Uber-stylish narrative adventure game Highwater is coming to consoles

Highwater, the ultra-cool-looking narrative adventure games from Demagog Studio and Rogue Games, is coming to PS5 and Xbox consoles at launch later this year as revealed at the Future Games Show Summer Showcase Powered by Intel.

First revealed at Summer Game Fest last year, Highwater is currently slated for a vague release at some point in 2023. The game's newly-announced console counterparts will join its arrival on PC. 

Highwater is a breathtaking strategy game that focuses on climate change is how we described it last year, as Demagog's then fresh-faced project gave us Kentucky Route Zero and Sea of Solitude vibes. Those are some pretty nice comparisons, both individually and collectively, however as a turn-based strategy adventure game that requires players to continually interact with their environments, Highwater will undoubtedly be its own thing in its own right. 

Story-wise, Highwater unfolds in a flooded, post-apocalyptic sprawl that sits between the War Zone and a place called Alphaville during a time period known as the 'Great Climate Catastrophe'. You'll get around this space by boat, uncovering new islands and conversing with friends and foes as you go. Hightower, the flooded region you'll spend some of your time in, is ambiguously described as a "kind of safe zone between the two dry regions", which probably says a lot about the state of play in this post-apocalyptic world.  

"With life on Earth becoming untenable for humans, and rumors of an escape to Mars floating around, Nikos begins a perilous journey, picking up friends along the way," reads Highwater's Steam page blurb. "First to Hightower, then beyond to cross the impenetrable border of Alphaville, battling insurgents and stealing food along the way. Will Nikos and his friends manage to sneak into the rocket in time?"

Who can say for sure – we won't know until we get to grips with Highwater later this year. What is more clear is its arrival, whenever that may be, will occur on PC (via Steam and the Epic Games Store), PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch. 

If you’re looking for more excellent games from today's Future Games Show, have a look at our official Steam page.

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Joe Donnelly
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Joe Donnelly is a sports editor from Glasgow and former features editor at 12DOVE. A mental health advocate, Joe has written about video games and mental health for The Guardian, New Statesman, VICE, PC Gamer and many more, and believes the interactive nature of video games makes them uniquely placed to educate and inform. His book Checkpoint considers the complex intersections of video games and mental health, and was shortlisted for Scotland's National Book of the Year for non-fiction in 2021. As familiar with the streets of Los Santos as he is the west of Scotland, Joe can often be found living his best and worst lives in GTA Online and its PC role-playing scene.