Tides of Tomorrow Review: Going with the flow

The tide is high... and full of plastics.

I was late to the party with Road 96, the third title from French studio DigixArt, but holy hell did I love it. I’ve finished it on Xbox, PS4, and PS5, delighting in its narrative, its characters, and its unpredictability. I told Americans to play it before the most recent election as a cautionary tale… not that the tactic worked.

While Road 96 was amazing, its prequel Road 96 Mile 0 didn’t resonate with me, mixing more of a linear narrative with musical stylings. Tides of Tomorrow illustrates that DigixArt has learned lessons from those two releases, and emerges as a worthy sequel that borrows the best bits from both.

Set in the future, Tides of Tomorrow is set in a world ravaged by human negligence. A lack of response to climate change has caused the tides to rise, and those ever-abounding waters are just full of plastics. Microplastics that are already inside of us today continue to invade our bodies and become a terminal disease called plastemia. Left unchecked by a mysterious gaseous compound called Ozen, plastemia will literally turn a person into a lifeless mannequin.

Players will the shoes of a Tidewalker, a long-dead human from the present day who is magically revived by a sect called the Mystics. Not only do you have the power to return from the dead, but you experience visions: images of what’s happened before. This concept forms Tides of Tomorrow‘s core, in which you can see what a real-life player has done in the same situation you face. Do you follow their actions, or do you chart a new path of your own?

Visions are useful in many ways, from seeing how a future conversation can play out, to avoiding enemies in stealth situations, and even solving puzzles with little effort. They can be extremely useful in crafting the Tidewalker you want to be, selfish or compassionate, worried about mankind or about the planet. The choice, ultimately, is yours.

DigixArt has mirrored gameplay as experienced in Road 96 through the concept of plastemia and Ozen. As you travel from island to island, you’ll need to manage your health. Using a tank of admittedly scarce Ozen will give you one extra bit to your health bar, and scrap can be found and exchanged for more. You also have the option to leave Ozen and scrap for Tidewalkers that follow you; as things progress, you’ll likely find that your generosity is forced to take a back seat.

Managing your own personal health can be quite stressful, let alone the state of the world around you. It’s here that Tides of Tomorrow excels, providing some choice in how its narrative unfolds, but creating a far tighter, far more polished experience as compared to Road 96. It’s a fantastic evolution.

Much like Road 96 though, the true joy of Tides of Tomorrow comes from its cast of recurring characters — survivors, pirates, and those of faith who make the world around them feel fully fleshed out. That’s enough to balance out some rather lacklustre stealth bits that get in the way of what’s next.

Priced at around $40 AUD, it’s hard to go wrong with Tides of Tomorrow, especially if you enjoyed Road 96. If you’re on the fence, the title has a demo that you can use to try before you buy. I encourage you to do both.

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

Tides of Tomorrow was reviewed using a promotional code on PS5, as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.