FAR: Lone Sails

Though ostensibly a game about piloting and maintaining a massive, whale-shaped land crawler, FAR: Lone Sails in actuality has more in common with atmospheric platformers like Limbo. The scenery is majestic, the controls are simple, and the puzzle mechanics are straightforward. Most puzzle solutions became immediately apparent as soon as I uncovered all the pieces.

But this isn’t a game you play for the puzzles. It’s more about the vibes. You spend most of the game scurrying about your vehicle, hitting buttons to gather fuel, feed the engine, and hoist the sails. You cruise through monochrome wastelands, the bluish light emitted by your engine providing the only respite from the grey, and bulldoze through abandoned factories, wondering but never knowing what the dilapidated machinery once manufactured. What happened to this world? Why are you traveling through it alone? These questions are never explicitly answered. Perhaps it’s better that way.

My biggest complaints are that the camera is a bit fiddly – I always felt like I was either too far or too close to the action. Also, managing the vehicle is perhaps a bit too simple. In a game this short, however, these grievances are easy to forgive. My three hours spent immersed in the world of FAR were three hours well spent.