Oh, to be a small box-child, gliding along the post-apocalyptic scenery in my boat-caravan...
FAR: Lone Sails is a short, sweet, and serene little adventure with a minimalist presentation and art style. There's little-to-no text throughout the game and you mainly learn by doing. The story and world therein are purely show-don't-tell and completely left to your interpretation with the clues they sprinkle throughout your playthrough.
You play as a small, mute character (presumably a child) wearing a red box-like outfit as you take charge of a large hulk of a vehicle—an amphibious craft that allows you to traverse the desert dunes and swampy marshes of the post-apocalyptic world the character inhabits.
The vehicle, and indeed the bulk of the gameplay, takes the form of a small-scale survival resource management system where you have to keep an eye on and maintain many of the vehicle's core functions at once. This includes keeping the engine running with fuel boxes and any wayward objects you might find, dealing with fires, and fixing component failures as and when they occur. It's a long and lonely journey that the character embarks upon and there's almost always something to be doing along the way.
It's all very intuitive and surprisingly fun in practice, with the multitasking aspect treading the line perfectly between enjoyable and perilous but rewarding.
The puzzles, however, are a little disappointing. They're interesting for sure, but there's never really that one puzzle that gives you a good eureka moment as you put its pieces together. However, your mileage may vary on that front and your enjoyment of the resource management aspects in particular will really depend on how conservative you choose to be with your fuel.
Overall, FAR: Lone Sails is a great little adventure with some truly inspired stripped-down survival resource-management gameplay and wonderful music and world-building. The puzzles may be too simplistic and the storytelling may be a little too obtuse for some, but overall, it's a fantastic debut project from Okomotive.
8/10
FAR: Lone Sails is a short, sweet, and serene little adventure with a minimalist presentation and art style. There's little-to-no text throughout the game and you mainly learn by doing. The story and world therein are purely show-don't-tell and completely left to your interpretation with the clues they sprinkle throughout your playthrough.
You play as a small, mute character (presumably a child) wearing a red box-like outfit as you take charge of a large hulk of a vehicle—an amphibious craft that allows you to traverse the desert dunes and swampy marshes of the post-apocalyptic world the character inhabits.
The vehicle, and indeed the bulk of the gameplay, takes the form of a small-scale survival resource management system where you have to keep an eye on and maintain many of the vehicle's core functions at once. This includes keeping the engine running with fuel boxes and any wayward objects you might find, dealing with fires, and fixing component failures as and when they occur. It's a long and lonely journey that the character embarks upon and there's almost always something to be doing along the way.
It's all very intuitive and surprisingly fun in practice, with the multitasking aspect treading the line perfectly between enjoyable and perilous but rewarding.
The puzzles, however, are a little disappointing. They're interesting for sure, but there's never really that one puzzle that gives you a good eureka moment as you put its pieces together. However, your mileage may vary on that front and your enjoyment of the resource management aspects in particular will really depend on how conservative you choose to be with your fuel.
Overall, FAR: Lone Sails is a great little adventure with some truly inspired stripped-down survival resource-management gameplay and wonderful music and world-building. The puzzles may be too simplistic and the storytelling may be a little too obtuse for some, but overall, it's a fantastic debut project from Okomotive.
8/10