What a game...
Played with my young son and daughter sitting besides me, sharing the controller from time to time. They were, like me, so caught up in the atmosphere and the story that bedtime was extended several times. It was something to talk about over breakfast, something to look forward to in the evening.
Now the game is over and we're actually sad, though the ending was amazingly heartwarming.
Congratulations to the developers for creating this beautiful little gem of a game.
100% recommended.

Follow our Curator page, Summit Reviews, to see more high-quality reviews regularly.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2769940750

F:CT shares the same setting of its predecessor, Lone Sails; a world devastated by massive floods, that rendered massive swathes of land uninhabitable or submerged them fully. Barely anyone is left alive: one of such lucky (or perhaps, unlucky) survivors is the unnamed protagonist, a young boy that finds himself in the middle of the apocalypse. Be it by chance or fate, he manages to reactivate an old sail-powered vessel, to sail away in search of other survivors and less devastated areas, starting a journey that, indeed, will bring him far, and have him see many of the Old World's remains.

Without any dialogue or text, only indirect and environmental narration types are used to convey the setting's lore. In many places it is possible to see finely intricate details that may shed some light on the past, however none of them is groundbreaking at any point, leaving much of the story up to the players' interpretation. This narrative style works well enough, however the story events also feel forced at times, especially when you see the protagonist finding exactly what they need each time, conveniently placed on their path and mostly in operational shape. More than a struggle for survival in the post-apocalypse, this voyage seems like a journey blessed by a "higher power", as the perils one would expect to find prove underwhelming, unexciting most of the time, instead of instilling dread or tension as they should.

Initially, the refurbished ship won't be much more than a bucket of bolts with a torn sail as only means of motion. You'll have to use the incorporated control gears to hoist the sail, raise the mast, and change the axis' direction to catch the wind, which changes direction constantly. This gives some much-needed interaction to what, otherwise, would be a bland, insipid journey across vast masses of water. Obstacles like bridges or ruins may damage the mast, so you'll have to be quick in lowering it before a collision happens - and if it comes to it, repair kits can be sparingly found around most locations to fix the damage, each of them usable up to six times.

As the journey goes on, the ship will be equipped with new modules such as a steam engine that requires fuel, in turn manually scavenged from around the world (often underwater), a submarine propeller to navigate underwater caves, and even an ancient energy device capable of powerful bursts of speed. As all these elements are introduced, the micro-management becomes more complex: the engine will overheat, so man the water pump to cool it down - but that will also be used to lower / raise the submarine module's depth, while the bellows of the engine need constant pushing to stoke the fire. If this all sounds overwhelming, well, it really isn't; the general pacing of the game is slow and there is ample room for mistakes if they ever happen, while repair kits are plentiful unless you literally wreck your ship systems every two minutes.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2769940311

In-between travels through vast oceans, you'll encounter more than a few remnants of the days past, in the form of buildings and decaying infrastructure. Pretty much every time, these places will include puzzles to solve in order to clear a path for the boat, or upgrade its modules to proceed all the same. Such instances are also used as a narrative medium, to showcase murals, writings and or remains that can be interpreted to shed some light on the story - albeit, that won't do much good, as the events remain obscure in any case. While these enigmas prove interesting and a good change of pace, they aren't a great challenge to overcome, and rather short in general.

One of the main issues of F:CT lies in how empty the world feels throughout - and I don't mean "desolate", I mean "empty". While you're able to leave the ship at any time to explore on foot or by swimming with your waterproof suit, there won't be much of a point in doing so, other than acquiring combustible supplies for the engine (which can be located via the sonar module of the ship, highlighting their general position). This feels like a missed chance to add secondary areas that would've further rewarded exploration, Easter eggs, and other elements to make this aspect more compelling. The same can be said for the sailing segments, which have the occasional wild animal or debris along the way, but at no point the world truly feels alive or interesting to look at as you press onward.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2770502780

I hope next FAR game will be co-op in the sky

Effective playtime for one playthrough closer to 5-6 hours.

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.

There’s something great about helping the small protagonist make a big hunk of metalwork by diligently pressing buttons, loading items into the furnace, jumping on bellows, and lowering the mast so it doesn’t collide with incoming structures.

But pacing problems, environmental storytelling that’s a little too vague, alongside an art style that sacrifices contrast for a richer yet muted color palette, ended up making me less invested in the world and Toe’s journey. I’m glad I saw it through; I just don’t feel the same mixture of awe and sorrow that was so prevalent in its predecessor. Full Review[www.gamewatcher.com].

The more I think about this game, the more I find aspects of it I can nitpick. I enjoyed FAR: Changing Tides. I really did. Not as much as I did with the first game, FAR: Lone Sails, but nevertheless, Changing Tides is as close as it gets to a Jules Verne novel in the gaming medium. Like a Jules Verne novel, Changing Tides is brimming with imagination and wonder. In seven hours, Changing Tides never failed to show me vistas that I would like to see for myself, explore and get lost in. It kept me wondering where I will see next in this post-industrial/post-steampunkish universe and I really am a sucker for some good steampunk art.

Unfortunately, unlike a Jules Verne novel, and unlike the first game Changing Tides never manages to convey the feeling that there is a real, existential threat present at any part of the story. The tension subsides after two hours into the seven hour experience and all there is left is a serene voyage into the unknown, with pitiful attempts to reignite the tension here and there, most of them failures.

Maybe replaying Lone Sails just before starting Changing Tides was a mistake as I was able to see that all the pitfalls of a brilliant short story rewritten into a novel is present between two games. Quite simply put, both games can be compared to two different pieces of knitting, made with the same amount of yarn. One is obviously smaller, but tighter and stronger. The other is larger by a significant margin, but you can see the gaps in the weaving.

There is a larger variety of biomes in Changing Tides. There are more gameplay mechanics to control the vehicle. Now it doesn't limit itself to above the sea level, we also go underwater too (because underwater levels are not the most ridiculed levels in gaming history!). The ship itself is larger, covering most of the screen unless you zoom out. There is not just one ending, now there are two false endings and a real one. There is more music. And I hate this saying with all my heart but I'll say it. Sometimes, quite unfortunately, less is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ more.

Only larger variety of biomes feel like an improvement on the first game. More mechanics mean there is more stuff to do, especially when you just want to sit back and take in the view. Engaging with them usually produce underwhelming results, if they are not absolutely required to make progress. Underwater parts feel like padding and as usual in games (apart from ABZU) there is almost nothing interesting or eye catching to see there. It was easier to connect with the smaller landship of the first game, and I have no idea how they managed to make living quarters of such a large vessel so devoid of soul and character. Even its colours are more bleak and generic compared to the rest of the ship. The soundtrack does not hold up to the increased playtime of the game, yes it manages what it sets out to do when it comes in but those occurrences are few and far between.

The ending needs a separate analysis. The ending of Changing Tides is perfect on its own. I have no doubt that anyone who enjoyed the first game will be left satisfied and emotionally stimulated upon completing it. The issue is that at that point, I just wanted the game to end. Especially as I thought the game ended twice at that point, once on a cheerful note, once more depressing, but both of them should have been or at least could have been real endings. Puzzles started to get boring and wow factor, one of the strongest suits of Changing Tides, started to diminish. The end might be perfect on its own, but the pursuit of more left it crippled, invoked relief when it really, absolutely shouldn't.

Still, I loved this game. I'm hundred percent sure that if you look at the screenshots on the Steam page and like them, you'll like playing this game too. I cannot go on a voyage in a post-steampunkish, apocalyptic world even though I really want to (there is work tomorrow). But I can fire up Changing Tides, commandeer my majestic ship into the unknown and get lost in its beauty and as my dear comrade Harrier Du Bois says, "Beauty, don't abandon me in all this ugliness!"

I want a third game with a zeppelin and steampunk skyscrapers/10

Far: Changing Tides is NOT a bad game. There is beauty, and the sublime comfort of traversing a broken world in your little mobile home. Exactly what FAR: Lone Sails boasted. However, it does just about everything somewhat worse than Lone Sails, which is why I have to give a negative.

The only advantage of the game is its mechanical complexity, still not huge, it is still meant to be relaxing at times, but there are more things to do, more mechanics to interact with, and the very light 'puzzles' found in your environment are more time-consuming to do.

However, vistas are less visually interesting, less striking, the wonderful music is also less, and the whole world is significantly larger and slower, although this was hidden well. The whole game feels more pointlessly bloated, while simultaneously having lower quality beauty to fill that void. Moving from one setpeice to the next takes much longer than in Lone Sails. It's never egregious, but Lone Sails keeps you enraptured and never bored from the start, while Changing Tides has me frequently craning my neck to see farther forward because I've had my fill of this giant rock 3 minutes ago.

It's a shame but it feels very much like the soul and spirit of the game is being poorly mimicked, while filling that same void with more mechanical complexity. The mechanics were an excuse to behold the beauty, not the other way around.

This game like its predecessor is a once in a lifetime experience in my personal opinion and I urge anyone who is thinking of playing it to dive straight in

As a guy rapidly approaching 50, I'm getting very difficult to please these days. I'm pleased to say however that this game is just wonderful.... I was captivated from start to end.

With just under 6 hours of playtime, this ends up being about twice as long as its predecessor, and yet somehow emptier than it. It feels like it actually had fewer, simpler, puzzles than Lone Sails. I picked it up for about $14 during a 30% off sale, and it feels like it might be worth that, but as with Lone Sails, I feel it also doesn't really command its full list price.

Tides is pretty much a direct sequel to Sails, and for the most part, my review of Sails will serve you again, here. The primary difference is that instead of a rolling machine, you're now on a floating machine. The precise mechanics have changed a little bit, but in general the same muscle memory will serve you here. You're still going to be balancing energy and heat and motion with rough tools. You're still going to stewing in a miserable, lonely, post-apocalyptic world. You will still crash your sail into something off the screen that would not be surprising if you weren't locked into a side-on view.

You will not suffer as much for energy sources this time around, but you'll still be anxious about it. You won't have to worry about exploding barrels this time, but you will still pick up items that seem like they shouldn't be burned. There are even /more/ overly-lengthy just-go-right sequences, that contribute to the game's theme of loneliness and loss. It simply isn't a game to make you feel good. The end-of-game payoff is just 'meh'.

In the end, it was good for three days of slogging across a gloomy landscape. I recommend you pick it up if you enjoyed Lone Sails and Tides is under the $15 mark.

Actually, wait for the inevitable bundle where you can get both for $10. But it wouldn't be a huge crime if you were to miss this one, either.

FAR: Changing Tides is the follow up game to the Indie Gem FAR: Lone Sails.
Once again you take the role of a nameless individual in a, nearly, empty world.
No other humans around, just some animals and you.
Like Lone Sails, Changing Tides has no narration, you discover the world, and make your way through the ruins of an old civilization, trying to figure out what might has happened.

Gameplay
You explore the world with a ship this time, which works like the Octomotive from the first game. You need to collect fuel to fire it up, or set the sails when the wind is with you. Every now and then, you come over ruins of the Ancients, which are the puzzles of the game, and often give an upgrade to your ship. The puzzles are not too hard but still very enjoyable to do.

Graphic and Audio
I’m personally a huge fan of the art design, but if you’re looking for top the line graphics, this won’t be your game. The soundtrack is, once again, phenomenal and underlines the game perfectly.

Final Thoughts
If you played the first game, FAR: Changing Tides is a must play. The first game isn’t needed thou to enjoy Changing Tides, but it adds to it if you played it.
If you’re looking for a relaxing game, that won’t give you much hassle, and has a very atmospheric world, FAR: Changing Tides might be the game you’re looking for, to keep you busy for an evening or two.