• Guide

The Forever Winter water mechanic - explained

The water mechanic in The Forever Winter is brutal, and not everyone is happy about it.

Aidan O'Brien

September 27, 2024 5:24 AM

Shacknews

1

The Forever Winter has launched into early access, and players are diving in to see if they can survive as tiny, fleshy humans in a world where strange machines are punching each other to death. While the game is not without issues, such as performance problems and a slew of bugs, there is one primary concern for many players: the water mechanic.

What is the water mechanic in The Forever Winter?

The water mechanic is a countdown clock that, should it hit zero, will destroy your base, known as The Innards, and most of your progress in the game. Each day, the settlement uses a barrel of water, so each day, you must find at least one barrel of water for the count to remain neutral. And that is each real-world day, with a clock in the base that you can check to make sure you are not caught by surprise.

Some of the services you can avail of in The Innards or the upgrades you can buy are locked behind a certain water level. As such, you need to constantly find and build up water stores in order to progress in the game. Water can be found in most missions, with some being much easier farms than others.

While I would argue that water is not that hard to find after spending a few hours in the game and learning a good farm for it, I do side with the members of the community who feel this mechanic is extremely punishing. When that count hits zero, you will lose your stash and farmed items, and the only thing that will remain is your character progress. That could be hours worth of ammo, weapons, useful devices, and supplies all gone.

The reason this feels so unfair is that when you first start playing, you will be constantly aware of the literal countdown clock that is forever ticking toward destruction unless you log in and play. While I understand the developer's desire to work in a thematic mechanic that does make sense for the world that the game takes place in, it is hard to separate that from the idea that is also designed as an engagement driver and one that might be poorly timed given the early access nature of The Forever Winter.

For early access games, the unspoken belief is that players are not just paying for an unfinished product that they believe in. They are also giving time to help test the game, find bugs, and provide essential data for the developers. As such, forcing people to log in to play with this mechanic is rubbing the community the wrong way.

This combines with the very harsh introduction to the game. You will die a lot, you won’t know where to find water, and there are limits to how much water you can carry out of a mission. After a few hours, you’ll know how to survive better and likely have a better rig that allows you to carry out multiple barrels of water. 

It actually shouldn’t be too long until you have a full supply and lots of barrels in your stash, but it does feel like a very harsh mechanic when you start playing the game, and at this point, it is potentially an element of the design that is stopping people from jumping in. 

That said, I do feel that games should take risks with design, even if a segment of us players might find those design decisions offputting. For its flaws, I am madly in love with The Forever Winter, so I guess it is doing something right.

For more news and guides, be sure to check out our The Forever Winter page.

Aidan O'Brien

Contributing Guides Editor

Hailing from Ireland, Aidan has been conditioned by local weather conditions to survive hours at his PC grinding through whatever game is offering the lowest possible drop rates for loot. He thinks the easiest way to figure out what fans of games want to read is to just be a fan of games. You can normally find him logged into Warframe, Destiny, or a gacha game. You can reach out to him on X @scannerbarkly.