Far: Changing Tides review – a tense and mournfully beautiful sequel

In an empty world like that of Far: Changing Tides, it’s hard not to become overly attached to the stupidest things. A toy carousel. A potted plant. A wooden duck. A delightfully regal statue of a deer.

Far: Changing Tides reviewPublisher: FrontierDeveloper: OkomotivePlatform: Played on PS5Availability: Out 1st March on PS4, PS5, Xbox (Game Pass), Switch and PC.

But immobile in the deep, dark depths of the ocean, my furnace dark and cold, I was left with no choice, was I? It was either stay here, shoals of fish circling my ankles, or sacrifice that wooden duck and hurl it into the engine’s hungry mouth. Yes, I’m still pretty upset about it.

Ostensibly, of course, nothing I recover from the ocean floor or the insides of water-damaged homes have any sentimental value. Everything I scavenge during my journey has but one purpose: to help power my vehicle, a strange boat-cum-submarine-cum-land-car thing that propels Toe – that’s us – forward.

Yet I can’t seem to help myself. Yes, the cans of fuel can be burned. Yes, I’ll sacrifice the discarded suitcases and bags – I wonder who packed them? Where they are now? How did these bags get here? – but when it comes to the more unusual stuff, the wind-up carousel and the deer and a ballerina music box, I want to keep them. I want to cherish them. Because if I didn’t, Toe wouldn’t have anything at all. And more than anything, I feel Toe should have . We have no idea who they are or what they’ve been through, but I sense it’s a lot. I sense it’s enough for one small lifetime.