Tides of Tomorrow Preview: A multiplayer/single-player game like you've never seen before

You should listen to the truth from children and drunk people - do you know that expression? Back then, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet actually broadcast documentaries, not reality TV that could rot your brain. I once saw a programme about the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, and I was deeply fascinated. Not so much by the history itself, but by the idea that eras were defined by the material used to make tools.

So I turned to my mother and said that if it was the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, then we must be living in the Plastic Age. Brilliant.

It made perfect sense in my little head. Plastic was everywhere. In the kitchen. In toys. In packaging. In nature. And it still is. In fact, to such an extent that we are now talking about microplastics in fish, in the sea and in ourselves. It's not exactly uplifting when you think about it for more than a moment.

That's why Tides of Tomorrow struck a chord with me right away. The game takes the plastic age and asks what will happen if we don't stop. What if the oceans rise? What if plastic doesn't just float around, but becomes the very foundation of civilisation? What if we don't just live with the waste, but on top of it?

The result is a world where humanity clings to life on small islands built from rubbish, metal and the remains of the world we ourselves have destroyed. Old oil rigs rise up like monuments to our former lives, and the sea has become a plastic ocean that is both beautiful and repulsive at the same time. It's a cool premise, and it works because it doesn't feel completely unrealistic. Tides of Tomorrow was developed by DigixArt and published by THQ Nordic, and I got to play a good chunk of it. DigixArt is also behind Road 96, and you can clearly sense that they have a penchant for narrative experimentation and choices that actually matter. The game starts with you being fished out of the sea by a character named Eyla, and you have apparently been under the sea for decades. It's the kind of opening where you have to accept the premise before you fully understand the consequences. The world has changed, and plastic is not just waste, but something that has found its way into the human body, so everyone is slowly dying.

The only way to postpone your fate is to constantly inhale a substance called ozone, and if you don't get it, you gradually start to turn into plastic. It could easily have been a slightly too thick metaphor, but because it is treated seriously in the game's universe, it actually works, and I found myself thinking several times that it is a rather direct and rather courageous way to take the climate debate and make it physical. In terms of gameplay, Tides of Tomorrow is at its core a narrative adventure game. You talk to characters, collect scraps that serve as currency, constantly search for ozone to stay alive, and make choices that affect both your own survival and the people you meet along the way. It's not new in its structure, but it's solid and feels well thought out.

However, it all revolves around the Tidewalker system, and this is where the game really begins to stand out. When you start, you choose another player to follow, and it can be a random player, a friend or, in principle, a streamer, which the developers themselves encourage. At first, I thought it sounded like a smart idea on paper, but the longer I played, the more I began to feel that it actually changes your experience.

That player becomes your precursor, and their choices are already imprinted on your world. If they have ignored a character, you can sense it in the dialogue. If they have helped, it can open up other possibilities. And you inevitably start to wonder who the person you are following really is. Are they cynical? Are they empathetic? Are they just curious and trying things out? It's a strange feeling to have a kind of relationship with a player you've never met, but who nevertheless influences your world.

There are also moments when, through small cracks in reality, you can see traces of the precursor's future, such as a password or a solution you haven't yet figured out yourself. It could feel like a shortcut, but because it's part of the game's basic idea that we move in each other's tides, it becomes more a part of the logic of the universe than a trick.

When you sail out onto the plastic sea, it becomes even clearer. The tracks of four other players appear in the area, and if you find one of their routes, you can follow it to a new island, a treasure or a conflict. This creates a chain reaction where you are indirectly entangled in other people's stories without playing directly together. It's quite fascinating to think about, and I actually like the idea, even though it also has something slightly unsettling about it.
There are also ship battles, confrontations and a lot of exploration, and the world feels threatening, but at the same time alive. Amidst all the plastic and decay, there are still people trying to do the right thing, and that's perhaps what I like best about Tides of Tomorrow. That it's not just about doom, but also about relationships and responsibility.

I'm not usually the type to throw around big words about games that set new standards, and I can't stand how expressions like "souls-like" are used for everything. But Tides of Tomorrow has an originality that actually feels real, and not just like a marketing buzzword.

The game will be released on 22 April, and I am genuinely curious to see how far DigixArt dares to go with their idea in the full version. There is something here that feels different, and if it succeeds, it could be more than just another narrative adventure.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. And yes. I'm going to go and sort my rubbish afterwards. Just to be on the safe side.