Tides of Tomorrow Is Out — A Gorgeous Concept That Doesn't Quite Stick the Landing

Tides of Tomorrow — the new narrative adventure from DigixArt, the French studio behind Road 96 — launched today on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The pitch is one of the more ambitious in recent memory: a "plasticpunk" post-apocalyptic ocean world where your story is shaped by the choices a previous player made, and where your choices will in turn shape the experience of whoever follows you. It's Road 96's DNA applied to a new canvas with a genuinely inventive social twist. The question the reviews are answering today is whether the execution matches the ambition. The short answer: mostly, but not completely.

The World and the Setup

Tides of Tomorrow is set on Elynd, a planet whose oceans have risen to cover most of the landmass following centuries of ecological collapse. The surviving population lives on floating settlements adrift in seas filled with plastic waste. A disease called Plastemia — which literally transforms its victims into plastic, slowly turning them into mannequins — is spreading unchecked. The only treatment is a substance called Ozen, which is scarce and increasingly dangerous to obtain.

Players take the role of a Tidewalker — a revived traveller from the present day with the ability to see visions of the past — specifically the choices made by the previous player who played through the same sequence. You inherit their decisions. If they took a resource, it's gone for you. If they made peace with a faction, you'll find a warmer reception. If they burned bridges, you inherit the consequences.

The central loop is genuinely compelling on paper: choose a player to follow (a friend, a streamer, or a stranger), travel between islands, encounter situations that were shaped by their actions, and make your own choices that will define the next player's experience. DigixArt describes it as asynchronous multiplayer — you're never in the same session as another player, but you're always playing alongside someone else's shadow.

What Critics Are Actually Saying

The score spread tells the story. Metacritic sits at 75 for PS5 and 81 for Xbox, with OpenCritic at 77 and 61% of critics recommending it. That's a wider-than-usual gap between enthusiasts and moderates, reflecting a game that some reviewers found deeply moving and others found frustratingly shallow.

The positive camp is significant. Several reviewers called it the best thing DigixArt has made, praising the Story-Link system as "executed perfectly" and the narrative as "gripping from start to finish." Stevivor described it as "a worthy sequel that borrows the best bits from both" Road 96 games. GameFAQs aggregates show praise for the "compelling post-apocalyptic adventure" and the "smart asynchronous multiplayer twist." One Spanish review called it "a narrative adventure that will stay with people long after they finish it."

The critical camp is equally notable. Insider Gaming's review found the Story-Link consequences "completely redundant" in practice — the choices of the player you follow often amount to a 50/50 flip with little real impact on your experience. The combat (limited naval battles and stealth sections) was described as "crouching through vents." The writing was criticised for not carrying the weight the concept promises.

The Bottom Line

What emerges from the reviews is a game that is visually stunning, genuinely original in its central conceit, and occasionally profound — but that doesn't execute its most ambitious mechanic deeply enough to fully deliver on the promise. The 11 to 13 hour campaign is engaging, the world is worth inhabiting, and Road 96 fans will find DigixArt's storytelling craft in full effect. But players expecting the asynchronous choices to create genuinely divergent experiences may feel the impact is softer than advertised.

At $29.99, the value question is reasonable. If you loved Road 96, this is absolutely worth your time. If you're coming in cold expecting a systems-deep social narrative experiment, temper expectations accordingly.

Tides of Tomorrow is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. $29.99.

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