| Tides of Tomorrow | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Tides of Tomorrow is a narrative driven adventure game where the story isn't only led by your choices, but by other players' as well. Learn more about the game’s plot, gameplay, release date, our opinions on the preview, and more.
Everything We Know About Tides of Tomorrow
Tides of Tomorrow Plot
After the Great Flood, the fictional world of Elynd and its inhabitants have been struggling ever since. As plastification threatens to kill all living things, find the cure, explore the ocean planet, and deal with the mysterious threat plaguing the world. Delve deeper into the secrets of Elynd and you'll quickly discover that you'll never be alone in your journey.
Tides of Tomorrow Gameplay
Tides of Tomorrow is a first-person adventure game where the focus is the game's branching story affected by not only your choices but the choices of other players as well. Explore Elynd and encounter a unique cast of characters as you choose which one to ally yourself with throughout the game. Analyze their expressions, goals, and perspectives as you decide which of these characters are worth following or eliminating. Additionally, take note of your online friends' campaigns as well, as their decisions can influence your world, meaning you'll need to be ready for anything that might happen.
Tides of Tomorrow Release Date
Tides of Tomorrow is scheduled to be released on April 22, 2026, for consoles and PC via Steam. The original release date (February 24) was moved to a much later date, following feedback from their demo and beta release.
Tides of Tomorrow Review (Early Preview)
A Real Tide Turner
I’ve always gravitated toward narrative-driven games, especially interactive adventures that feature heavy character work and sharp writing. When a story is confident in its pacing and knows how to build tension through dialogue alone, I’m all in. Games like Tales From The Borderlands, Ace Attorney, and even Dispatch were some of the few that hooked me, even when there wasn’t much gameplay going on.
But when I saw the trailer for Tides of Tomorrow, I wasn’t attracted immediately. At first glance, it didn’t seem all that special. It wasn't until I realized that it was doing something different with how it tells its story that it caught my attention. Asynchronous multiplayer isn’t anything new, sure, but using it as an engine for the narrative? That’s pretty novel.
So, I gave it a chance, and I was immediately hooked and impressed. It had a compelling narrative, an interesting cast of characters, and even surprisingly engaging gameplay, sure. But what really drew me were the narrative mechanics.
A Unique Twist of the End Times
Picture this: it’s a post-apocalyptic world where a so-called “Great Flood” engulfed the planet. To make matters worse, a deadly disease called Plastemia has polluted the water that’s flooded the world, threatening to kill all living things by slowly turning them into plastic. It’s a slow and seemingly inevitable death for mankind, as there’s no cure for the disease itself.
You play as a Tidewalker, beings who have the special ability to see visions of time through the experiences of fellow Tidewalkers. In other words, they can see both the past and the future under certain conditions, as they connect to each other’s experiences. Unfortunately, you are also infected by Plastemia, a deadly epidemic, and time is running out for you to find the cure.
With this special gift and a compelling need to survive, you eventually find yourself at the center of the very fate of the ocean planet itself, and every decision you make will cascade through the ones that come after you.
It’s a setting I’ve never seen before. It’s an incredibly unique setup that showcases humanity even in the face of disaster, for better or worse. There’s also the matter of a prophecy that a Tidewalker will guide humanity.
And to top it off, you encounter characters who have different perspectives that you’ll have to be wary of. Why? Because you’ll be making decisions that will not only affect the fate of the world but also the ones that come after.
Player-Driven Storytelling and Worldbuilding
Having your choices matter in a video game isn’t a new concept. But what if you were using someone else’s choices as a foothold to propel the narrative? That’s where Tides of Tomorrow brings something new to the table.
Right at the start, you’re immediately given a choice to “follow” your fellow Tidewalkers. This choice sets up the foundation of your journey, one that’s shaped by the choices they made in theirs.
Think of it as parallel timelines brushing against each other, where the aftershocks of someone else’s decisions cause ripples on your own. Their past becomes your starting point, and every decision they’ve made affects your world in one way or another. That’s the setting of Tides of Tomorrow, one that’s incredibly novel and out there that you can’t help but want to experience more.
Visions of the Past
Before going any further, let’s first talk about the Tides of Time mechanic. It functions mostly as a record of someone else’s playthrough, and you can use it during gameplay to see visions of what they did in specific places.
For example, the player I was following had a completely different experience from mine during a specific section of the game. That is, the vision revealed them being barred from entry to an island. In their playthrough, the region was on lockdown, and he had to find an alternative way to get inside and progress the story.
But in my world, this wasn’t the case. I was able to walk in freely since the lockdown was lifted. The NPCs were more receptive to my dialogue, all because of their efforts to lift the island’s restrictions in their run. It felt like I was being helped by an imaginary twin in a sense, one where they had already made sure that the one that came after would have it easier than they did.
Of course, it’s never always that easy. There will be times when someone else’s playthrough will make things more difficult for you than they should be. This also happened during my time, when there were more guards patrolling than usual due to the other Tidewalker’s unruly activities. And I can’t exactly blame them because sometimes you just have to make tough decisions, despite the consequences it’ll have on someone else.
More Interactive Than You Thought
Beyond its narrative hook, Tides of Tomorrow isn’t afraid to get your hands wet. The game also features a number of ship battles and even a racing section that caught me by surprise. These action-packed sequences effectively shift the tempo into something more frenetic in a way that still fits the setting.
Elsewhere, you also have simple stealth segments and light exploration, allowing you to sneak, scavenge, and poke around the waterlogged world at your own leisure. None of it is overly complex, though, and it’s mostly flavor for the main, narrative-driven dish.
But what really elevates the experience is how the Tides of Time mechanic threads through them. It’s not exactly a mandatory crutch that requires your full attention, but more like a guide. In other words, you can definitely play through the game without paying much heed to someone else’s playthrough until you find yourself stuck in places and need hints.
Or, you can simply use it to sate your own curiosity. That works, too.
But it’s not the game’s central mechanic for nothing. Sometimes, the game even confronts you with a choice and asks if you trust the Tidewalker whose footsteps you’re observing. And that question carries weight, because their decisions are not exactly abstract to you, as someone who can live their experience.
That’s where the game proves that it’s not just a narrative mechanic. Because as someone who can see your fellow’s actions and be influenced by them, so too can someone else be affected by your own journey. You can even leave behind items and scrap for a future player to find and turn your run into their foundation. It’s an impressively deep system that turns your story into a sort of relay race, where every runner inherits the burdens or generosity of the past.
And I, for one, can’t wait to see what unfolds in this game’s future.
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Tides of Tomorrow Product Information
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| Title | TIDES OF TOMORROW |
|---|---|
| Release Date | April 22, 2026 |
| Developer | Digixart |
| Publisher | Deep Silver, THQ Nordic |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S |
| Genre | Survival, Narrative-Driven, Multiplayer |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | M17+ |
| Official Website | Tides of Tomorrow Official Website |
