Hi, I’m Don Schmocker, Co-Founder and Lead Artist at Okomotive and today I’m really excited to announce that FAR: Changing Tides is coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on March 1st. FAR: Changing Tides is an atmospheric adventure vehicle that follows the story of a boy who must traverse a flooded post-apocalyptic landscape at the helm of a unique ship.
After the release of our first game, FAR: Lone Sails, we got a lot of feedback from fans who explained how much the meditative and reflective nature of the game resonated with them. For FAR: Changing Tides, we wanted to make sure we captured that same familiar meditative atmosphere while giving players a fresh and uplifting experience. We’ve expanded the setting seen in Lone Sails, but instead of dusty, sun-scorched plains, players will face tumultuous waters and submerged cities. We hope this new environment combined with new puzzles and ship mechanics will bring an exciting experience for fans of the series and new players alike.
Like FAR: Lone Sails, the story of FAR: Changing Tides is not told but must be found. Players will discover submerged objects, images and buildings – victims of the floods – all remnants of the past, all telling a story. This environmental storytelling features a very different kind of game design, but we think it helps create a strong bond between the world and the players, as they choose which part of the story to seek out and engage with. With Lone Sails, we found ourselves defining and building pieces of the story throughout development, which got harder and harder. For Changing Tides, we wrote the majority of the story and world-building during pre-production, it gave us better direction and allowed us to plan and design the environments with the story.
One of the main differences in FAR: Changing Tides is the verticality added by the flooded landscape and the way that this adds quite a level of exploration for players. The earth has been covered with water and so it makes sense that there is a whole other world to walk through below the surface. This new landscape required a change to one of the game’s key mechanics: the vehicle. The vehicle is one of the most important elements in a FAR game, it is almost considered as a second protagonist! In Lone Sails, although the vehicle had a sail, it was entirely land, which suited the dusty and desolate plains. In FAR: Changing Tides, the player’s journey takes place almost entirely on water, both above and below the waves, and we wanted to create a vehicle that could stay with them for all of that. Sails and oars are perfect for navigating the world above the surface, and they can be retracted and the engine engaged for exploration beneath the waves. As the player progresses through the game, they will see a relationship develop between the protagonist, Toe, and the ship. The relationship is symbiotic, the ship will not sail without Toe to control the sails or oars, and Toe cannot overcome certain obstacles without the ship.
We hope everyone is as excited as we are about this next installment in the FAR series, and we look forward to hearing everyone’s comments when the game launches on PS4 and PS5 on March 1!
