Set in the shadow of the impending climate fallout due to (among many things) the Über-wealthy and corporate-based pollution, Highwater joins the many games talking climate change now. First released for Netflix’s mobile gaming library, Highwater has finally joined Steam. Not the first of its kind to talk climate change, but certainly trying to step away from the move-right simulators while embracing some of the genre’s, for want of a better word, pretentious side. I hope everyone’s been reading the latest edition of The Guardian as well as all the literature Demagog Studio wants to tell you it has definitely heard a thesis on in college.

One part Dory simulator to one part turn-based combat, Highwater’s biggest crime is that it is scared you won’t get that it is talking about an impending apocalypse to the water-soluble among us. It is often trying to hold you by the hand and being as subtle as that tool chest in Home Alone 2. Don’t get me wrong, I often enjoy and appreciate what Highwater is trying to do, it is the execution that feels too eager to stroke itself for being so in the know. One of the worst offenses is writing which utilizes a paragraph to say what could be said in a sentence.

What’s worse than the dialog and that’s about as exciting and engaging as a pensioner’s afternoon nap is the combat, which is lifeless. Team-based turns this time, you move each of your team members around the small maps in short disjointed battles that feel as fluid as swimming through a sea of Treacle. It is also about as accessible as that staircase Led Zeppelin spoke about. If you have two brain cells to rub together, you’ll breeze through combat like your rubber dinghy doesn’t. However, if you make a wrong move you can’t reload a save or restart combat, you just have to suffer knowing the loss is coming.

Rather short, at only a couple of hours long, you adventure through the open seas/rivers/lakes with buildings poking out like lasting periscopes of humanity in search of life elsewhere. Playing as Nikos, you take your little yellow dinghy on the adventure to gather up friends in hopes of making it to Alphaville, where a rocket is set to take off and head to Mars as humanity’s last vestige of hope. By all means, Demagog Studio’s 2018 title Golf Club: Nostalgia (previously titled Wasteland) could be connected, telling the story of humans returning following an ecological disaster, with nostalgia for Earth and playing golf on it.

There is a similar hint of hope and despair throughout the story of Highwater, even taking jabs at itself with fourth-wall-breaking punches at the radio you listen to throughout. Though as I’ve said, the writing itself falls fowl of trying to give you as much info as possible without leaving enough room to enjoy, interpret, and have a couple of unknowns to those who are paying attention. Well, try to pay attention, as the accessibility once again isn’t a thing.

Some dialog options in-game let you tap A to continue at your own pace, but story sections between chapters don’t offer this option. If you’re dyslexic or a slow reader, suck eggs I guess. Not only this, but if you prefer not to have camera controls inverted on the left and right, or prefer them inverted on the up and down, you’re barking up the wrong tree when you open the options menu. While we’re at it, remapping controls for a controller is odd, to say the least. Only already unmapped buttons are seemingly accepted, and already mapped buttons get only a blank stare.

I want to like Highwater. What trips me up (at least on PC) is the fact that I don’t feel important as a player. At the end of the day, I’m wandering around a world with an art style that makes everything feel featureless; collecting scraps of books and references; broken up by dialog that doesn’t know how to be concise and combat that doesn’t know how to engage. On mobile, I could see this being more engaging with touch-screen controls. Here on PC, it feels like I’m holding down the play button so VLC will play this dodgy copy of climate anime.

Ultimately, Highwater has a great and important premise on its side but lacks the comforts PC players are used to/find enjoyment in. Despite interesting tools in combat, it becomes repetitive and dull after a while, leaving you to shuffle through destroyed environments in search of world-building (for lack of a better word) tat. The writing itself leaves you wanting to punch someone to get to the point so you can battle your dinghy to go in the right direction or the camera controls to face how you want them.

A PC review copy of Highwater was provided by Rogue Games, inc. for this review.

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Highwater

$19.99

6.5

Score

6.5/10

Pros

• An important premise to be told.
• A really inviting art style, if lacking in detail.

Cons

• Accessibility is very little, if at all there.
• Am I even needed to play?