Cheap Thrills: FAR: Lone Sails.

For the most part, my PC gaming preference is for first person shooters such as Fallout or the Halo franchise, with the occasional foray into strategy games like Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds, Dawn of War, or Starcraft.  However, there's also a place for more subtle experiences in my library, such as The Long Dark survival game, or The Shore, an unsettling Lovecraftian puzzle game; Real Moon, a moonbase simulation, and most recently, FAR: Lone Sails.

FAR's normal price is $17.49 CAD from Epic Games, but it was on sale for $1.95 when I saw it on the Epic Store page, which made it an affordable gaming gamble - and, as it turned out, a wise choice.

FAR is a standard side-scrolling game, created by award-winning Swiss indie game developer Okomotive and originally released in 2018*.  It's an evocative, thoughtful experience, without dialogue, conflict, or shooting, and it's a quick play, weighing in at about three hours. 

Which is not to say that it's all smooth sailing - no pun intended.  The game features a tiny red-clad pilot** who navigates the decaying remnants of a lost civilization in a steampunk landship, propelled initially by steam and later also by sails - at least, when the wind is blowing in the right direction.  The steam engine is fueled by scavenged objects, and requires a lot of management to maintain power while not overloading the boiler.  

The ship is also equipped with a fire hose and towing winches at both ends, all of which comes into play as the pilot struggles with gates, elevators, and similar barriers left behind by the world that was. As the trip continues, upgrades, large and small, are added to the ship: titanic tattered sails, and a little blowtorch to repair damage to the ship's systems from lightning, hail or collisions. 

But it's not always a challenge. As with all trips, there are periods of quiet introspective travel, as the scenery scrolls past and the wind rustles through the sails - I wish there was some way to have the pilot make a cup of tea and sit on the rooftop gallery during these times.

It's difficult to explain the charm of the game, and I certainly wouldn't say that it's for everyone.  For myself, I would have enjoyed the game almost as much without any of the puzzles that the pilot solves in order to continue their journey, simply sailing across the abandoned world and collecting the little memories left behind: a bell, a ball, a boat, a bear. 

As the trip continued, I found myself wondering how the game would come to an end.  There would be a certain symmetry in having the pilot return to the point where they began, but that also seemed like too simple a conclusion.  I won't spoil the ending for potential players who might be reading this, but it's initially a bit tragic, with a final moment of hope - exactly what the intrepid traveler deserves.  

- Sid 

* There's also a 2022 submarine sequel called Changing Tides for $22.79 CAD. 

** The developer's press kit informs us that the pilot's name is Lone, and that they are female, but I suspect that the casual player is unlikely to dive that deep.