Tides of Tomorrow is a rather unique experience. It takes the very specific social aspect of narrative-driven games, which is seeing what decisions other players took towards the end of big episodic moments, and it incorporates them into the actual gameplay and story structure to varying degrees of success.
Developed by DigixArt, the team behind the memorable Road 96, Tides of Tomorrow is a story that ties its main gameplay hook to a very simple, often overused philosophical question: who do we want to be and what do we want to leave behind?
It takes place in a post-apocalyptic world that suffered a massive flood, forcing the few living survivors to scatter around whatever few masses of land they could find, often building settlements with whatever scraps they could find. You'll take control of a Tidewalker, a person infused with a unique power that lets them connect on a somewhat spiritual level with other Tidwalkers, letting you see traces of the past.
It's not a pretty world in the sense that everything feels haphazardly put together, even if the shiny bright colors might give you the impression that it's brimming with life; each settlement or new locale, barring a specific few, is just piles of junk put together, giving you a sense that these people are not living, but merely surviving. Then, there's Plastimia, a unique degenerative disease that is eating away at the few hundred thousand humans still living in this desolated landscape.
Ozen is a precious resource, but it's far from a cure. You'll need to use this to bargain, keep yourself alive, or even leave some for players behind, as you'll need to consistently use it if you want to explore different locations, as your character is also suffering from Plastimia.
Usually, when you finish a game like Life is Strange, Dispatch, or any narrative-driven experience, you'll see statistics that paint a general picture of what the player base chose at key moments in that game's story. That end-of-chapter social experience is the core gimmick of Tides of Tomorrow, which the developers are calling a Story-Link.
By following a player's path, their decisions will impact how the story plays out for you. This includes how NPCs react, resources you can gather, and a few other tidbits that make the game feel fresh for each player.
While from a narrative perspective it makes for an interesting gameplay design, the reality is a bit more dull: the story you experience will be your own, so while it's interesting to see how other players reacted in certain scenarios, the novelty wears off rather quickly as you'll come to realize that it makes feel things like you're walking a path set up by someone else rather than by your own choices.
That's not to say you won't get to make tough calls yourself, but these will usually be felt by players who decide to use your generated game seed. Which leads me to another gripe: unless you have friends jump into the game, or are a streamer with decent viewership, that communal experience will feel moot.
And yes, thematically one of the big topics is the very conscious choice of electing to be a selfish or selfless person. But, at the end of the day, this is a videogame, one in which I want to see my decisions have an impact during my playtime.
The impact of saying "I followed ILoveTidies" throughout their whole journey feels weightless. Sure, if you follow a player who takes bad decisions and overall embraces chaos, you'll likely find a more dynamic experience. But to get that extra sense of feeling that you're following someone else's actual journey and not just a random ghost NPC, you'll likely want to have a connection, to some degree, to the actual person behind the gamertag.
That's not to say Tides of Tomorrow lacks interesting personalities. Even if the story lacks nuance, as it consistently bombards you with themes of nature preservation, camaraderie, and being a hopeful optimist in the face of certain demise, the characters themselves are well-voiced and will make you side with their beliefs, which are often at odds with what you need to do to save humanity.
The gameplay is also varied. It shouldn't come as a surprise if you're familiar with the developers, but for a narrative-based game, there's plenty you'll be doing between boat racing, simple naval combat, exploration, and even a few stealth sections sprinkled throughout (particularly if you follow players who may not act according to the laws of the sea).
That said, I would've loved for the Story Link system to be explored a bit further. No major spoilers, but there's a very neat section where you'll be able to trick players who follow your seed by either changing a password or keeping it as is. The following player will get asked if, based on the choices you've made along the story, you'd be the type of person to try and pull a prank on those who come after. It's a minor moment in the grand scheme of things, but one I would've loved to see more of.
Overall, Tides of Tomorrow stands on its own as a very interesting narrative-driven game that will take you roughly 10-15 hours to complete on your first playthrough (there are several endings based on the choices you, or the person you're following, make). The Story-Link is a neat novelty, but the concept doesn't hit as hard as I would've wanted.
A code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
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