whether i want to keep playing or just uninstall and move on, which is what I did after a couple hours of FAR.

Não imaginei mesmo q eu fosse chegar tão longe nesse game! Eu baixei só pra testar e o começo dele não parecia me fisgar, mas acabou sendo uma experiência muito agradável e até viciante de certa maneira, o jogo é curto mas eu não queria parar de jogar tão cedo porque é uma ideia tão diferente e única, uma mecânica tão criativa e uma vibe tão tranquila... realmente eu viajei e fiquei preso no jogo, senti até que reacendeu um pouco o meu amor por indies, já q faz um bom tempo que não entro de cabeça neles.

Brilliant little game! Honestly surprised I stumbled across this on my own and no one recommended it prior because it is entirely up my alley. Perfect length, beautiful soundtrack, lovely art style, intuitive and rewarding puzzles... My only small complaint was that I got stuck a couple times during this sequel whereas I got stuck maybe once in the first one. If you play and like the first one I think this one is definitely also worth a playthrough. The two of them are a thoroughly enjoyable package and would have been in my top 5 the year they came out.

It's pretty much like the first game, but slightly worse than the first game. In other words, there are newly added mechanics and a more complex gameplay, but it cannot provide the feeling of journey that the first game gave as successfully as the first game. Some mechanics undermined the flow of the game (such as the constantly breaking sail), and the use of much less fuel and limited repair tools than in the first game sometimes caused me to go back and start from an old save. So why was such a gameplay choice made? Why can't I move the ship manually when I'm in trouble like in the first game? The game generally prefers underwater cities and wide oceans as its settings, and there are very nicely designed levels with its unique art design, but it is a rather monotonous choice in terms of variety. As a story, we explore ancient civilizations (even though I don't understand it) and the story eventually connects to the first game. As a result, although I do not find it as successful as the first game, FAR: Changing Tides still offers a pleasant journey experience like the first game. The added mechanics are not bad and I liked the connection to the story, but my gaming experience was quite interrupted by the bad aspects I mentioned above. But it doesn't hurt to try, if you liked the first game, you may like this game too.

Nesse jogo você tem que colocar uma locomotiva para funcionar. A máquina tem mecanismos próprios com botões, alavancas, controle de pressão e etc. É muito gostoso conduzir a locomotiva e ir descobrindo as novas mecânicas para progredir no caminho. Tudo isso acompanhado de uma trilha sonora de qualidade e imersiva. Esse é o tipo de jogo que só existiria numa equipe criativa independente, graças a Deus temos a indústria indie de games para nos proporcionar esse tipo de experiência.
O ponto fraco do jogo é o controle do personagem que parece desajeitado.