Digixart, the studio behind the acclaimed narrative adventure Road 96, has returned with Tides of Tomorrow, a new first-person adventure set on a flooded, plastic-choked Earth. Released on April 22, 2026, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, the game draws clear inspiration from the asynchronous multiplayer systems found in FromSoftware titles like Dark Souls, where players encounter ghostly traces of others’ actions rather than direct interaction.
The game’s premise centers on the player character, a Tidewalker who awakens as a revenant after dying and floating among the wreckage of a drowned world. Suffering from Plastemia—a fatal illness caused by microplastic pollution—the protagonist must navigate a world where fewer than 300,000 survivors remain, scavenging for the scarce medicine Ozen to slow the disease’s progression. As players explore floating platforms and derelict settlements, they experience visions that reveal how previous Tidewalkers acted in the same situations, allowing them to follow or diverge from those paths.
Tides of Tomorrow implements a choice-driven narrative where decisions made by earlier players influence the world state for those who follow. Helpful actions by predecessors may lead to friendlier NPC encounters, while destructive behavior results in hostility. However, multiple verified sources indicate that despite these systems, the game’s execution falls short of its ambitions. Reviews consistently describe the stealth mechanics as rudimentary and outdated, comparing unfavorably to early PlayStation-era titles, with clunky controls, poor environmental rendering, and instant resets upon failure that carry no meaningful consequence.
Similarly, the game’s moral choices and branching narrative paths are criticized for lacking weight. Players report that decisions often feel inconsequential, with storylines quickly converging regardless of choices made. The ability to exit currency or Ozen for future players increases a ‘co-operative’ rating but appears to offer little tangible benefit. Emotes and relationship shifts with NPCs are similarly described as superficial, allowing players to turn enemies into allies through minimal dialogue options without meaningful narrative impact.
Boat-based segments, including races and missile combat, suffer from the same issues of weak animation and underdeveloped mechanics, demanding patience rather than skill. Exploration areas are noted for basic design, abundant but meaningless currency collection, and underwritten characters. While the game’s eco-conscious themes and innovative multiplayer concepts are acknowledged as well-intentioned, critics conclude that budgetary constraints have resulted in a product where gameplay and plot feel underdeveloped, and immature.
The official THQ Nordic website confirms Digixart Entertainment SAS as the developer and THQ Nordic GmbH as the publisher, with the game carrying a standard edition release across all platforms. Age rating is listed as 16, reflecting mild violence and thematic content consistent with its post-apocalyptic setting. Pricing is set at £24.99 for the standard edition at launch.
Despite its promising premise and pedigree from Road 96’s developers, Tides of Tomorrow has been met with disappointment due to its failure to realize its ambitious systems. The game stands as an example of how strong narrative ideas can be undermined by technical shortcomings when insufficient resources are allocated to execution, particularly in areas like animation, AI, and meaningful consequence design.