Yoan Fanise released Valiant Hearts: The Great War in 2014 to great acclaim, providing a thought-provoking WWI story. Following that success, he left Ubisoft to found DigixArt, and over the next decade, the studio released several new titles. It was during the development of Road 96 that they experimented with a procedurally generated world shaped by player decisions.
This is further expanded with their latest release, Tides of Tomorrow, a new adventure set in a plastic post-apocalyptic world. What sets this game apart is Story-Links, which allow players to view previous decisions or actions. After the credits rolled, I left feeling the weight of my decisions, with a satisfying narrative held back by stiff controls and a few issues.
Reflections Beneath the Waves
The world is being ravaged by rising sea levels and massive plastic pollution. Found deep within the sea is the Tidewalker, who has the ability to witness visions left behind by other walkers. They’re saved by a Mystic named Nahe, whose task is to rescue and introduce them to their journey. Unfortunately, due to the state of the world, they’re also afflicted by Plasmia, a virus ravaging the remaining human population. The only remedy to subdue the effects of Plasmia is by consuming Ozen, and even that is becoming scarce through dwindling supplies and harsh conservation efforts by the marauder leader Obin.
Landing in Scrap Harbor, they also meet the reclaimer activist Eyla, who rebels against the Marauders’ authority. Unlike many rebellious types of characters, she’s very selfless to a fault and wants to help everyone at the cost of her own well-being. They also meet Taj, a journeyman who finds work in the unlikeliest of places and tries too hard to be a comedic relief. Kass, a marauder who’s sympathetic to the reclaimer cause, and Obin’s daughter. Nyx, the second Marauder leader, who desires to overthrow Obin. She’s a standout character, and her performance is charming and vampy with every scene she’s in.
There are many possible scenarios to come across by way of the Story-Link mechanic; however, in my playthrough, many of the scenarios involving Obin were at his most antagonistic. He’s a necessary evil that pushes order where it’s needed, even if it comes at the cost of the population. That’s the core of Tides of Tomorrow‘s message, and it pushes the uncomfortable question of what I am leaving behind through my actions. Its execution is incredible, with various outcomes affecting other players’ playthroughs and five endings to discover.
Visions of a Probable Reality
Before starting a playthrough and selecting the tidewalker’s appearance, the Story-Link system is enabled. This allows selecting an in-progress or completed playthrough featuring different traits. These traits are based on player actions, either through dialogue choices or during exploration. Per playthrough, only two traits can be emphasized at a time, which can affect the ending accordingly. These story-links can be shared via a seed system, and while they are primarily found online, Tides of Tomorrow can also be played offline with preset saves.
After the initial onboarding, the overall gameplay loop centers on exploration and puzzle-solving via the Tides of Time mechanic. Activated by the left trigger, it allows viewing visions of the Tidewalker’s previous actions, including alternate story moments, finding secrets, and even emoting. The game constantly autosaves and uploads every action onto the Story-Link seed. Halfway through the game, a new kind of glitched vision is introduced, which is a fixed point in time that only affects the current playthrough. While there are also some dialogue choices, there’s a mechanic that allows for negotiation, but it only happens five times throughout a playthrough.
With the entire world flooded, the only means of travel is through a boat found at the end of Scrap Harbor. Traveling to different levels consumes 2 Ozen slots each time, and this never changes as the story progresses. Ozen bottles can be found through exploration and ocean events, or bought at shops for scrap. Scrap is found everywhere and can also be donated to other Tidewalkers with the shared canister, along with Ozen. Scrap can also upgrade the boat’s health in some boat combat, but it’s best to give it away, as the upgrades are meaningless.
Plastic Horizons, Rough Patches
Venturing forth into open seas is one of the many hallmarks of Tides of Tomorrow, evident in its overall art style. Exploring each level reveals varying levels of environmental storytelling, along with a lively populace. While each NPC reuses the same models, there are some special interactions that end up translating onto others’ playthroughs. Aside from the NPCs, each supporting character features unique designs that reflect the setting. However, in terms of performance, some character models feel stiff, while others have more expressive animation.
In addition, some of the performances fail to meet the drama of the moment. It feels partly due to the voice direction, as the deliveries of pivotal character moments come across as forced. This mismatch was evident in the soundtrack’s use, as each level frequently reused tracks that didn’t fit the situation’s tone. It’s like a shuffled playlist, changing between different genres from moment to moment, feeling out of place after a major story event. This doesn’t detract from the overall narrative; however, it is an area for improvement.
Surprisingly, the game’s overall stability and performance were solid throughout a playthrough. Aside from some texture glitching and hazy post-processing, the game was stable throughout the entire runtime. The same can’t be said for the controls, which felt stiff when navigating levels or stealth segments. There were even times scenarios failed to load properly, either by clipping through the environment or doing nothing at all. Luckily, reloading the previous autosave fixed it, and there were no hard locks that required a total restart of the level.
What Remains For Tomorrow?
Having finished a playthrough, Tides of Tomorrow, is an interesting approach to ludonarrative dissonance. There’s an overall mystery to uncover by playing another playthrough and cooperating with other Tidewalkers. Even when I look back at my past actions, I’m leaving an impact that helps others follow their own paths.
Even though the controls feel stiff, along with some of the character performances, the overall execution of the narrative is solid, and the choices made feel strong. The message the developers left isn’t to be forced, but experienced through the same waves.
Disclaimer: THQ Nordic provided a PC (Steam) copy of Tides of Tomorrow for review purposes.
