Highwater, the dystopian turn-based puzzle combat game, is finally on PC and consoles. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn’t do well, and if it’s worth your time and money.
Highwater Review Overview
What is Highwater?
Highwater is set in a post-apocalyptic world where, as the title suggests, the water level has risen well above cities due to the Great Climate Catastrophe, the game’s fictional take on global warming. The flooded region of Hightower is now a safe zone in between two dry regions— the war-torn area called War Zone and Alphaville, a safe haven for the rich and elite, protected by giant walls. Embark on a journey to explore the dystopian world around you and make it to the rumored spaceship going to Mars, in hopes of escaping the increasingly uninhabitable, flooded, and polluted Earth.
Highwater features:
⚫︎ Turn-based puzzle combat
⚫︎ An original dystopian story of hope
⚫︎ Vibrant and scenic low-poly art
⚫︎ An original well-composed soundtrack
⚫︎ A beautiful atmospheric experience
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Highwater's gameplay and story.
 Steam |
$19.99 |
Highwater Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Very Atmospheric Simple But Smart Turn-Based Puzzle Combat |
Needs QOL Changes |
Highwater Overall Score - 80/100
Highwater provides a solid adventure game experience set in a dystopian world where most of the Earth has been flooded. It features a simple yet smart turn-based puzzle combat system where you have to use the environment around you to your advantage. It looks stunning and sounds great. It's plagued by some annoying issues, but at the very most, they're mostly just minor inconveniences we could easily overlook. It's not a ground-breaking gaming experience, but it's good enough to be worth your time.
Highwater Story - 8/10
The game does a very good job of fleshing out the world and explaining what’s going on through dialogue between characters and the radio broadcasting news. Newspapers and books can also be found while exploring, which shed even more light on the situations happening in this alternate world. However, there’s very little background information shared regarding the characters, and it’s a missed opportunity to get players more emotionally invested in them.
Highwater Gameplay - 7/10
The game will feature exploration, boat driving, and turn-based puzzle combat. The combat is simple but smart, and will require you to actually use your brain and figure out how to use the environment to your advantage. Boat driving and navigation are also simplistic, with there being few rewards for thoroughly exploring. The game also needs a lot of quality-of-life changes, but we’ll discuss that further later in the review.
Highwater Visuals - 8/10
The game’s visuals are very nice and feature a vibrant low-poly art style along with detailed lighting. Simple isn’t always bad, and in this case, its simplicity works well and looks beautiful.
Highwater Audio - 9/10
The game features an original soundtrack, with Highwater Pirate Radio providing the music and local news. The music played varies, with some tracks sounding like Lana Del Rey tracks while others being Spanish pop songs. The music and the news, along with the sound effects, work well to immerse the players in the post-apocalyptic world.
Highwater Value for Money - 8/10
Highwater is free on mobile exclusively for Netflix subscribers, which a lot of people probably already subscribe to. It’s excellent value, especially if you’re looking for a relaxing and atmospheric game to play for a couple of hours. However, it’s paid for PC and consoles and does not have much replay value, which hurts the game’s value. The game is also quite short, with most people completing it in less than 10 hours.
Highwater Review | High Praise for Highwater
The game starts by explaining that the world has been flooded because of the Great Ecological Catastrophe. Only the elevated parts of the world still stand, and boats are now the main mode of human transportation. The rich are safe behind the gigantic walls of Alphaville, a thriving city that just abruptly terminated its aid program, plunging the poorer surrounding areas into chaos. Rumor has it that the most elite citizens of Alphaville are set to go on Mars via a rocketship in search of a better life, as the Earth is becoming increasingly uninhabitable.
You play as Nikos, a teenage orphan tired of just getting by to survive. You embark on a perilous journey with your friends to attempt to get into Alphaville and board the rumored rocket heading to Mars, defeating insurgents and stealing food along the way to survive.
You’ll spend a lot of time on your boat just navigating the sunken cities. What were once mountains, statues, and high-rise buildings are now some of the only islands and landmasses around. Driving your boat isn’t particularly fun by itself. The handling and physics are pretty basic and there aren’t any races or boat chases whatsoever. I think that this is by design though as this is when you get to soak up the beautiful sceneries this game has to offer while listening to the news and beats of Highwater Pirate Radio. It’s like driving a boat in one of GTA’s more scenic locations but in a more cartoonish low-poly art style and way worse handling.
You’ll often encounter bad guys, which can either be Alphavillian soldiers, insurgents, bandits, or dangerous wildlife. The game’s turn-based puzzle combat is very simple. Teams will take turns moving around the map, similar to how you’d move chess pieces in a grid. Each unit will have their own unique moves and passives. For example, Nikos can attack from range with his fishing rod, damaging and moving the target 1 space towards you. While the damage isn’t great, its main use is to displace opponents putting them in harm’s way. Another example is the strong characters, who can pick up heavy objects and hurl them at opponents. Some of these abilities have cooldowns while some don’t. There’s no specific order in regards to which team members move first. Whenever it’s your team’s turn, you can pick which characters move first and which ones move last.
While the gameplay is undoubtedly simple, it requires you to think about how you could use the terrain to your advantage. After all, you’re just a 17-year-old with a fishing rod and a wooden oar going up against armed grown men. You won’t win in a head-to-head battle, so you have to fight smart. There are lots of creative ways you could take down foes, without using your abilities directly at them. Some examples include knocking down trees on them, pulling them into the water, or leading dangerous wildlife towards them.
When you’re not on your boat or fighting others, you’re walking and exploring the landmasses around you. This is arguably the weakest part of the game, as all you can really do is walk around and talk to NPCs. You’ll encounter books and newspapers that flesh out the game’s world, but there’s not much else to find. Thorough exploration is not rewarded in this game and you’re better off walking straight to the objective rather than trying to explore every corner of every map segment.
There are lots of QOL (quality-of-life) changes that I deem necessary. Some examples include text boxes moving too fast or staying too long, the radio host continuing to talk while you’re occupied with managing your inventory, and the awkward pause in combat so the team up next can do their animations to prepare to fight. These hurt the gaming experience as a whole by wasting players’ time and causing them to miss potentially important information.
As a whole, Highwater is a pretty good adventure game to spend a few hours on. It’s relatively short, it’s free on mobile (provided you have a Netflix subscription), it’s very atmospheric, and the combat is fun. It’s far from perfect for sure, but in my opinion, it’s good enough to be worth your time.
Pros of Highwater
| Things Highwater Got Right |
|---|
|
Very Atmospheric Simple But Smart Turn-Based Puzzle Combat |
Very Atmospheric
The game is very atmospheric. There’s a lot to see, and the world is so well-designed that you won’t mind that the boat-driving experience is dull, because that’s when you get to soak in the views. I was surprised because I thought this was one of those games where all you’ll see is water and some high-rise infrastructures, but there’s a bit more to that than you think. Each place looks distinct but still fits the game’s theme of extremely high water levels. The music and the news from the radio accompany these views and play a big part in immersing you in this drowned world.
Simple But Smart Turn-Based Puzzle Combat
Another thing I wasn’t expecting was the fun I had solving the puzzles within the game’s turn-based combat. You have to actively think about how you’re beating the bad guys, and you can’t play the game on autopilot as you’ll lose if you don’t play smart. You know it’s a decent strategy game when you enjoy figuring out and executing the strategy that’ll get you to win.
Cons of Highwater
| Things That Highwater Can Improve |
|---|
|
Needs A LOT of QOL Changes |
Needs QOL Changes
One of the things I really disliked about the game was how after the end of every team’s turn, combat is paused for a few seconds so that the next attacking team can play out their animations. I normally wouldn’t mind, but the animations are super basic and they each just enter an offensive stance. It’s really annoying how they do that one by one and you’re forced to watch something you don’t want to. The first few times it happened I thought my game bugged out since the animations are too basic to the point where I didn’t even notice it and thought it was just idle movement. This issue can easily be fixed by letting players start strategizing right away while the animations play out.
Some other issues include how it’s easy to miss information because the dialogue boxes are placed poorly, with parts of it being outside your screen. There’s no voice acting during dialogue, so there’s no way to find out what the character is saying other than context clues. In regards to voice acting, the radio, which often shares important news, will continue talking when you’re preoccupied with other things like managing your inventory.
Is Highwater Worth It?
It’s worth it!
Yes! It’s free on mobile via Netflix, and if it’s anything like its PC version, it should be worth the space on your phone. It’s one of the most atmospheric indie games I’ve played in a long time, and its combat is simple but requires you to strategically think about how you could use the environment to your advantage. Its story is also pretty good, and the only things I didn’t like about the game are minor inconveniences that could easily be fixed by the developers.
| Steam |
$19.99 |
Highwater FAQ
Why can’t I carry heavy objects?
You can only do so with characters categorized as strong, like George.
How do I get the game on mobile?
You can do so through Netflix games.
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Highwater Product Information
 |
|
| Title | HIGHWATER |
|---|---|
| Release Date | March 14, 2024, for PC and Console, December 2022 for Mobile |
| Developer | Demagog Studio |
| Publisher | Publisher here |
| Supported Platforms | PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Switch, Mobile |
| Genre | Action, Adventure |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | T |
| Official Website | Highwater Website |
