Road 96 was a fascinating adventure game that took place in an alternate present that looks very similar to our own. It was a game that exemplified how choices matter, with big changes creating big consequences throughout the adventure. It was very well done, but the less is said about the prequel, Road 96: Mile 0, the better. Tides of Tomorrow is the next game from the developers at Digixart, and while it is also an adventure game where choices produce consequences, it does so in a way that feels both distinct and divisive.

The premise of the game is very Waterworld-esque, but with some modern details to make it different enough. The world is filled with nothing but water, but that is the least of the world's problems; a disease threatens to destroy all living things by transforming them into plastic versions of themselves. There is no cure yet for this disease, but it can be hampered by the use of a drug called Ozen, which only one person knows how to make; naturally, they charge exorbitant fees for it. You play the role of a Tidewalker, one of many special beings who can see visions of the past. Some believe Tidewalkers to be the key to the world's salvation. First thing's first: You need to learn how to survive.

For the most part, Tides of Tomorrow is an adventure game that follows in the footsteps of the developer's previous works. You can grab items like scrap, the world's stand-in for cash, or Ozen, which is necessary for survival since you're also suffering from the plastic disease. Your main action is decision-making, though. You'll talk to loads of people and make lots of choices between two options to move the story along. You may decide to pay for entry to a club or find an alternate way in or decide whether a stolen Ozen shipment needs to be kept for your core group or distributed. While this is most of your work in the game, you'll also engage in a few sections of platforming and stealth.

Tides of Tomorrow lets you take a detour from the adventure so you can have brief bits of combat in the form of boat raids. There is an emphasis on "brief," as it only takes a few time-delayed shots from your own boat to disable the opposing craft. The missions vary, such as freeing trapped animals or fighting someone who's threatening your space, but the missions are worth undertaking because they give you extra supplies and they cost nothing to do. As a distinction, the main story missions always cost you some Ozen.

The main differentiator when compared to other adventure games is your ability to see snippets of the past, specifically past actions made by one particular person. You start the game by choosing a profile to follow, all of whom are real people who have played the game. From there, you can use your special ability to get a glimpse into what actions they took at key moments. This partially acts as a hint system for those who may be stuck on what to do but it also shows that their actions have effects on your own current playthrough of the game. For example, you can follow a character who previously broke a bridge, resulting in you paying for bridge repairs or seeing them steal scrap from an offering pile, making others weary when you go near that same pile yourself. Not all interactions are malicious, though, as the person who came before you could've made it easier for you to sneak past guards by doing something to cause guard presence to be reduced or caused a pirate captain to give new citizens scrap instead of charging them scrap. In turn, your own actions will cause scenarios to change for others following you, creating an effect where everyone playing will get an almost different experience.

The gimmick is interesting, since it gives you an idea for how to go about your adventure and reveals what was done before to influence your situation. However, the system raises some questions. From a story perspective, it is strange that you're essentially doing similar things compared to a person just like you who previously ran through each area. For example, you may have helped someone smuggle some Ozen in a base, and the person playing after you will do the same thing with the same people but via a slightly different path. It's one of those things where your best bet is to simply ignore the logistics and let the novelty of it all happen. Second, there's the question of whether the game can function if no servers exist. The game seems rather dependent on people playing before you, and the preview build was using data from QA personnel and other people who have played the preview build before us. We were unable to test the game without an internet connection in place, but it presents an interesting scenario for those who don't want any interactions from a title that is largely a single-player experience, albeit with recorded online influences. It also begs the question due to the constant bad news of online games shutting down, making one hope that a contingency plan is in place to ensure the title remains playable in the future.

As far as presentation goes, the game has some of the signature elements of Road 96. The game goes with a painted watercolor style that mostly affects the textures, while the characters are more stylized; the plastic disease makes each person look different. Meanwhile, the voice acting is solid, but the main highlight comes from the soundtrack, which is filled with indie songs and songs in different languages.

Based on what we've seen in the preview build, Tides of Tomorrow is intriguing. If you can ignore the plot holes that might arise from the story, there's an interesting genre wrinkle in the notion of following the actions of others and doing the same for others who follow you. It looks and sounds good, and the side activities prevent the adventure from feeling monotonous. There's over a month to go before the game's full release, and we're curious to see how this all turns out.