Game Reviews

Faraway 3: Arctic Escape review - Easy-going room escape

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iOS
| Faraway 3: Arctic Escape
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Faraway 3: Arctic Escape review - Easy-going room escape
|
iOS
| Faraway 3: Arctic Escape

If you're a fan of tactile first person puzzlers like The Room or The Witness, there's a chance you've already encountered the Faraway series.

The first game launched around this time last year with a bunch of interconnected switch-flipping puzzles and a desert temple theme. This was swiftly followed up by Faraway 2, which repeated the formula in a jungle setting.

Faraway 3 brings the series to a conclusion, and as the subtitle suggests things are getting a little chilly.

Faraway eyes

It's important to establish the lineage of the series because Faraway 3's narrative carries on from the first two games in a rather abrupt fashion. As someone who hadn't played either, I had no idea what was going on - and the game did absolutely nothing to bring me up to speed.

Story isn't this game's strong suit anyway. Indeed, I found it quite easy to ignore the fragments of text that I discovered throughout my time with the game and instead focus on the puzzling.

Not that the nine free levels that constitute the initial Faraway 3 experience will require much concentration. I mentioned The Room and The Witness as reference points, but Faraway 3 isn't even close to either game in terms of challenge or depth.

Room for improvement

The game has you working through a series of rooms, each containing a puzzle or two to solve. These include simple lever-pulling tasks, rotating lock conundrums, and plenty of pattern recognition teasers.

It's always satisfying completing these physical puzzles in Faraway 3's pleasingly touchy-feely world, but it's also alarmingly simple. I breezed through the entire opening set of levels in less than an hour, with only a single tile-flipping puzzle right near the end holding me up for any length of time.

You can pay to unlock nine further levels, but that's not an awful lot of content in the grand scheme of things.

Still, there's something to be said for the slickness of the Faraway world, and the sense of easy-going momentum that its simple puzzles manage to build. It's not going to be your next room escape obsession like The Room or The Witness, but it's perfect for those semi-engaged moments that pop up in quiet moments of the day.

Faraway 3: Arctic Escape review - Easy-going room escape

A tidy, well constructed room escape puzzler that's perhaps a little too slight for its own good
Score
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.