Tides of Tomorrow

It’s always fun when single-player games allow you to interact with others playing the same game. Asynchronous elements in games like Death Stranding or Elden Ring add a sense of community to an otherwise lonely world. Tides of Tomorrow, the next game from the developers of Road 96, takes this concept to the next level and makes it the core mechanic. “Most of the time in these games, it only impacts the gameplay elements, right?” game director Adrien Poncet says. “We had this idea of thinking, ‘What if we did a [...] choice-based, story-driven game, where your story and what happens in your game would actually be impacted by choices that actual other players made?’’

Indeed, in Tides of Tomorrow, a narrative-driven game, your entire playthrough will be hot on the heels of another player’s. You play as a Tidewalker on Elynd, a flooded world covered in man-made islands of plastic and scrap metal. Humanity is facing a plastic-based disease, and it’s your job to stop it. The catch is that someone who looks just like you has run the exact same path, and you keep catching glimpses of their actions and choices. To make matters even more interesting, your game data will also be saved to the game’s servers, and eventually, someone can follow in your footsteps as well.