Demagog Studio continues expanding its post-apocalyptic Earth universe with Highwater. Originally released as a mobile game last year, Highwater now finds itself on PC and consoles. It’s set before humanity on Earth died out and sees the rich beginning their journey to Mars. You don’t have to have played Demagog’s prior offerings Golf Club: Nostalgia or 2024’s The Cub to understand Highwater; it works well as a standalone story. However, its story didn’t connect with this reviewer and its uninteresting gameplay makes it a tough game to recommend.
Highwater’s opening-crawl-like intro throws a lot of information at the player. Essentially, the world is ending due to mass flooding [TK double check this] and humanity’s base instincts reveal themselves. Some groups are split among tribal lines while others are trying to hold on to their communities, like Nana, a saint of a woman who watches over orphans.
The game tries to be clever with its references to real-world politicking, but often falls flat. It references Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, but the allusion doesn’t go beyond the surface level. Essentially, Highwater takes inspiration from real-world unethical billionaires’ space race to Mars, but doesn’t have anything interesting to say about it. “Billionaires are bad,” Hightower says, and I challenge it to tell me something I don’t know.
Hightower is home to Nana and her orphans, and several other friendly NPCs. It’s a bright spot in a rapidly decaying world.
Highwater has a similar aesthetic to a lot of indie releases from the past few years, like Season: A Letter to the Past or Somerville. It relies on a bright color palette and low polygon count to announce its status as an indie darling. It looks ‘okay’ at best, lacking a layer of detail that made a game like Season stand out. When Highwater zooms in on its cast or the action, the lack of detail is too noticeable, making the game look almost unfinished.
It very much succeeds in the music department, however. When skipping around in Argo, the boat the characters ride on, you’ll be listening to Highwater Pirate Radio (HPR – get it?). Its host will comment on the world and events happening off-screen, adding some depth and context to the game. He’ll then que up an original tune for you to bob your head to. I quite enjoyed most of the soundtrack, and I think the songs are what give Highwater its identity.
Unfortunately, as a video game, Hightower‘s turn-based gameplay stays in the shallow; a Marvel’s Midnight Suns or Baldur’s Gate 3, this is not. You will move around a grid, attack enemies via melee and ranged weapons, and use the environment to your advantage. It’s simple, dull, and often time-consuming as in some encounters wave after wave of enemies will lumber onto the battlefield, making an exhausted you wish for a skip button.
Combat offers various weapons and environmental hazards to take down enemies.
Combat also tended to take me out of the game narratively. You primarily play as a young adult – I peg the protagonist Nikos to be in his late teens or early 20s – and essentially kill every enemy you come across with a nail gun, fishing pole, harpoon, or whatever else is on hand. I understand that the world of Highwater is rapidly decaying and people are tapping into their base instincts, but, because the combat is so damn boring, alternative approaches to solving conflict would have been very welcomed. Instead, you’ll knock enemies into electrified water and watch as they become bear food and…not be phased by it at all.
The other aspect of gameplay is traversing around the map in Argo, Nikos’ boat. To me, this is where Highwater really misses the mark. Everywhere you go is flooded, and motoring around on a small yellow raft is your only means of traversal from dock to dock. Unfortunately, the boat never feels good to use. Its movement is clunky and unresponsive, and you better hope you don’t have to ever reverse because it’s quite the headache.
Sometimes a short cutscene will play of the cast zipping across the screen on the boat, taking control out of your hands. As there is nothing interesting the find out on the water – optional places to dock typically contain just newspapers or books to collect – I wonder why not just cut out guiding the boat entirely. The boat just feels like such a missed opportunity. What could have been a fun aspect of gameplay often feels like a chore.
Just gonna sluggishly and dully steer Argo from objective to objective.
Playing on PlayStation 5 with a DualSense controller, I was also surprised by the lack of any sort of haptic feedback. Maybe I’ve become spoiled by other games, but I really would have expected Highwater to do something interesting with the controller while in the boat; a slight rumble of the motor, vibration in step with the waves, or resistant triggers when steering would have gone a long way in Highwater’s favor.
Highwater is a short game, and a playthrough of landing everywhere and collecting everything won’t exceed six to eight hours. However, the game lacks incentive to really stick with it for that long. Your mileage may vary on the draw of the world and story of Highwater, but the game lacks any sort of deep or fun gameplay to make it worthwhile. Pick it up on sale at a later date if you’re really invested in the stories and world Demagog is crafting. Otherwise, there are better turn-based games out there worth your time.
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