Far: Changing Tides is a gorgeous and haunting atmospheric puzzle adventure game where you must guide your ship across a demolished and water-ravaged landscape. Feeling like a unique blend of Limbo and Inside mixed with a more somber tone, Far: Changing Tides immediately pulls you into its flooded world. The game quite literally throws you into the deep end as you get familiarized with its nuances.While not a complicated game on the surface, dive a bit below the water level and you will learn that Far: Changing Tides hides its best moments in the stillness. The game does guide you through the basics of movement and exploration right at the start, however, there are some things you should keep in mind when first jumping into this adventure puzzle game.
9 If You Can't Go Around, Go Under
Far: Changing Tides is all about navigating your massive ship across bodies of water. However, there are certain instances where you must swim around underwater by yourself. In these situations, if you can't go around an obstacle, simply go under them or through them.
This point is especially true at the start of the game when you are first making your way to your ship. There are some buildings that don't seem penetrable but you can actually go under them or clamber your way through them.
8 Keep An Eye Out For Interaction Points
At various points throughout your journey you will come across items or obstacles that can be interacted with. These items are denoted by a blue color. Typicaly these will be levers, boxes, crates, repair items, ladders, and the like.
Far: Changing Tides is a game that keeps you moving forward and each time you get to a new area, you are generally going to have to complete some sort of little puzzle. If you are stuck in a given area, keep a lookout for those blue highlighted objects that you can interact with.
7 You Can Zoom In or Out At Any Time
Far: Changing Tides gives you the option to zoom the camera in or out at any time. While this may sound like a very small feature, it actually becomes incredibly useful as you progress in the game, mostly because it's good to see what's right in front of you, or what's coming up.
You are able to hold down a button that can zoom out the camera or zoom in the camera. Generally speaking, you will use the zoom out feature to see what obstacles lie in front of your ship, and you will use the zoom in feature when completing certain puzzles or interacting with your ship.
6 Propel Yourself Underwater
Near the very start of the game you will stumble into an underwater location that almost seems like a scientific research base deep below the water-logged city. In this area you will obtain a special suit that allows you to propel yourself underwater.
This new suit gives you extra speed when navigating the many watery depths you will encounter in your journey. The propel feature does need to be briefly charged between uses so just know you won't be able to hold it down indefinitely.
5 Controlling Each Aspect Of Your Ship
Much like the cartoony space adventure Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime where you have to control all parts of your ship, Far: Changing Tides also has a similar gameplay mechanic. Simply put, you, and you alone, must control each and every aspect of your ship in order to get it moving.
As mentioned in a previous entry. the blue interaction points are what you are looking for when getting your ship seaworthy. Turning on your ship, controlling the sails, and maneuvering the large rudder are all things you need to keep in mind as you sail forward in this world.
4 A Slower, More Relaxed Adventure
By nature, Far: Changing Tides is a slower-paced adventure game. Don't jump into this game thinking it will be filled with high octane moments, action, or combat. This is very much a game that is meant to be taken slowly as it unravels its poignant and emotional tale.
If you go into this game with that mindset then you will be able to take your time exploring, completing the various puzzles, and understanding just what happened in this beautiful yet harrowing world.
3 You Can Hop-Off Your Ship To Explore The Waters
Did you know that you can easily hop off your ship to explore the murky waters below? If you decide you want a good swim or if you just want to see what's beneath your ship, you can freely dive into the waters to explore. Don't worry, you can climb back up the ship's ladder to get back on deck.
Apart from certain gameplay scenarios that have you explore, there really isn't a reason to do this but it's still a nice touch of freedom in an otherwise daunting world.
2 Contending With Environmental Obstacles
A large portion of your time playing Far: Changing Tides will come down to solving puzzles and contending with environmental objects and hazards. This is a very puzzle-heavy game but almost all of them tie directly into the game world and narrative to an extent.
For example, very early on in the game, you will encounter a sawmill. In order to move your ship forward across the waters, you will first need to hop off your ship in order to climb up the sawmill log chute. After solving a small puzzle, you are then able to move the chute so your ship can progress.
1 Making Repairs When Necessary
At certain points in the game you will need to perform repairs either on your ship or in the environment. It's very easy to see what needs to be repaired because the ship component or the object in the game world will typically be smoking or outright on fire.
In order to make the necessary repairs, you first need to acquire a small repair box. These repair boxes are indicated by the blue denotations and the gear-like sigil adorned on them. Simply pick up the box and move to the thing that needs to be repaired. The repairs will automatically take place and you only need to wait for a few seconds while they get fixed.