As Far As The Eye is a game about journey, spiritual animal builders and gatherers, and eye-catching visuals. How far would go to play a chill turn-based game that aims to put you at ease? Will you go as far as the Eye or drown in the rising oceans? Wait, I thought this was calming!
The first thing you will notice about AFATE is the bright colors and nice visuals and animation. They aren’t incredibly detailed, but they work fine. After a couple of hours of play, I was beginning to get a little put off by the pastel tones, but when I found out there is a dark mode (F5) it made it so much better (I prefer dark mode in general in everything). The music is pleasant as well, very ethereal and flowing, which matches the general movement and actions of your “pupils” who serve as your all-purpose journeymen.
The best way to start the game is with the “Campaign” which is sort of misnamed since it’s more like a series of tutorial missions that guide you through the how, where, what, and why of the gameplay. They also seem to serve as a basic story for the motivations of your journey and pupils, but honestly, I could barely make heads or tails of the story. Something about spirits and journeys and gathering. It made me feel like I was in a 90’s head shop looking at pastel fabrics for a couple of hours, but once I realized it was “Get to the eye for a big party. Gather and build stuff to keep moving. Take care of your pupils. Don’t drown,” it began to make sense. If you start at “New Game” instead it will give you fewer pointers but it shows much clearer the purpose the Campaign hints at. Meaning, if you are familiar with games like Slay the Spire, there is a big map with different paths. Choose your nodes based on strategy and aim for the end. Change on the fly if needed.
So ultimately it comes down to what you do in the game that counts, right? Well, if you are into exploring pleasant environments on a hex-based map, it has that. If you like focusing on honing individual skills and bonuses for your pupils in a massive skill tree, that’s there. If strategizing how to efficiently gather, harvest, corral and cultivate is your thing, you’re in luck. You do a lot of little things in this game and your enjoyment of those things as a whole will determine your enjoyment of this game.
So did I enjoy this game? I liked exploring and strategizing how to keep my pupils alive and keep the journey moving. I wasn’t as keen on the meat of the game – the harvesting, building, etc… I guess I am too used to the risk and reward set up in most turn-based games, usually revolving around combat. I tend to lose interest in games without some kind of strategic conflict to resolve and in turn reap the rewards of that effort. The effort here doesn’t seem to satisfy me enough. Which is fine, it’s probably a fault of being corrupted by violent games since I was a wee one, but there it is.
The Final Journey
As Far As The Eye seems like a pleasant diversion for those looking for a break from other games. Given its structure you can devote as much time as you want and come back later. The initial pastel colors may calm some people, but once I discovered “dark mode” that was it for me. You may play the campaign and maybe a run or possibly two in the main game, but probably not much more than that. It’s a polished experience, but ultimately not an incredibly deep or engaging one, at least for me. It seems a solid game for those you like this type, but honestly it wasn’t my type.
I played As Far As The Eye on PC (Steam) with a key provided by the developer for review and not for promotion. All my thoughts are my own on playing about 4 hours at the time of writing.