Far Away

Designer: Alexander Jerabek

Artist: Jake Breish

Publisher: Cherry Picked Games

Players: 2*

Age: 14+

Time: 90-150 minutes

Played with an owned copy and I have backed the expansion

Far Away is a fanciful cross-genre cooperative two-player* game. This is not a review of the recent Pandasaurus filler Faraway with the square cards and the reverse time scoring.

Before going into detail, imagine landing on a planet thanks to a rocket provided by a rental car company. The bucket of bolts is damaged on landing. Your thrifty corporate sponsors outfitted you with inadequate supplies.  You need to fix your rocket to get off the planet. Oh, did I mention there are animals on this planet? Did I mention that when you two are not on the same hex, you cannot talk with each other because the cans + string don’t reach that far? This is an evocative experience if you get into its spirit.

When I say cross-genre, Far Away captures aspects of RPGs, limited-communication co-ops, adventure/exploration, and action economy. There is no game quite like it because it creates a living environment using a lightly random event system that is not a dicefest. So it is an RPG, a Eurogame, and a freeform thematic board game.

Photo by Alex Jerabek (the designer) showing the start of the game

The game offers eight standalone missions that take 90 to 180 minutes each. They use the same materials to create the map but have some mission-specific cards and a wide array of creatures, so each play will feel completely different. One mission might have only herbivores that travel in packs while another might have some huge threatening creatures. 

Charm

“Due to budget constraints, extraneous expenses such as landing gear, first aid kits, and radios are not provided. Know that you will be placed in dangerous situations with limited ways to communicate with your partner and no safety net. Reading this warning removes any liability from the Federation.”

C.A.R.D.s are CONCEPTUAL OR ACTUAL REFERENCE DESIGNATORS

H.E.X.es are HEURISTICALLY EXPLORABLE XENOTERRAINS

D.I.C.E are DETERMINISTIC INTERACTION (COMBINATORIC) EVALUATORS

If reading the above makes you smile, you will enjoy Far Away. If you read it and think, that is illogical, you will need to have some cynicism about how much corporations care for their workers to immerse yourself in this world.

I’ll let you discover what MATs, TOKENs, and CUBEs are. :)

This seems cutesy but sets the game up and puts you in the shoes of an explorer for a corporation that barely knows you exist and certainly does not value you particularly highly.

While I have not played the upcoming expansion, it humorously raises different social issues.

Art

The art is spare but highly functional. It makes it easy to see what goes on the MATs and what each TOKEN means. The colors are clean and the iconography is clear, so it works as the creation of a low-budget corporation. At the same time, the cardboard and CARDs are of excellent quality with clear iconography, so Cherry Picked does not make low-budget games.

Photo by Ronny Alexander (note that the creatures are the square cardboard chits) The cards help you determine what type of space it is beyond being a standard terrain.

Of special note is the bestiary because the TOKENs that represent the creatures are elegantly illustrated to help you tell at a glance which creature is which. Given that creatures are a large part of the game and there can be up to 8 species interacting, it is important to be able to tell them apart. I gather the second edition has even clearer illustrations.

Photo by Hexahedron (note the huge amount of content that comes in the Far Away box)

Mechanisms

The game has R.O.U.N.D.s (Routine Operational Unit Notation Designations)

The first phase is the two explorers taking three actions each, taking turns A-B-A-B-A-B.

Most of the actions are somewhat typical, Move, Use, Build, and Fight. You move from HEX to HEX, potentially flipping new ones if you want to move off the edge of the existing map. Since it is a hex map, you can only move more than one space in straight lines of explored and creature-free HEXes. You can also use items, build refineries, and fight creatures. A more notable action is Scare. Instead of fighting creatures, you can use your suits to scare away creatures. This is important to note because if you are looking to hack and slash the creatures, this might not be the game for you.

While you are trying to achieve the mission’s goals, you can perish due to hunger, loneliness, or injuries. Hunger is gained through exertion, such as fighting. Loneliness is due to being apart from the other explorer, so you cannot permanently split the party and not communicate. As a side note, the game requires cooperation. You cannot do things alone in Far Away.  Finally, if you are fool-hardy, you can gain injuries – best to avoid them. Each mission has specific success and failure conditions, but these three aspects of the explorers are part of all missions.

There are also free actions you can take along with the five that cost an action. Socializing means you can talk to the other explorer when you are on the same HEX.  Consuming means everything from eating plants to repairing building damage caused by creatures. The other free actions are picking up, dropping, and trading items.

After the explorers take their three actions the world comes alive. Drones launched by the explorers do their thing, creatures act, new creatures spawn, and then check for mission success/advance time.

The important part to understand is creatures moving and spawning.  How the creatures interact with the explorers and the environment is the heart of what makes Far Away special and requires more in-depth discussion.

Creatures

The game comes with over 20 creatures of two types, den dwellers and wandering creatures. They have different sizes, diets, and hair/scales/etc. This is important because the animals interact in this game, so a larger carnivore might eat a smaller herbivore. You might have small creatures being eaten, then the larger animals wander off when full, and you get some meat that can sate your hunger using the free consume action. Beyond the animal-eat-animal world, A creature has the ‘cuddle’ ability once it is domesticated so an explorer can lose loneliness by cuddling with the creature, but not when it is feral, just like in real life. What is more, once you domesticate an animal, you can also ride it, but it takes precious time to do these things.

Photo by Ronny Alexander (note the upper row is the den creatures and the lower row is the wandering creatures. The icons along the bottom row of each card tell you about the animal in great detail while the number in the lower left is its size)

How do animals decide whether to go eat plants, chase after an explorer, or damage a building? You decide. The game is designed so the players manipulate the creatures, imagining what they might do based on the information the designer has given the players about their traits and other attributes. 

This is the point in the review where the reader is likely going ‘huh’? Please don’t stop reading. If you don’t want to play both the creatures and the explorers because you cannot separate your attachment to the explorers from choosing what the creatures would do, there are several alternatives. One is that the designer created a deterministic system that ‘runs’ the creature part of the game. Another alternative is to bring in a third person to run the creatures (making Far Away a three-player game). If you do bring in a third player, be sure you are all on the same page about the desired difficulty level so they can truly channel the creatures while also creating a positive experience for all three players.

Comparisons

There is no game like Far Away. The explorer’s actions and missions are like those in Robinson Crusoe, an upcoming game Xorakus, and other thematic threat management games. The creatures are so alive due to the combination of what the designer provided plus what the players bring to the table.  In some ways, it makes me think of a GM-less Mothership one-off as a board game.

Final Thoughts

I enjoy quirky thematic games, from Pauper’s Ladder to Dark Venture to Forgotten Depths. While those games have fancy art, joyful gameplay, and creative design features, Far Away is a deeper richer thematic game. As explorers, you can truly inhabit the world and try to achieve your mission in the face of sentient creatures, a random map, an assortment of resources, and just enough luck to tie it all together.

The limited communication feature is vital to the game because you can create a plan when together on a hex, then go off and find something unexpected. Do you continue with the plan as you discussed or deviate to take advantage of the new information? Given the time pressure, it is an exciting decision point where your decision will affect the mission’s outcome.

The creatures bring the world alive and are vital to how you interact with the environment. When combined with the discovery of resources, the potential to construct factories that might be damaged, and the limited time to achieve your mission create memorable narratives every time. 

I cannot see turning down someone suggesting Far Away, but it does take energy and creativity to get the most out of it, so if you want to inhabit an alien world, this is one of the best GM-less ways to do it.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

I love it! Jonathan

I like it. Steph H

Neutral.

Not for me…

* This can be a three-player game if someone else controls the creatures which can lead you to make tough decisions.