Meet Highwater, a new adventure game featuring a turn-based puzzle combat system set in a flooded region outside of the dry land of Alphaville where the wealthy have literally walled themselves in. You’ll make friends, laugh a little, and ultimately try to escape to Mars as life on Earth becomes increasingly unsustainable. Highwater is in development at Demagog Studio and publisher Rogue Games for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.
Demagog says, “Amid the Great Climate Catastrophe, the flooded region of Hightower has become a kind of safe zone between the two dry regions: the nearly global ravaged land of the War Zone, and the fortified city of Alphaville, where the ultra-rich live behind giant walls.” Check out the announcement trailer above and the first screenshots in the gallery below.
Playing as Nikos, you’ll listen to tunes on Highwater Pirate Radio, visit many islands, gather resources, and “take on your enemies in a classic turn-based combat system where careful tactics and puzzle solving will help you come out alive.” Demagog also says that environment interactivity, such as pushing a shopping cart into an enemy, will help add a layer of unpredictability and player freedom to its turn-based puzzle-combat strategy gameplay.
Finally, in an intriguing twist, a representative for Rogue Games says that Highwater is “one of three games set in a singular universe. The others are Golf Club Wasteland (Nostalgia now) and The Cub,” the latter of which shipped earlier this month.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.