Far: Lone Sails Switch Review – Wind In My Sails

Far: Lone Sails has a very specific aesthetic behind it. It’s casual and relaxing, yet there’s always a slight fear of what lurks in the wide open planes of the world you’re traveling through. In the game, you are a little nameless protagonist driving your land ship across a ruined post apocalyptic world. With each section of the game gorgeously realised with beautiful art and atmospheric sounds, Far: Lone Sails never failed to impress.

However, with simple and short gameplay, is it too shallow to be worth picking up? Let’s find out.

Starting with a little more explanation on Far: Lone Sails’ gameplay. The game is about two hours long and will mostly consist of you rolling from left to right on your land boat. While you travel, you have to keep your ship moving either by using fuel supplies you find on the ground or by catching wind in your sails.

Occasionally you’ll find small puzzle sections to complete that will either give you an upgrade to your ship, such as better sails or a vacuum that automatically picks up fuel supplies, or it will simply let you keep moving.

I never felt like these provided any real challenge. They feel like they exist simply to bring the art of Far: Lone Sails to life rather than to work as their own strong, or even successful, gameplay elements.

However, even when I was just rolling across the landscape, making sure my ship wasn’t running out of fuel or going on fire, it was impossible to ignore all the beauty Far: Lone Sails has to offer. The art is absolutely stunning and is actually what drew me to the game in the first place. It’s a beautiful mixture of monochrome backgrounds with splashes of reds and oranges all painting a fantastic, rustic, ruined scene.

Occasionally, when the wind caught my sails so I was moving along smoothly, when my boat wasn’t on fire and when I was just cruising along through some destroyed town, I could just jump out and stand on top of my boat. As the music swelled and the sky darkened, I just realised the absolute gorgeous beauty of the game.

The design of Far: Lone Sails also holds some compelling lore and world building. Old ruined vessels, small photographs, and snippets of radio feedback all give subtle hints to the protagonist’s past and what happened to the world.

This leaves the player to piece together their own understanding of the story in a way that very much reminded me of games such as Playdead’s Inside.

However, I did feel these elements could have been delved into deeper, as it could have added some needed extra layers to the experience.

All in all, Far: Lone Sails is lacking in gameplay depth and could go a little deeper into it’s lore. It only took me a couple of hours to finish, which is pretty good in this case as otherwise I feel I could have easily become bored of the game and never finished it.

However, the aesthetic is impeccable and creates a very unique playthrough that I enjoyed thoroughly. The art and music are absolutely beautiful, and I’d argue it’s worth playing simply for that.

Far: Lone Sails Switch Review provided by Nintendo Link
Publisher: Mixtvision Games
Developers: Okomotive, Mr Whale’s Game Service
Release Date: May 17th, 2018
Price: $14.99, £13.49, €14.99
Game Size: 2.2 GB