Why You Should Play
- Beautiful art style and environments.
- Outstanding musical soundtrack.
- Engaging gameplay loop that keeps you pressing forward.
Developed by Okomotive, Far: Lone Sails is an atmospheric vehicle adventure that focuses on engaging gameplay while leaving most of the story to the audience. It’s a beautiful yet short experience that gives players a look at a desolate and decaying world free of any kind of zombies or other adversaries. While the game only takes a few hours to complete, the backgrounds and environments help bring the world to life alongside a fantastic musical soundtrack.
Gameplay
Far: Lone Sails is simple and engaging. Throughout the game, you’ll spend most of your time micromanaging a unique ship-like vessel that can either be pushed forward by the use of a steam engine, or through the use of a set of massive sails on top. When using the steam engine, you’ll have to make sure to keep the ship fueled by breaking down various items like boxes, barrels, and even things like suitcases and lanterns.
You won’t spend the entire time in the ship, though. Along the way you’ll encounter various obstacles and puzzles that you’ll need to solve in order to keep moving towards your objective; it’s an engaging gameplay loop that never feels old. Additionally, there are some challenges thrown in along the way in the form of storms, which damage and catch fire to certain parts of the ship. This is about the most challenge that you’ll find throughout the entire game, so if you’re expecting a difficult experience, then Far: Lone Sails isn’t what you’re looking for.
Still, though, Far: Lone Sails does a lot with the few short hours that it has, easily earning itself a spot among legendary atmospheric games like Inside and Limbo.
Visuals and Performance
When it comes to visuals, Far: Lone Sails has a lot going for it. Viewed like a side-to-side platformer, the game’s art style is unique and fits the story being told very well. Massive background pieces bring the world to life behind the ship as you move, creating a sense of a world that just begs to be explored. Tied in together with the massive set pieces that make up the foreground, and Far: Lone Sails’ visuals are nothing to scoff at.
The game never really hits any performance snags, either. During our playthrough, we never felt that the game was running slower than it should, nor did we ever hit any big freezes or anything like that. Clearly Okomotive did its homework, and the game feels just as good as it looks.
Game of the Week
While the experience is short, Okomotive did an expert job telling the story. As an atmospheric vehicle adventure, it does a really good job of taking you from one place to another while telling whatever story you see between the lines. We love games that let you think for yourself, and being able to experience this desolate, yet beautiful world through the eyes of the game’s protagonist left us with an innate feeling of hope, despite the decaying world that stared back at us. With smooth performance, beautiful visuals, and a great story to tell, it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that Far: Lone Sails is our Prima Game of the Week.
