As Far as the Eye (2020)

This port of As Far As The Eye does very little to make use of the PlayStation 4. The game itself has some fun ideas, and those that enjoy exploration and gathering aspects of simulation games like Civilization or Starcraft will find some enjoyment. Still, if possible, one should go for the Steam or Epic Store PC release if they have that option.

I like As Far As The Eye in terms of its concept and curious lore, but found that there wasn’t enough for me to really get into it. Despite having no combat, gameplay is reduced to passing time which fails to grip players. The success of one’s journey is dictated by a luck of the draw. Starvation is often the worst offender in the pupil’s survival but adding natural disasters and curses in the mix made the game much more interesting.

Unfortunately, As Far As The Eye felt like work playing it. For me, strategy games tread a line between letting you execute a satisfying plan and responding to surprise threats. However, with As Far As The Eye’s constant violent natural disasters and the need for upkeep on every game element, it gets quite tiresome to always be on the defensive and rush to the next Halt. A strategy game should encourage long play sessions with lots of deep planning of your next move and not having to rush because of some threat you have no control over. Apart from that, when you die, there isnt any post-game analysis, recorded stats, or even the ability to scroll the map and see where you went wrong and learn from it. All of that makes me think that hex-based strategy and roguelike genres should not be mixed together in a game!

In its launch state on Switch, much of As Far As The Eye is unplayable. For us, neither Quick Game or Custom Matches would last long before we got booted to the Switch's dashboard. We waited several days for some kind of update to fix both the UI and the egregious crashes and get a better idea of a game that is not without promise, but a patch still hasn't arrived at the time of writing. If or when one does come, As Far As The Eye has the potential to become an intriguing little strategy game with that Civilization-style 'just one more turn' effect. But for now, do not get sucked in by its soothing mood and the cute little Pupils.

Issues aside of UI problems such as losing villagers, hard to click, and so on, the general pace of As Far As The Eye belie its "relaxing" appearance. Requiring a very strict, lucky, and strategic play from the beginning knocks a lot of the fun off. With how much dedication there is simply to food and not starving, it leaves little room for exploration, trying new things, or really anything beyond a narrow strategy. It is not that the difficulty ruins the game, it is that the difficulty and luck swings require such a narrow avenue to take, getting in the way of fun.