Highwater

Highwater is an excellent adventure game that puts a magnifying glass up to the growing issue of climate change and the ambivalence that humans can have towards the state of the environment. While the story is bogged down by inconsistent writing, I found plenty to enjoy in its combat system and its ancillary storytelling.

Highwater understands its limitations. It’s not a game that tries to do too much and fails. Some aspects work well, like the world-building, premise, and combat. But I wanted to be told less, and discover more. Given a bigger budget and less restrictive, more open-ended gameplay, Highwater could be a standout in a crowded field. Highwater has good intentions, but it needs a team of writers who understand character and dialogue a little better, and that showing is better than telling.

You play as Nicos, a character in the near future on a flooded Earth. Nicos spends their day scraping by outside of Alphaville—where the privileged live (and are planning to escape the dying planet). Your objective is getting to Alphaville and aboard the rocket—to a supposedly better life. I was disappointed by most aspects of the game, and if you jumped ahead, you might be wondering why I have recommended the game, albeit on sale. It’s because the turn-based combat is so dang good!

Mechanically, Highwater doesn’t break the mould. However, the story and the setting are phenomenal. The parodies of our potential future lives are apparent, and the cruel social model is disappointingly accurate. As such, much of the plot will resonate. For these reasons, I recommend buying it here! Can you undo the unjust social divide? Explore the world, help those in need, and make your future better.

Highwater is a post-apocalyptic tactical narrative adventure with a laid-back attitude and a distinct south-eastern European vibe.

Highwater might be a bit rougher around the edges, but it does have a heart with the way it portrays humanity surviving in a watery wasteland via its simplistic blocky art style, minimalist surroundings, and moody yet calming European indie music. The gameplay loop ‘might’ become frustrating in the later stages when the frequency of battle increases, but they offer enough challenge to make you think tactically. In short, Highwater is a decent game if you’re in for the summer vibe and can’t visit a beach.

Highwater is not much of a strategy RPG and its story is boring. The adventure game elements are hopelessly bare and the battles are too basic to get any stimuli. It won’t interest children due to the lethargic gameplay and bleak premise, and older gamers will be desperately scraping for substance. It is a slow-moving and short game that looks and sounds kind of neat but is utterly lacking in every way imaginable.

Highwater could be the dictionary example of an indie game: it is based on a trending topic with social implications, it marches to its own tune without trying to fit into one specific genre, it has a distinctive visual and musical style that build a great atmosphere, and the developers cannot be bothered to fix the bugs they left in the game.

One of the most interesting Indie games of the 2024, an atypical turn-based strategy with few technical means but a lot of heart. We advise you to ignore the sometimes limping dialogues and the simplicity of the combat to let yourself be won over by its rhetoric and its minimal landscapes.

Highwater is certainly a looker (and a sounder(?)), but its predictable combat and uninteresting story make it difficult to drudge all the way through.