FAR: Changing Tides Reviews
By the end of your time with the game, you’ll have experienced a rollercoaster of emotions. While it’s such a simple title that doesn’t seem to do anything massively impressive visually or mechanically, FAR: Changing Tides makes you feel and experience the emotions and physical exertion of the protagonist much better than any QTE ever has.
All-in-all, FAR Changing Tides does all the right things you want from a sequel. It makes visible improvements over the first game, while also not overshadowing what that game did brilliantly. On the other hand, those who couldn’t get on with the original’s micromanagement aspects won’t find it to be anymore lenient.
Far: Changing Tides lacks some of what made its predecessor truly special, but it's still another lovely roadtrip to take.
Far: Changing Tides isn’t going to be for everyone. But if the idea of a quiet, lonesome adventure about keeping your boat moving forward puts wind in your sails, you’ll love it. There’s a wonderful soundtrack to enjoy, and the puzzles it presents to you are engaging and well thought-out. But sometimes it’s just a little too barren for its own good, and the awkwardness of controlling your ship can get in the way of its serenity.
Far: Changing Tides largely sticks to the same recipe as its predecessor, making its vessel more complex and sending players on a journey through a different world. Its description as a companion game is fitting – although you will get slightly more out of it if you play the series in order – and while I loved the original, the sequel didn't grab me as much.
A short game, yes, but enjoyable from every point of view if you are not looking for some constant action to get speed to your fingers with a variety of commands. Far: Changing Tides renews faith in the elements that indie studios can bring to the industry and reinforces my belief that you don't need to have a giant budget to create an adventure.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The sequel to FAR: Lone Sails scours off the rust and polishes the rest to an acceptable shine. It's a well-oiled machine that runs for twice as long, with a lot more adventure hiding under its hood to compensate for the series' shortcomings.
Far: Changing Tides isn’t an action-packed roller coaster ride – it’s a contemplative journey that isn’t afraid to slow down and ask you to reflect on your expedition. Of course, this adventure is full of challenges to overcome. But whether I was watching the clouds glide over a flooded city with the wind at my back or white-knuckling through a storm as ten-foot waves bombarded my ship, I was always completely enrapt by the moment. It’s a journey I hope to take again someday.
FAR: Changing Tides is largely more of the same. With how good the first title is, that's not a bad thing, but it leaves a little something to be desired. Great sound design and music, as well as incredible environmental art, don't quite balance out the pacing issues, hard as they try. Your new vessel has more components to juggle than last time, and it's mechanically satisfying, but you spend too much time doing it. While traveling underwater does add a new gameplay component to account for, the puzzles don't offer enough of a challenge. All that said, Changing Tides is still worth your time.
A gentle and meditative story which combines simple platforming puzzles and some basic steam engineering to great effect. Beautifully illustrated and scored, FAR Changing Tides is a joyful experience for patient players who are happy to jump aboard this serene cruise through a flooded but gorgeously bleak post-climate changed world.
FAR: Changing Tides is a real triumph. There's a phenomenal depth to the experience here, from its striking ambiance through to a compelling gameplay loop, while the sense of exploration is truly remarkable. Fans of FAR: Lone Sails will no doubt love this, but those who have not played the first game should not shy away from this one.
FAR: Changing Tides’ gameplay loop of keeping your ramshackle vehicle running is simple but enjoyable. When you get into a good rhythm, you feel at one with your craft, everything goes smoothly for a minute, and you can enjoy the ride until the next mast snaps or abandoned wreckage blocks your way. It takes patience, but when every quick task is rewarded by a hum, whir, or click, and every obstacle inspires as much awe as it does terror, it’s all worth it.
Far: Changing Tides may be familiar to those who played the original, but it's just as soothing and enjoyable a trip as ever.
There is no doubt that those who loved Lone Sails will feel at home wallowing in the wet world of FAR: Changing Tides.
Review in Italian | Read full review
FAR: Changing Tides takes everything fans loved about Lone Sails while offering a better exploration game set in the perilous sea.
These are nitpicks though. Far: Changing Tides manages to take players on an emotionally engaging journey without a word, with a ship and the seas as your only companions. From beautiful isolation comes an unforgettable experience. If this sounds remotely like something that’s for you, definitely check it out.
Much of what is present in Changing Tides is plainly fantastic, but it is a shame that the game goes on for too long until it itself runs out of fuel and sputters across the finish line.
FAR: Changing Tides will give you time and space to think of what it means to go through a journey and question your ideas around home and belonging. After you finish it, you will not forget you have played this game. In a good way.
Review in Italian | Read full review
A wonderful experience from the moment you set sail, FAR: Changing Tides builds out the world and gameplay ideas of its predecessor with scale, detail and awesome moments of discovery. Okomotive has started with its original neat mechanic about a left-to-right juggernaut, then taken it in every other direction it could go.
Mysterious, beautiful, and almost dreamlike, FAR: Changing Tides betters its predecessor, delivering a truly memorable and engaging seafaring journey.