EGX Rezzed FAR: Lone Sails Preview

FAR: Lone Sails is the stylish breakout game from Okomotive which I had the absolute pleasure of playing at EGX Rezzed. You play as the lone occupant of an unusual steam and sail powered vehicle, a part boat, part tank affair built for the dried up ocean floor. This vehicle is controlled entirely through big red buttons you push with your body - most of the buttons are bigger than you are - and powered by all natural resources, water and wind.

The wind came late through the section I played, but it provides constant forward momentum with no resource actually used. This doesn’t give you a huge amount of speed, and getting your hulking vehicle up sand dunes will probably require a boost from the steam engine. The steam engine takes boxes from the world, converts that into water which is stored in a tank before a big red button activates the engine’s forward movement. The boxes are littered along the floor, and you’ll probably want to grab them as often as possible.

The tank only holds so much, but there are many places on board the vehicle to store these boxes. Keeping the engine stocked up on water will ensure that your vehicle keeps moving forward at a reasonable pace, though when the engine is running you need to manage the pressure. When the pressure builds up, another big red button will release the steam, but if you let it reach critical levels parts of the vehicle may explode and you’ll need to grab the fire hose to put out the ensuing fire.

If the winds fail you and you’ve used up all the water, it isn’t the end of the world. You can grab a winch from either end of the vehicle and just pull it. This is slow, but progress is progress, right? I’m relatively certain that these can be used as an actual winch, but I never found anywhere to attach them in the opening section I played.

FAR doesn’t seem to have any direct narrative, but the world has been designed with little details to tell a story - though I didn’t play for long enough to know what it’s really about. There’s definitely an explanation of how - if not why - the world has dried out, and I hope that Okomotive have added a little more intrigue for the latter part of the game.

FAR: Lone Sails is set for release on the 17th of May 2018 for PC, and at a later unannounced date for PS4 and Xbox One.