Ludography
76/100
Players138 ratings
78/100
Critics2 reviews
More scores
Metacritic27 critic reviews
80/100
Metacritic usersuser score
79/100
GameFAQsEasy
3.67/5
Player reviews
95% positive24,536 reviews
Steam Deck
Verified
Runs on
Windows, Mac
Price
US$14.99

Where to get it

FAR: Lone Sails cover

2018 · Okomotive · Adventure · Indie

FAR: Lone Sails

Far: Lone Sails is a vehicle adventure game. The player needs to maintain and upgrade their unique vessel to traverse a dried-out sea, with the remains of a decaying civilization scattered out on the seabed. Keep your unique vessel going, overcome numerous obstacles and withstand the hazardous weather conditions.

Released
17 May 2018
Platforms
AndroidNintendo SwitchPlayStation 4WindowsXbox OneiOSmacOS
Genres
AdventureIndiePlatformerPost-apocalypticPuzzleSimulationWalking simulator
Developers
Okomotive
Publishers
—
Series
FAR
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Side view
Themes
ActionFantasySurvivalKidsMystery
Country
Switzerland
Age ratings
PEGI 7USK 6ESRB EGRAC ALLACB PGCERO A
Languages
Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal) and 3 more
Entry
#1 in FAR
Time to beat
3hmain story3hwith extras6hcompletionist

About

Far: Lone Sails (stylized as FAR: Lone Sails) is an exploration adventure video game developed by the Swiss development company Okomotive. The game was released for Windows and macOS in May 2018, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in April 2019, for Nintendo Switch in August 2019, and for Android and iOS in October 2020. A sequel, Far: Changing Tides, was released in March 2022.

›Story

Under cloud-strewn skies, the player travels across a seemingly endless dried-up sea, littered with the remains of a once vibrant seafaring civilization. The game’s world is largely devoid of life, yet filled with places to explore and history to discover. What once was the bottom of an ocean, has turned into a graveyard for submarines and super tankers. Once bustling island settlements have decayed into hilltop ruins.

What secrets do they hold? And more importantly… is there any salvage to be found?! While the greater goal of the journey remains to be uncovered by the player, urgent short-term necessities call for immediate action. The train-like vehicle needs to be fueled, maintained and upgraded to master the challenges that lie ahead.

After the character dressed in a red outfit, stumbles upon the mysterious machine, he traverses the dried-up seabed. During this journey you incounter various puzzles blocking your progress through the seabed. Some of these puzzles also add a new module to the machine. These include; a sail, fire extinguisher, welder and automated waste catcher.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

In FAR, the player controls the driver of a large vehicle as they search through a post-apocalypse setting. The game is played from a side-scrolling perspective, with the vehicle interior seen as a cross-section. To control the vehicle the player must move around inside it, operating stations and pressing buttons to perform various functions that keep the vehicle moving, such as engaging the engine or filling the boiler with fuel sources found over the course of the player's journey. The various parts of the vehicle can take damage, requiring the player to stop and extinguish fires and repair damaged systems.

They are also required to solve puzzles in the world to allow the vehicle to pass and collect upgrades for it. The game has no enemies, though the player-character can die due to environmental hazards, and will restart at the last checkpoint.

Development

FAR began in 2015 as the Bachelor's degree student project of lead developer Don Schmocker at the Zurich University of the Arts. During his master's degree he continued the development together with his fellow student Goran Saric. They founded the game studio Okomotive in February 2017 and expanded the team with other students and friends from University. Schmocker was inspired by Strandbeests, the book Stephen Biesty's Incredible Cross-Sections, The Straight Story, and games such as Journey and LittleBigPlanet when designing FAR.

Looking to take a new approach to the use of vehicles in video games, the developers aimed to create a game where the player was dependent on their vehicle, forming an emotional attachment to it over the course of the game. The game is developed in Unity, and the developers use Blender and Adobe Photoshop for the 3D and 2D graphics respectively.

Reception

FAR received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.

Writing for Mashable, Anna Washenko named the game as one of her favorites from E3 2016, calling it a "simple but lovely game". After playing the game at GDC 2017, Chris Livingston of PC Gamer described FAR as "one of the most intuitive games" he had played, also praising the visual design and music. On Polygon, Charlie Hall described the game as having "more meaning, conveyed silently, than many major AAA games released so far this year". Kyle Hilliard of Game Informer praised the game's ability to connect the player to their vehicle, the world building, and the puzzles.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
iOS17 May 2018Worldwide
Windows17 May 2018Worldwide
macOS17 May 2018Worldwide
Android17 May 2018Worldwide
Xbox One2 April 2019Worldwide
PlayStation 42 April 2019Worldwide · Japan 23 May 2019
Nintendo Switch18 August 2019Worldwide · Japan 23 January 2020

Editions and related releases

Included in
FAR: Universe Bundle

In the same series

Games like this

Collections2 collections

Years

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.