Highwater Review (PS5)

The prequel completing a truly weird trilogy, initially available only as a Netflix title, has now landed on PC and consoles as well. Those who played Golf Club: Nostalgia and The Cub will be curious to find out how things started, but will the quirks of Highwater make it interesting to wider audiences as well? Read on to find out.

The three games developed by Demagog, although are part of the same universe, could not be more different. While Golf Club presents the nostalgic elite who escaped to Mars and returns to an uninhabitable Earth to play decadent golf matches, and The Cub presents the journey of a post-apocalyptic Mowgli on the very same Earth after it was reclaimed by nature, Highwater is the origin story, the one that presents how it all started.

Different both in visual style and game genre, the common element of all these titles is the unmistakable atmosphere. And, of course, the radio station, that this time around blasts its indie tunes, being known as Highwater Pirate Radio Station. And just as with the other two games, the latest Demagog release is an acquired taste.

If you are a more mature player looking beyond the surface, chances are you will appreciate the quirks of the game. But the members of younger audiences looking for their adrenaline trips will find it boring. That can be traced back to the fact that the prequel actually presents the infamous ecological catastrophe that is the central theme of the trilogy.

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The aftermath of the great flood is presented from the point of view of a ragtag group of underdogs, part of society marginalized by the elite and condemned to extinction. But Nikos along with some of his friends does not want to go silently into the night, or more precisely go under with the great flood. So, they put together a plan to get on one of the rockets leaving to Mars.

Captaining his yellow inflatable boat christened Argos, controlling mainly Nikos you will visit small islands that represent the remnants of the once bustling Earth civilization. On these last refugees you will find various characters with very different personalities and backgrounds, some becoming temporary allies, while others becoming opponents. And while your goal is to go through them, Highwater is actually a bit ambiguous about the fate of those vanquished in combat.

It is suggested that in battle you kill your opponents, but this theory is not exactly confirmed. Towards the end of the game, you will meet the Vikings and their improvised boats adorned with inflatable dragons who seem to be alive and kicking, although you made sure to teach them a blood lesson about approaching the generators of the community.

And this is not the only inconsistency in the game that seems to have eluded the developers. For example, while leaving the beaten path to explore islands in search of collectibles and equipment you will find a giant bear that you can hug. The oversized squeezable fluffy teddy sticks out since it is no way referenced or connected to anything else in the game.

Similarly, there are also still plenty of minor bugs that are proof of the fact that the developers could not be bothered to fix them even after all this time has passed since the original release. And it is a shame because as great as the atmosphere is, these nuisances really break immersion.

Beyond exploring small patches of dirt, you will also be involved in turn-based combat scenarios that have a random element to them. Just as in any turn-based tactics game you can move around a limited number of squares and then undertake an action like attacking or blocking your opponent.

You can also use the hazards in your environment to your advantage to balance out the odds that are generally unfavorable toward you. There are some weapons that can yank enemies closer and various equipment that can make you more resilient or able to traverse a higher number of squares.

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Even with the variations in the enemy’s behavior, they seem only to have the advantage of numbers and not the one of brain power. As such the combat feels basic and more like a set of puzzles you need to figure out, while playing a weird chess game where the pieces have special abilities. And yes, sometimes you will have to try a combat scenario multiple times to check some optional requirement, but the result is not motivating, in fact is quite the opposite.

The entire game design and the narrative are linear, since you don’t really have a choice of where you will go or who will accompany you. Yes, you can skip the optional islands, but that is the maximum level of freedom you are granted.

understand that this solution was engineered to build the narrative journey based on a somewhat precise pacing synced with the soundtrack, but I still feel it is artificially limited and I don’t believe that a bit more freedom would have had negative effects on the game’s atmosphere. 

Just as I believe that more friendly boat control could have saved a lot of unnecessary frustration. Beyond the generally clunky controls and weird camera angles, the control of the boat is unjustifiably tedious. The UI is lacking coherence as well, often confusing players right in the middle of the battle.

Thankfully there is an undo option, but only in the movement phase of the character. These are inconveniences that also could have been fixed since the original release, offering a superior experience of the game on consoles and PC.

The visual style screams indie from a mile away, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The colorful style matches perfectly the melancholic atmosphere of the game. The same can be said about the great soundtrack with quite a few memorable melodies. It is weird though that everything on the radio station is voiced, but all the dialogues in the game are actually mute.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion