INTRO:
Quite a number of indie games nowadays tend to go the walking simulator route, relying on voice-overs and lots of text to tell stories but have next to no gameplay. If they are not these, then they are side-scrolling platformers or rogue-lite RPGs. Things are getting droll and predictable in the indie scene.
Yet, there are some gems here and there that shine brighter than the rest for being quite different. FAR: Lone Sails is one such title, due to its brand of silent story-telling and the implementation of a mobile 2D contraption.
PREMISE:
There is no dialogue or monologue. Any in-universe text that can be read is sparse. However, the background and things in the environment compensate for the lack of any active story-telling.
Describing the backstory here would unfortunately constitute a spoiler; the backstory is exactly what the game tries to convey, and the very last scene happens to provide the most definitive clue about what the premise of the game is.
It should suffice to say here that for reasons that involve life and limb, the player character has to operate a large vehicle and drive it towards the right.
PLAYER CHARACTER:
The player character is a heavily hooded humanoid; a portrait of the player character even shows the cowl that he/she/it wears. The game starts with the protagonist standing in front of a memorial, presumably that of a loved one.
Far from being lethargic from despondency, the player character is an untiring thing that can carry objects, jump around and push into things without any sign of physical strain. Furthermore, the player character can float downwards from great heights, thus making falling a non-issue. The player character is also incredibly strong, as is evident from his/her/its ability to haul the large vehicle with a tow-line. He/She/It can also carry objects as large as he/she/it is, such as gas tanks.
If there is any setback that the player character has, it is that he/she/it has no inventory or pockets of any kind, and has to carry things one by one regardless of their size.
2-D ENVIRONMENTS:
It is clear early on that the player would be playing a game that uses a 2-D slice of a 3D environment for its gameplay. The only way to progress is to keep moving towards the right, though the player can always backtrack (which is generally not recommended). (There are invisible walls that will prevent backtracking in some scenes too.)
Speaking of which, backtracking causes the camera to zoom out, if the large vehicle is operable. This can greatly reduce the apparent on-screen size of the player character and things that he/she/it can interact with, which can be a problem.
CUT-AWAYS:
The player eventually comes across what is likely the protagonist’s home, as suggested by the presence of the aforementioned portrait. The home’s façade is cut away by the camera, revealing a cross section of the house and its contents. This is an example of how the game shows indoor environments while providing the player with the means to have the protagonist interact with things that are inside said places.
It works most of the time. However, there are places where the player has to be shown the insides of two rooms that happen to be far away from each other; in these cases, the game resorts to far-out camera zooms. This would not have been an issue if the player character has high visual contrast against other on-screen things, but this is not always so.
THE VEHICLE:
The vehicle is massive. It is as large as a house, and its prow is spacious enough to accommodate a bedroom. (Incidentally, the bedroom is where the player character is when the player loads a game-save; presumably, he/she/it had been taking a nap.)
Although the vehicle is not indestructible, it is quite robust. Outside of scripted events/sequences that grounds or corrals the vehicle, it can be made to move as the player wishes. On the other hand, it cannot reverse; the player character needs to use its rear tow-winch for that.
The core components of the vehicle are its fuel-intake, engine, brake, steam release and elevator. These will be described in their own sections.
ELEVATOR:
The elevator is the only way to get to the higher segments of the vehicle from the inside. It can be a tad unwieldy, as the only control that the player has over it is the ceiling button. The ceiling button, once pushed, causes the elevator to go up and keep going until it reaches the top deck of the vehicle; the player cannot choose where it stops. Rather, the player character has to jump off the elevator and onto which segment that the player wants. This is clunky and tedious.
The ceiling button also highlights a hilarity about the game, as will be described later.
BRAKE:
There is a risk that the vehicle would just roll off on its own even if the engine is not running. To prevent this, the player can apply the brake of the vehicle, which effectively stops it. The momentum of the vehicle may carry it forward for a short distance, but the brake never fails. The brake will be automatically released if the sails have been raised or the engine has started. This is usually convenient.
ENGINE:
The engine is the heart of the vehicle. It is also the most robust part; even if it is on fire and is sparking all over the place, it can still move the vehicle.
However, there is a drawback to the operation of the engine; it is operated through a finicky horizontally-aligned button.
The horizontal button has to be pushed far into its slot for the engine to start. If the player character releases it too early, the button springs back to its previous state and the engine will turn off. After it has been pushed a certain distance, a latch key will be inserted into the button, seemingly preventing the button from being released.
However, for whatever reason, the latch key eventually pops out. This means that the player character has to return to the engine button every once in a while just to keep the engine running. This is likely intentional on the developer’s part, e.g. they might want to keep the player on his/her toes, but this is also tedious.
FUEL INTAKE:
Engines being engines – even in video games – the engine of the vehicle requires fuel to function. This is where the fuel intake platform comes in.
Hitting the button next to the platform causes the platform to be raised into an opaque chamber. Whatever is on the platform (with the exception of the player character) will be converted into fuel. The fuel is then piped to the engine. Its fuel capacity is depicted by a teal-green circular container that is always visible to the player, whether the player character is inside or outside the vehicle.
FUEL SOURCES:
Many things can be used as fuel, though there are some that are specifically made for this purpose.
Wooden boxes are the first intended source of fuel that the player encounters. They are universally painted white to make them stand out, though red or yellow would have made them more distinct. They only fill the fuel reservoir by half, but incidentally they are the most numerous fuel source around.
Next, there are fuel barrels. A fuel barrel completely fills the reservoir; more often than not, the player would be wasting a bit of the fuel that they can provide whenever they are used. (Excess fuel is lost.)
Propane tanks are like fuel barrels, except that they can set the fuel intake and/or the engine on fire when they are consumed. They are risky, but appear to give the engine a bit of an acceleration if it is already running (though this can be difficult to notice when things are being set on fire).
It is very rare that a player would run out of fuel with no fuel sources to top up with. This can happen if the player had been ignoring fuel items that are lying around (especially if the player is speed-running), but careful players will not suffer such an ignominy. They may even get more fuel than they need.
KNICK-KNACKS:
Fuel sources are not the only things that the player character can pick up. There are lanterns (complete with light sources), oversized coins, bags, chairs and rarer things like a television and a radio.
These things are mainly there for Steam achievements. Gameplay-wise, they can be used as fuel too, though they are not as potent as actual fuel sources.
STEAM RELEASE:
The engine of the vehicle builds up steam as it runs, for whatever reason (the vehicle belches smoke by the way, suggesting that the engine is an internal combustion engine). Failure to release the steam before it reaches maximum pressure leads to predictably undesirable consequences. Fortunately, releasing steam is not just a chore; it accelerates the vehicle too. This is going to be a factor for speed-running enthusiasts to consider.
DISTANCE TRACKER & INTEGRITY METERS:
There are meters next to the engine and fuel reservoir. These are obviously only for the player’s viewing; their positioning in the vehicle and their size would have been too preposterous if they were meant for the player character’s convenience.
The distance tracker shows how much distance the vehicle has travelled. This measurement is useful for a speed-runner who is looking for ways to trim distance travelled.
There are four meters that show the integrity of the systems in the vehicle. Each meter has an icon-based label that is identical to the labels that are next to the devices; this is obviously for the purpose of association.
The meters happen to have markings that indicate the thresholds of the severity of the damage in the systems. After a threshold is passed, a debilitation occurs in a system. For example, if the fuel intake is significantly damaged, the feeder platform raises very slowly.
FIRE EXTINGUISHER:
More often than not, damage to the vehicle is precipitated with things catching fire. (The only devices that will not catch fire are the fire extinguisher itself and the repair station.) Devices on fire are damaged over time, but otherwise the fire is contained to them. After they have lost all of their structural integrity, the fire becomes capable of spreading to other systems.
Therefore, extinguishing the fires is often a higher priority than restoring the function of the devices. (Repairing the devices will not put out the fires anyway.)
Thankfully, one of the systems that is already installed in the vehicle right from the start is the fire extinguisher. It somehow makes water from the fuel reservoir. That said, the fire extinguisher does use fuel, albeit at a rate that is far slower than the engine and even slower than the vacuum device (more on this later).
The fire extinguisher is also used in a couple of solutions to overcome obstacles. There should have been more though, because the impression that the fire extinguisher is only meant to put out fires in the vehicle is still strong.
INSTALLATION OF SYSTEMS:
There are a few occasions in the game in which the player has to go to facilities that presumably service the vehicle and its ilk. Besides, the vehicle starts out incomplete. There are noticeable gaps in its hull where there could have been parts; these do eventually get filled in.
The installation of these devices is mandatory in any playthrough, so they are more like milestones in the player’s progress through the game than they are anything like the customization options in games with modifiable vehicles.
SAILS:
Sails are the first additional things that are installed in the vehicle. Taking advantage of the winds that occur naturally in the region that the game takes place in, the vehicle can move forward without having to use the engine. A handy orange-red flag shows the direction of the wind; understandably, the player may not want to use the sails when the wind is blowing in the opposite direction.
Unlike the engine, the sails can be deployed indefinitely; a lever lock appears to keep them in place. However, significant damage can disable the lock. Releasing the lock is as simple as touching the button to deploy the sails again, though the player is not informed about this.
The sails are huge. Incidentally, they pose a collision hazard; there are plenty of places where there is not enough space for the vehicle and its sails to go through. Collisions damage the sails, but thankfully, they are prevented from taking any further damage because they automatically retract.
REPAIR STATION:
The repair station is introduced after the vehicle has (in)conveniently suffered damage that impaired its functions. The repair station does not appear to use any fuel, despite clearly including a blowtorch.
Repairing something is as easy as bringing the blowtorch to a damaged system. It takes a while to administer repairs, though the aforementioned integrity meters give a reliable readout of the progress.
VACUUM:
The last system to be installed is the vacuum. It sucks up any portable item off the ground that the vehicle has travelled over; in return for this convenience, it uses some fuel, though at a rate that is low enough that the player could leave it turned on if he/she does not want to waste time scrambling over to where it is.
This is just as well, because it is located at the rear of the vehicle; it is a little nook that can be bothersome to reach. Furthermore, getting onto the place where the device keeps sucked-up items requires jumping, and it just so happens that the device uses a ceiling button. The player character could inadvertently hit the button and toggle the device on or off when the player does not want to.
There is a limitation that the game does not inform the player about. The vacuum device can only hold up to three items: the first item would be placed onto a platform above the vacuum chute, while the next two is kept inside the chute. If the vacuum goes over any other item on the ground while it is full, it understandably will not pick up any more stuff.
BONKING INTO CEILING BUTTONS:
In addition to the ceiling buttons in the vehicle, there are plenty of other ceiling buttons that the player character has to bonk his/her/its head into.
The ceiling buttons may have been part of the developers’ intention to simplify the gameplay designs of controlling things to just the movement of the player character. Yet, this highlights the limitations of the programming of the game.
Perhaps the game and the developers’ vision could have seemed adulterated if there were more control inputs than just having the player character physically come into contact with things. Yet, these would have made the game more convenient to play, and would have allowed for more complex gameplay.
Alas, this was not the case. If there is any silver lining to this, having the player character bonking his/her/its cowled head into the buttons is a goofy sight.
FLOOR SWITCHES AND BUTTONS:
In addition to buttons on the ceiling, there are buttons on the floor. Such things have counter-parts in real-life of course, but in real-life, they have long been phased out because they pose hazards to anyone who is walking close to them. This is even more so in this game, because the player character and the buttons exist in the same 2-D plane. Fortunately, the player character can effortlessly jump over them.
There are some floor switches that can only be activated by the vehicle, thus further necessitating the vehicle as a method to progress in the game. Anyway, these switches appear as grooved panels on the ground. After the wheels of the vehicle roll over them, they depress and activate a huge machine, usually an elevating platform that can accommodate the vehicle.
WINCHES:
As had been mentioned already, there are winches that are affixed to the prow and stern of the vehicle. These are mainly there for the purpose of moving other things, though they can be used to tow the vehicle around. In particular, the rear winch has to be used if the player wants to move the vehicle backwards for whatever reason.
The winches are also used to overcome some obstacles in the player’s way. These are often recognizable by the orange-red hooks that are affixed to these obstacles. Even without this foreknowledge, it would not take long for a player of decent intelligence to figure out what to do.
VISUAL DESIGNS:
The matter of cut-away environs has already been mentioned, as are the looks for the machines within the vehicle. There are other visual designs that are intended to help the player’s observation and decision-making, such orange-red colourization that indicate something that can be interacted with.
There are no human-looking characters, the protagonist notwithstanding. However, there are recognizable animals and animations for them, clearly indicating that the game takes place in an alternate and mostly believable version of Earth.
The most pervasive visual designs are those for the weather. The omnipresence of the wind is noticeable through examples such as swirling dust, billowing fabrics and shaking debris. The skybox also changes in convincing manners, such as the rapid darkening of the clouds to indicate the onset of an incoming storm.
The backdrops are perhaps the most interesting visual designs, because they are the main storytelling tool. There are many places that have been touched by human civilization, but have been hastily abandoned for reasons that become clear as the playthrough progresses.
Of course, the elephant in the room is the sci-fi Victorian-esque technology of the machines that are seen in the game. They do look wondrously impressive, though immediately discernible as outrageously impractical.
There are some other visual designs that will be described in their own sections because of their substantial effect on the gameplay.
FUEL RESERVOIR:
As one of the most important visual indicators in the gameplay, the fuel reservoir expectedly has very obvious visual designs. It has high colour contrast with every other thing on-screen, can be seen even at the furthest camera zoom, and is always luminescent. Yet, not all of its other visual designs are as obvious.
Its subtlest visual design is the bubbling from the bottom of the reservoir as fuel is consumed. This does not happen very often, and the bubbles are quite difficult to see against the rest of the fuel. They should have had higher contrast, which would have made determining which systems on the vehicle consume fuel and which do not.
SHIMMER HIGHLIGHTS:
The player character and things that he/she/it can pick up are highlighted with different shading. Specifically, if they are in poorly illuminated places, the game applies shimmering edges on them to make them stand out. This is handy, as long as the objects are not obscured by other things.
FOREGROUND OBSCURATION, CAMERA ANGLE & FAR-OUT ZOOM:
Most of the time, the game tries to make it easy for the player to spot things that can be interacted with. However, there are times when the camera angle is such that things are obscured by floors and ceilings. Fortunately, said things are usually not the ones that the player needs to look at.
Things in the foreground are more obstructive though. They can obscure the player’s view of the insides of the vehicle, thus making it necessary to move the vehicle elsewhere.
In scenarios about the installation of systems into the vehicle, the camera usually zooms out to give the player a wide view. However, looking for items that the player character can carry becomes more difficult too. Fortunately, completing the installation releases the camera. (Alternatively, the player can also hold down a button to have the camera zoom in, though the player still has no fine control over the camera zoom.)
SOUND DESIGNS:
As mentioned already, there are no voice-overs, and the protagonist is a silent one.
The music and ambient sounds are the first audible things that the player would have. Much of the music is piano refrain, string instrument and percussion, with little to no discernible electronic. The music is melancholic, which is perhaps fitting, considering the setting. There are times when the tone and tempo of the music change, such as when the player has started the vehicle for the first time.
The ambient sounds have a greater presence than the music. In particular, the player will be hearing noises that are associated with the weather almost all the time. For example, the winds become increasingly louder as a stormfront rapidly approaches.
The sound effects that are not ambience-related are those emitted by moving machinery and man-made objects. Chief of these are the chugging and rumbling of the vehicle, though it is not the only piece of noisy machinery around.
SUMMARY:
It is not very often that a game can tell a story without voice-overs while depending on lovingly done backdrops, and have gameplay of considerable complexity while hewing to a linear progression to tell said story. FAR: Lone Sails is one such gem, and it is a pleasant surprise during an era when the increasingly crowded indie scene faces an increasingly jaded audience.