Quick Opinion: Far Lone Sails, TREE, Cultist Simulator

There are more than few games which deserve their own article on the blog, but I have not played enough of most of them (insert sad face here) BUT I have played enough of these three small games. And trust me they are more than worthy of your time. First is...

Far Lone Sails

Far Lone Sails is an atmospheric post-apocalyptic puzzle adventure game in which you need to get from what looks like the memorial place of someone to...somewhere else. For this you will travel on a vehicle powered both by sails and an engine. During your adventure you will solve puzzles, upgrade the vehicle ( ship? ), collect fuel for its engine and most of all deal with all kinds of defects. Defects which are not taken care for will start fires and render parts of the ship useless and will also cause further damage. You cannot finish the game without your ship, so you will have take good care for it. When you are not dealing with the ship you will solve (simple even for me) puzzles in the ruins of the world and uncover what has happened to it. 

While theoretically Far Lone Sails has failure state it is hard to get to it and not finish the game. The puzzles you will encounter are also not extremely challenging. What stands out from the game is its atmosphere of loneliness,  beautiful environments and the open for interpretation story ( including the ending itself ). Far Lone Sails is really about the journey more than about the destination, its an experience. Although the destination is also quite interesting.

 

Where to find:

Official site

GoG 

HumbleStore

TREE 

TREE is developed by group of industry veterans calling themselves The Strangers and it came out in September. It is a simple game about a boy planting a tree ( shocking, right? ) and collecting the fruits of the tree each season. But TREE is not about its game element, it is about life. While you are growing the TREE and gathering its fruits you will witness how the boy grows and what fruits he gathers from life. TREE is a short, half-hour game about life and what you can get from it...or not.

Where to find:

Steam

Cultist Simulator

The long time readers of the blog are aware that I am no small fan of Failbetter Games, the creators of the browser adventure game Fallen London and the naval adventure Sunless Sea. And now the creator of these two gems - Alexis Kennedy has made Cultist Simulator. By its nature Cultist Simulator is a digital board game in which your task is to create your own Cult and achieve Immortality. To achieve this you will explore the secret occult places in a city and work so you can have money for pieces on mysticism ( and to support your life ). In the progress of the mentioned explorations you will not only attract people for your Cult, but there is also good chance you will attract unwanted attention of both people who are against your interest in the occult and from occult powers. Both will attempt to end your life. 

How all this works is very confusing - you have...lets call them nouns, those are the cards in the game, they are separated in all kinds of categories and types - Tools, Skills, Books, Rites, Enemies, etc.. And you have verbs, those are the actions you can attempt - Work, Study, Dream, Explore, etc. For the actions you use cards. Most cards can be used with different actions and provide different results. The confusing part comes from the fact that Cultist Simulator as all other Failbetter games leave a lot to the user. You will fail and start a new many times before you learn the ropes of the game and how to play it if not optimally at least manage to finish it without dying. The game is also very chaotic - verbs happen in real time and once you get few going at the same time you will be clicking and hovering stuff all the time, wondering what to do next, seasons will pass, money will disappear and your only friend in this madness is the pause, but even it will not help you enough sometimes. 

Despite all these Cultist Simulator also has this great, unique, mystic vibe all other Failbetter titles have. And while the game is probably not set in Fallen London, because Kennedy has released it independently, it can easily find its place in the underground city and if you like Fallen London and Sunless Sea there is something for you in Cultist Simulator too.

Where to find:

Humble

GoG
Steam