Tides of Tomorrow is a watery, plastic apocalypse take on Fallout that's more about story choices than RPG numbers

With dwindling resources, spread out island communities, and an encroaching plastic apocalypse, Tides of Tomorrow is a choice-driven narrative adventure that tonally feels like an ocean-set Mad Max. Yes, that comparison could be Kevin Costner's Water World, but I'm deciding to be more favorable. It also means that Tides of Tomorrow's apocalyptic story, while plastic instead of nuclear, has a lot in common with Fallout, right down to the impact of your choices throughout each quest. Except for one major difference: this isn't an RPG.

Coming from Digixart, the developer behind the excellent road trip adventure Road 96, Tides of Tomorrow has moments of action from evading gunfire, to high stakes jet-bike racing at Pleasureland – but this is a narrative adventure at heart. In my journey, combat is limited to a handful of ship-based battles, and a boxing match that's fought through dialogue options. Yet, though it trades Fallout's wastes for a lush blue ocean with colorful plastic waste, the quest structure really reminds me of Bethesda's iconic RPG series. For those who find Fallout's big story decisions more interesting than all the combat, gear, and numbers, Tides of Tomorrow is a compelling alternative.

Plastic wasteland

In Tides of Tomorrow, you make big choices that affect the characters from each faction you team-up with as your journey through episodic-like quests across each island. But, your adventure is also shaped by the decisions made by fellow Tidewalkers, actual players who – almost Death Stranding-like – are always just ahead of you. You have to deal with the consequences of the decisions they've made, while also using ghostly visions of their divergent actions to help guide you.

In a sense, it's like loading up someone else's completed Fallout save, and then having to keep playing as you deal with the ramifications. What if that Nuketown quest in Fallout 3 carried on past your own ending – what would another player do next? Shared choices in Tides of Tomorrow aren't quite that catastrophic – there's a sense that the cycle must always keep rotating to hand off between players – but they can still feel pretty huge. That might be based around which Marauder leader vying for power you backed, to how likely a downtrodden community starved of Ozen (a drug that keeps plastic sickness at bay) is to riot if another player tried to extort their need or were, in fact, generous.

Each island feels episodic thanks to a bite-sized approach to quest structure, each focused area feeling tightly designed almost like a theme park experience with cast members (as I mentioned in my Tides of Tomorrow review). About half an hour each on average, these are dense, immersive spaces where it feels like your choices and consequences are immediate. As you leave each area and make each choice, the game clearly flags how it'll affect the next player. I always feel a glow when I repair a ladder to reach more resources when I'm told that it'll also benefit another player.

The tightness of each area also reminds me of Fallout's best locations – especially the series' iconic vaults. Every island in Tides of Tomorrow has its own clear theming, based around one of the game's primary communities and factions: The Reclaimers, who try to scavenge their way through the impending doom; The Marauders, who control Ozen and other resources, and battle one another for power; and The Mystics, who, a bit like in Horizon: Zero Dawn, worship old-world technology such as husks of televisions.

One island may be an active Mystic temple of worship, having you poke through caverns carved from coral. Another, Pleasureland, is a Plastemia-free zone of high-stakes gambling and jet-bike racing where impressing its scheming, charismatic leader may prove invaluable in the future.

An opening area has you moving through a nightclub where Reclaimers who have accepted their oncoming plastic-death party until they can party no more, their dance-addled plastic-hardened corpses thrown into the trash. Tides of Tomorrow's plastic-sickness is an important topic, and a theme that's explored through interesting lenses every step of the way.

I wouldn't call Tides of Tomorrow an RPG, but it's such an immersive adventure where each quest's choices feel like they have enough consequence that I come close. Each adventure feels structured in the same way as you might get in a choice-heavy RPG like Fallout: New Vegas, but just doesn't have RPG stats or combat to worry about. Instead, the focus is on exploration, building relationships with communities and characters, and making important choices. That's a huge strength for Tides of Tomorrow. There's still action and thrills, but keeping the narrative at the forefront makes this a focused adventure where the story really sticks with me.

After all, while I love gunning down rad-scorpions using VATS as much as the next Wasteland wanderer, it's the big, decisive moments of each Fallout's quests that sticks with me more than the endless blasting. Tides of Tomorrow has made a wise decision to keep its immersive action narrative-centered, and it makes it really appealing for those who love RPG quests as much as I do, but want to focus on those RPG choices rather than stats. If you're looking for another apocalyptic story to try to survive, and aren't fussed about that taking the form of an RPG, try the choice-heavy Tides of Tomorrow – you might be surprised.

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