Jett: The Far Shore
$44.99 | jett.fyi | PC, PS4/5
Superbrothers returns with another poetic adventure.
Jett: The Far Shore starts off as a familiar sci-fi tale. Humans have messed up the planet and in desperation to save civilisation must now look for a new home amongst the stars. The trope has been done to death, but in Jett it’s different. The humans are not only looking for somewhere to live, but have been contacted by ‘the hymnwave’, a divine invitation from a being situated on an alien planet. Desperate to escape their dying world, a group of space scouts is formed to head out into space and see whether this strange planet – dubbed ‘the far shore’ – could become a viable new home for the human race.
You play as Mei, a scout pilot who has been chosen to be part of the team. After arriving on the planet, early game tasks are all about exploration. Driving a nippy little ship called a ‘jett’, you need to observe the planet’s ecosystem and gather data. Your jett is equipped with tools to help you research, including a scanner, flashlight, and grappling hook, and as you cruise through the landscape you can scan different vegetation and animals to see how they behave and fit into the wider ecosystem. It’s a little tedious, but Jett’s alien landscape makes you want to do the research.
This mysterious planet is home to huge lakes, endless pink meadows, and vast, purple plains. There are plenty of weird ways to experiment and explore, such as hovering your jett over various plants and using the boosters to ‘pop’ them, unleashing waves of colourful spores. It’s fun to discover these little surprises but, unfortunately, it’s made less appealing by the flying controls, which can be fiddly at best, and frustrating at worst.
There are plenty of dramatic encounters where you have to zip away from flying perils, and when these events happen in open waters or in expansive plains they’re nothing short of thrilling. Darting across the sea trying to outpace a red haze that’s cast down from a blood moon was one of the game’s many highlights.
Has some epic highs but fiddly ship controls and unanswered questions bring it down. Rachel Watts ★ ★ ★1/2