Review: Far Out

Creating a game with the forces of one person is not easy. Previously, when it was enough to be "just" a good programmer and to have a couple of interesting ideas with you to develop your own project, such single-player developers were not something exceptional. And now, with indie's bloom, it's quite possible to create one's own project to one person. But it will be a difficult path. With fresh ideas, the tension - "everything was invented before us", for a decent graphics, the skills of the artist and designer are needed, and thanks to that very "blossoming" it is difficult to stand out among other similar projects. 

Author Far Out, working almost alone, was able to achieve this goal. After three years of little development and several postponements of the release date, the game finally got to the release. That all this time was hiding behind a promising description and beautiful screenshots - we now find out.
A long dream is interrupted by a sudden awakening. The head is split with pain, it is difficult to focus, and the body can barely listen to the commands. With difficulty I try to look around. Where I am? And who am I? 

So, judging by the surrounding situation, I'm on a spaceship. Here is the cryocapsule, from where I just got out, here's the first-aid kit hidden in the wall (so what kind of pills is it?) A couple can be relieved. To open the door, probably, it is necessary to press some button ... Yeah, probably, this one. On the scoreboard next to the flickers of numbers - a three-digit number, you have to remember it just in case. Outside, a poorly lit corridor, along the walls of which stretch some wires and pipes. Doors leading to other rooms, stairs to the upper deck ... So, what's that button on the wall? Click? Perhaps, it is possible. I know what I'm doing, do not I?

The click of the switch is muffled by a blast of cotton. The flame bursts out of the hole on one of the tubes. Fire! Trying to escape away from the flame, I cling to the wall and fall into the very heat. A couple of seconds of unsuccessful attempts to escape - and it's all over. Darkness.
This was my first attempt at Far Out . Questions about why we had to leave cryopapsules ahead of time, what happens on the ship and what is required of us, torment not only the protagonist, but also the player. No prehistory in the form of a video or at least a short note could not be found. The Steam page also does not add much clarity, providing only the most general description. The spaceship on which the accident occurred, you are one of the crew members, your task is to survive and find out what happened to the others and what is the cause of the breakdown.
All the rest, including the name of the main character, has to be learned independently. Well, quite in the spirit of the "old school", as promised by the developer, but still with a lack of information, especially at the initial stage, the author went too far. A short note describing the current situation - and it would be much more enjoyable to play. 

It turned out to be hardcore, but during the first pass you feel yourself not at all a member of the crew of the Selena starship named Zak Peterson (and all this turns out much later), but a laboratory mouse, which was launched into a special labyrinth with a bunch of levers and switches, is unknown. So the player - on the ship a lot of objects with which you can interact, but here is an understanding of what is required of us at all, completely absent.

Of course, after a while it turns out to get used to a little. You start to act quite consciously, and the ship reluctantly reveals its secrets. That's when the real game begins - but such a crumpled start spoils a lot.
"Selena" is a scientific spacecraft, a small vessel with a crew of four. Do not wait for some impressive scale - by the standards of modern games star is just a little, it will not get lost there. Several compartments - a residential area, commander's cabin, hangar, laboratory ... Nevertheless, we will have to carefully study the environment in order not only to survive, but also to understand what happened.
Far Out uses the mechanics of such a sub-genre of quests, like Escape the Room - "run away from the room." Such entertainment is quite popular, and no longer in video games, but in its real incarnation. A person or group of people is locked in a room, and they need to get out of it with the help of various subjects of the environment, having solved a chain of riddles. Typically, the lead time for the quest is limited: they did not have time on time - they lost. So here too: there are enough options for interaction with various objects and mechanisms (almost any thing can at least be picked up and dragged to another place), but here's how to use them correctly - you have to guess.

Separately it is worth mentioning the onboard computer, the control terminal which is on the bridge, - it contains a lot of useful information that will come in handy in order to survive. But not everything is so simple - the key to solving another puzzle is sometimes found in a completely different place. 

A temporary restriction is also present. The matter is that "Selena" is in an emergency condition. The ship may run out of oxygen or energy - the consequences of this will be the most deplorable. Moreover, from time to time there are various events that directly affect the situation on the ship, and their course may differ at each passage. A sudden shutdown of artificial gravity or a fire in the compartment is forced to take urgent measures - otherwise the final of the story will be much more sad than planned.

Promised nonlinearity in stock - every start of a new game will provide our hero with a new set of events. Possible endings, too, a few - depending on which path to salvation the player chooses. And certainly do not expect that you will be able to pass the quest the first time - as already said, there is too little information for this, with a strict time deficit.

Rate:8/10