A moment of calm. The wind is doing the work, blowing my rickety vehicle along a flat stretch. With no need to be inside, repeating the frenetic cycle of feeding the engine, full-body-pushing the enormous button to send it roaring to life and venting steam to prevent it exploding from its own heat, I'm standing on the roof watching the world go by. It's quiet.
When I drop back down into the guts of the car, something's on fire.
So it goes in Far: Lone Sails. The game follows exactly one trip, and takes place almost entirely within its vehicle. It's not the reliable car that we use in our day-to-day lives, and it's not the obliging horse that we so often use to get around in video games. It's the complete opposite of fast travel. There are no objectives or quests where you're going or where you're coming from.
This odd little game has blown in out of nowhere for me. I’d not heard a single thing about it before playing but within minutes it had completely won me over. After a few hours I adored it. I’ve never played anything quite like Far: Lone Sails, and in this turbulent world of ours its meditative and gentle journey was exactly what I needed. And, you know, I got to pretend to be the captain of a mad sail train for a few hours, so that’s something.
This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the difficult journeys they ve taken to make their games. This time, Far: Lone Sails [official site].
It s there when you first start the engine, in the hiss of steam as you press the ignition button and the rumble as the great wheels begin to turn. Then the music swells and you know the journey has begun.
Far: Lone Sails is a game by Okomotive about piloting a giant land boat across a destroyed landscape, about tending a huge machine through unpropitious conditions: hail and storms, fires, failure and shortages of fuel. And a great deal of your understanding of its colossal workings comes through sound, with music which responds to your actions and many layers of looping sound effects which subtly change shape as you trundle through a vast wilderness. (more…)
FAR: Lone Sails has been picked for the 2018 INTO THE PIXEL SELECTION at E3!!
While we sadly will not be present with the game this year, the above artwork will be shown among the likes of Uncharted, Persona 5 and God of War. What a massive honor!! :O
If you happen to be at E3 this year, make sure to stop by the collection and check out all the amazing artworks.
A sublime little side-scroller in the PlayDead tradition of child protagonists and looming industrial backdrops, FAR: Lone Sails is about going somewhere while staying put. It is the story of a girl, her features swallowed by a comically over-sized coat and hat, who embarks on a journey across a dried-up, abandoned continent after the loss of a loved one. The girl, however, does not do the journeying herself. She lives inside and operates a beautiful two-wheeled landship, its wooden frame peeling away when you board to reveal a dollhouse universe of cylinders and dials, swaying lanterns and pipes joined up by fat red buttons.
The landship is an immediate delight to interact with, from the way its engine backfires apoplectically to the sails that sprout like bullet-holed rabbit ears from its hull, allowing you to save precious fuel when the wind is at your back. It's also something of a pain in the arse, and all the more endearing for it. The vessel's tank only has enough fuel for a moment or so of forward movement, obliging frequent trips to the stern to load another crate into the incinerator, and you'll need to vent steam regularly to stop things bursting or catching fire. Fuel itself is more abundant than you might guess from the post-apocalytic premise (I suspect the game drops it ahead of you, depending on your performance) but it's important to be efficient, timing each top-up just right so that you eke the most from your supply while never squandering momentum by letting the engine fall quiet. You learn to save time by hopping across the roof of the rope elevator at the ship's waist, and to leave a crate on the incinerator platform, ready to go in an emergency.
Another game might have lost itself in all this bustling about, in the gradual optimisation of a space that is at once a loyal companion, a mobile home and a gorgeous analog toy, its fittings and surfaces directed outward at the player. But for every moment spent fussing over the vehicle, there's a moment in Lone Sails when you're free or forced by some external obstacle to look away, and to appreciate the contrast your rumbling haven forms with the world you're moving through. Huge oil tankers lean monstrously over dessicated seabeds. Wrecked factories reach their chimneys through sickly yellow light. Red banners flicker in the hearts of snowy railway yards.
Far: Lone Sails is described on Steam as a "vehicle adventure," but that really doesn't do the experience justice. More accurately, it's a slow, solo, contemplative journey across a barren, not-quite-realistic landscape littered with the detritus of a crumbled civilization on the run.
The game is built around a strange, rickety vehicle that's half steam train and half land yacht, that carries players along dry seabeds and through abandoned settlements and derelict factories. It's appallingly fuel-inefficient and requires almost non-stop maintenance (there's also an element of management game involved), but when the wind is right its majestic sails enable easy, carefree propulsion.
There are plenty of places to stop and explore along the way, although the interactivity is relatively minimal. You're not going to be kicking down doors, reading notes, or shooting at glowing-eyed zombies as you would in, say, The Final Station, a game it superficially resembles. But that's the point—developer Okomotive said that Far: Lone Sails is "just you and your machine vs. the big nothing," and it absolutely nails a sense of isolation and scale. The world feels big, and you are very, very small.
In case it's not clear, I've played Far: Lone Sails, and I really enjoyed it. It's a perfectly linear experience and not very long—around four hours if you dawdle, and you really should—but I said when the release date was announced in March that my expectations were "elevated," and I'm happy to say that they've been met.
All of which is to also say that Far: Lone Sails was released today and is available for $15 on Steam, GOG, and the Humble Store. There's also a website up with more information at far-game.com.
Steampunk may be a little overplayed these days, but Far: Lone Sails stands out from the top hat and techno-monocle crowd. Its stark, shifting palette of whites, reds and dark blues, a bleak and empty world that feels enormous around your tiny character, and the centrepiece of the action: your creaking steam-powered land-ship.
In this quiet post-apocalyptic adventure, your tiny little plains-wanderer is tasked with maintaining and singlehandedly crewing this enormous vessel across the great plains of a long-dry seabed in search of civilisation out in the wastes. It also launches today.
Boom! The game is finally out. :D We really hope you enjoy playing it. If you're still on the fence about it, maybe our launch trailer can win you over? Check it out here:
come launch we're happy to offer the game's soundtrack and a digital artbook as DLC for anyone interested in delving deeper into FAR: Lone Sails' world!
The digital artbook consists of 37 pages full of concept art, sketches, and 3D models of the most remarkable characters, buildings, and landscapes you will find in the game. It will also reveal more of the game’s backstory. Here's a preview:
The soundtrack offers 53 minutes of original music recorded for the game by composer Joel Schoch with the help of orchestral musicians. This includes the game's trailer music and 20 more stunning tracks.
