FAR: Lone Sails originally released on the PC in May of 2018 and garnered near-universal praise from critics. That’s not altogether surprising, seeing as how many critics fall all over themselves in a bid to invoke the most ridiculous superlatives whenever an artsy indie game with vague storytelling comes along, but what you might not expect is that this is a game that also lives up to my high standards of enjoyment. I had no interest in FAR: Lone Sails until its April 2019 Playstation 4 and Xbox One releases, regarding the original release with suspicion given its generic-sounding title and my history of not enjoying games like Journey that focus more on the trip than the destination, and that’s admittedly a very good description of what this game is like; you’re mostly just moving from the left to the right in pursuit of an initially unclear goal that becomes increasingly obvious as you begin to recognize what’s missing from the world. Of course, the way you move from left to right is by manipulating a giant contraption through a series of buttons that you have to manually run around and press, relying on a sail and the release of steam built up by its engine to maximize your speed and distance while minimizing the amount of fuel that you use. It’s a bizarre concept that ends up being incredibly entertaining, and while FAR: Lone Sails may only last 2-3 hours, it’s filled with more than enough memorable moments to be worthwhile.
FAR: Lone Sails‘ story is filled in as you realize that no one else is around
FAR: Lone Sails begins with the main character—a mute, red-coated individual of indeterminate gender who might have a name and gender specified in the artbook that the Playstation 4 version is sadly lacking—mourning someone’s death. There’s a stroller in the house that the two shared, suggesting that he’s the main character’s father, but no other people seem to be nearby. Your only option is to continue moving to the right until you come across a large wheeled vehicle that a blueprint suggests belonged to the family, and then use it to bulldoze your way forward.
The “why” behind moving right is initially left uncertain outside of this being a video game and right being the only available direction. Over time, however, you cruise past deserted towns full of billboards and realize that the world is abandoned. The harshness of the climate may have something to do with that; when you’re not being bombarded with hail or fleeing natural disasters like tornadoes and volcanic eruptions, the scenery is dusty and unlivable, with the careful coloring of the mostly-desaturated visuals going a long way toward communicating a certain bleakness inherent to FAR: Lone Sails‘ world. You’re not just moving right because that’s the only option, then, but in the hope that you’ll eventually come across some sign of life.
A lot of the lore and such is left uncertain (though again, there’s supposedly more information in the artbook that’s currently only available on Steam), but you can pick up on just enough to drive you forward—there are portraits of what look like inventors, giant mechanical contraptions, and all sorts of interesting little details that you can slowly glean by observing the backgrounds as you travel. It’s not enough to construct a detailed play-by-play of the world and its history/characters, but more than enough to allow you to concoct your own theory of how everything fits together. The focus on finding other people rather than dwelling on the lore means that the absence of concrete answers isn’t as unfulfilling as this approach can sometimes be.
The gameplay here is varied enough to avoid becoming monotonous
The vast majority of FAR: Lone Sails is spent inside of your vehicle managing its throttle, fuel, sail (which only helps in areas where the wind is blowing forward), and a few other things. Of course, there’s no sail when you first set out, and that’s because you sometimes reach a new area and have a new vehicle part added on. These often require leaving the vehicle entirely to interact with the world and remove an obstacle blocking your progress (though there are points where you can simply ram your way forward, destroying everything in front of you). These upgrades are fixed and happen at predefined points because this is a story-centric game, but that allows them to be specifically paced to break up potential monotony; between managing all of the different switches inside of the ship that have to be manually operated, procuring fuel—anything you can carry can be burned for fuel in a pinch—to power the engine, and removing obstacles, it never feels like you’re stuck doing a single thing too long.
FAR: Lone Sails even has some subtle puzzle elements. These aren’t presented as puzzles, but instead place an obstacle or hazard in front of you and ask you to use the tools you have at your disposal to find a way forward. Some of these scenarios can be devilishly clever, such as one that uses the ship’s fire-fighting hose to interact with the environment, though others can be a little on the needlessly confusing side. The main issue is that important interactive elements required to succeed aren’t always obvious, and sometimes it’s difficult to tell whether you’re supposed to be exploring outside of the vehicle or staying inside and trying to ram an obstacle.
There are only a couple moments that threw me off-balance like that, thankfully, which speaks to the fact that everything works about as you’d expect. Speaking of things working as you’d expect, the Playstation 4 version that I’m reviewing (on a base PS4) is surprisingly true to the PC original, with the resolution and textures all being comparable to the screenshots on FAR: Lone Sails‘ Steam page. After doing a bunch of A/B tests, the only differences I could notice were the result of image compression, and that’s the kind of fidelity that you don’t normally see in a console port. The frame rate is also locked to 60 with the exception of slight hiccups when the game autosaves (and once or twice when it wasn’t autosaving), and it bears mentioning that my Playstation 4 remained almost entirely silent while playing.
The visuals and music serve to enhance FAR: Lone Sails‘s storytelling
FAR: Lone Sails sports a largely desaturated color palette, with its primary colors being red, gray, and brown, but a lot is done with them; not only can the player tell that the towns they pass are deserted because of the coloring, but it also allows things like the fuel gauge and hazards to be instantly recognizable in a way that betters the underlying gameplay. More than anything, though, I love the way FAR: Lone Sails handles the time of day. Its nighttime is more believable than in most games I’ve played, while the subtle transitions into dawn and dusk are unbelievably well done. The soundtrack and general sound design are also very well done, with each track matching what’s happening perfectly while still being memorable and unique. There are many points where you’re left wandering around in silence, but that contrast works in the soundtrack’s favor and allows the sound effects to really shine during key moments. Especially the metallic ones, which do a great job of using reverb to convey the spatial differences of the many contraptions/areas you find yourself inside of. FAR: Lone Sails‘ sound design is simply excellent all-around.
Story: 2/3 Gameplay: 2/3 Visuals: 2/2 Music: 2/2 ★★★★★★★★☆☆ – 8/10
*Click here and scroll to the bottom for a detailed explanation of what these numbers mean
FAR: Lone Sails Review Screenshots
*A Playstation 4 key was provided for the purpose of this FAR: Lone Sails review
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