FAR Changing Tides Review (Xbox Series S)

by Jim Smale · March 8, 2022

For our FAR Changing Tides Review, we return to this atmospheric vehicle adventure that follows the emotional journey of a boy and his ship as he embarks on a voyage to find a new home. Sail stormy waters, dive into unknown depths, and explore forgotten ruins in a beautifully realized, flooded world.

FAR Changing Tides Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
2.6GB download size.
1000 Gamerscore.
Puzzle platformer gameplay.
The goal of the game is to keep your vessel moving forward no matter what.
You control your vessel in a unique way. You need to load rubbish into the fire and Stoke the engine, use the hose to keep the engine cool, or maybe raise and direct your sails to catch the wind.
Excellent story as ever.
As you travel you will come across roadblocks that require a bit of puzzle-solving.
Parts of your vessel will break down or take damage, you will find repair kits to remedy this.
You will take control of many different types of vessels.
Puzzles do have a bit more depth to them from the previous game.
Soundtrack kicks in as anything important happens.
Noncombat game.
The camera is fixed except you can manually zoom in.
Beautiful locations.
The soundtrack is very good and impactful.
Stats screen. Excellent and dramatic set pieces.

FAR Changing Tides Review Cons:

No tutorials.
It is not easy to see upcoming obstacles that require you to lower or move the sails.
Feels and plays a lot like the last game.
You cannot change any settings like Invert controls or Colourblind.
Slow pace.
The vessels are always tricky to navigate.
Gets quite tedious with the monotonous tasks to keep the vessel moving.
Doesn’t have any sort of tips system to help.

Related Post: MeteoHeroes Review (PlayStation 4)

FAR Changing Tides:

Official website.

Developer: Okomotive AG

Publisher: Frontier

Store Links –

Xbox

8/10

Graphics - 8/10
8/10

Sound - 8/10
7/10

Accessibility - 7/10
8/10

Length - 8/10
7/10

Fun Factor - 7/10

7.6/10

Summary

The first game was a completely out-of-the-blue experience that really captured the essence of survival. You had to manually repair and maintain your vessel to help aid your travel. It’s the same deal again here except there is a wider array of vessels to use. Water plays a huge part this time around and with that comes new puzzles and a lot of areas to explore. You can freely jump into the sea and explore the seabed for anything to use as fuel. The core general gameplay is very much the same as before and with that, a lot of the Old quibbles rise back up. Maintaining the vessel is fine at first and dare I say fun but after an hour of doing it the monotonous cycle is tedious, it slows down progress and makes a simple 30-second task a 5-minute expedition. I never hated the last game and I don’t hate this one but it really didn’t do anything new and overall it just felt like more of the same with a wrapper. One for die-hard fans of the last game or those that like monotony. Whilst the gameplay never really grabbed me as it felt too similar, The story still managed to keep me engrossed from the start and is told in such a powerful and memorable way.