FAR: Changing Tides
OpenCritic Rating
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
FAR: Changing Tides Trailers
FAR: Changing Tides | Feature Reveal Trailer
FAR: Changing Tides | Announcement Trailer
Critic Reviews for FAR: Changing Tides
Satisfying sailing in a beautifully soggy apocalypse. I've never felt so connected to a vehicle in a game.
Far: Changing Tides' story is a little longer and its puzzles more refined than its predecessor, while its world is as beautiful as ever.
Far: Changing Tides lacks some of what made its predecessor truly special, but it's still another lovely roadtrip to take.
FAR: Changing Tides takes everything fans loved about Lone Sails while offering a better exploration game set in the perilous sea.
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 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 a mysterious, intriguing game. It builds off the inventive mechanics of managing a ship, the adventure you face taking on a vaguely unsettling tone at times. It's also fairly short – I finished it in about five hours – but that means it also doesn't try and stretch out its ideas until it outstays its welcome. This is an original and artistic game that deserves a little appreciation.
The mystery of this broken world and the wordless, yet varied means by which you explore it makes FAR: Changing Tides an excellent follow-up to Lone Sails. The vessel is incredibly enjoyable to operate and maintain, and the music and world around it make the journey a compelling and satisfying one. It’s not a long game and the adventure arrives at the credits before you know it, but for what it has going, Changing Tides is a compelling and gorgeous puzzle full of satisfying mechanical engagement and incredible breakthrough moments as you sail ever forward.
