➤ Highwater, the review of a Netflix strategic adventure in an underwater world 🕹

Highwater is a new game with a high profile that arrives in the Netflix catalog, we discovered it in its review.

We have seen several post-apocalyptic worlds as video game settings, but in the High water check We are faced with a representation that manages to be fascinating and original, essential when it comes to spending time exploring large desolate areas. To tell the truth, it is not at all the first time that we are faced with an Earth almost completely submerged and survivors forced to live between ships and some emerged areas, but the way in which this future is staged in Highwater, between melancholic graphics and construction style of worlds, it has something unique. Some environmental concepts contribute to enrich this imaginary, telling how climate change and humanity's inability to remedy damage to the environment have caused this enormous cataclysm.

La history stages the adventure of Nikos, a boy determined to face the risks of survival and try to penetrate one of the few bastions of social organization left standing after the general disaster. The world of Highwater is characterized by complete social disintegration, in which most people find themselves living hand to mouth searching for resources and fighting to protect them from others.

In this absolute loss of human cohesion, a modicum of support and protection was offered by the wealthy elites who inhabit Alphaville, one of the few places that still functions as a semblance of civilization, but this fortified citadel has long since decided to close its doors. , with increasingly insistent rumors that talk about how the rich company intends to abandon Earth and escape to Mars using special transport rockets. Finding no hope in a world totally adrift, Nikos intends to somehow enter Alphaville, find out how things are going and, if necessary, get a space inside the rocket to Mars.

Strategy, survival and adventure.

Highwater, the review of a Netflix strategic adventure in an underwater world — In Highwater, boat trips take up a large part of the game

Il game It is made up of juxtaposed game mechanics, which alternate intervening at different times: exploration is an almost open world, focused on navigation through a world largely covered by water, although the possible landing places are limited and well highlighted. In some ways, this part is reminiscent of similar experiences seen in Far: Changing Tides or even The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, although Highwater is not strictly based on free exploration of a world without limits. These sections mainly serve as a connection to the phases on land, which can present different types of interaction, from narrative moments composed mainly of dialogues with other characters to actual fights that take place through the typical mechanics of turn-based strategy.

The style combat system. turn-based strategy It is more basic than other more orthodox exponents of the genre, however it offers really interesting game situations. The mechanics are classic, dividing the playing field into squares on which we move as on a chess board, trying to take advantage of the advantages offered by the scenario and the tools with which to defend ourselves or cause damage to enemies in the classic turn. -Dynamics based.

What is especially interesting are precisely the interactions with the elements of the stage, which also open up different solutions to the classic exchange of alternating shots.

There is no doubt, however, that much of the game's charm lies in the desolation of the Earth covered by water and in the discovery of landing sites that hide small or large mysterious adventures. Despite the sadness that invades a world now in ruins, exploration is always full of charm, also thanks to one graphic style almost painterly, between color options, polygonal minimalism and use of diffuse lights. It is certainly a contemplative experience, also because there is often not much to do in the few areas that can be explored on the continent and the dialogues tend to be too synthetic, to the point that they do not explain much about the characters and the story. same. This remarkable technical achievement and the breadth of the game comes at a significant cost in terms of hardware: played on mobile platforms, Highwater requires truly cutting-edge devices to run and is much more difficult to enjoy compelling performances.

Conclusions

Tested version iPad digital delivery Steam, app store, Google Play Holygamerz.com 8.0 Readers (2) 8.7 your vote

We have seen many post-apocalyptic survival games in recent years, but Highwater manages to stand out above all thanks to the particular relaxed and almost dreamlike tone with which it outlines this particular end of the world. In this way, even the simple exploration of small fragments of emerged land in an almost exclusively aquatic environment is fascinating, although the landings often lead to nothing concrete. In short, water also seems to dilute the strategic and survival game elements in a fairly relaxed pace, but in this way it also manages to give a particular characterization that can be irresistible for those who appreciate this type of atmosphere.