Do you ever get the sinking feeling that a game you've been really excited for might actually be kind of mid? Thanks to post-reveal trailers and footage that left me feeling lukewarm, I entered my 45-minute hands-on session with Tides of Annihilation at Gamescom with trepidation, but left feeling enlightened – this stylish action game has the sauce.
In my hands-on session, I spend some time exploring one of Tides of Annihilation's story missions, getting to grips with protagonist Gwendolyn's effortlessly stylish moveset while briefly traversing the decayed London setting, before moving on to a multi-phase boss battle against antagonist Mordred.
Developer: In-housePublisher: Eclipse Glow GamesPlatform(s): PC, PS5, Xbox Series XRelease date: TBC
Immediately, attacks feel weighty and satisfying – Gwendolyn can pull off all sorts of elegant moves, but her main form of dishing out damage is by summoning her Phantom Knights. You have multiple equipped at once – between the 'main' and 'sub' Knight slots – and swapping between them is as slick as hitting a button, allowing you to make the most of their different skills.
Fighting against Mordred, I swap between a nimble and agile Knight with a time-slowing skill and a big, burly bloke who's much more cumbersome, but packs a real punch when he manages to land one. There are a number of different combos to learn for each Knight – too many for me to completely absorb in a short hands-on session – but it's thanks to being thrown in at the deep end like this that I realize Tides of Annihilation's glamorous female protagonist isn't the only thing the game has in common with Bayonetta.
It's definitely possible to button mash your way through a lot of these combat encounters, at the very least when it comes to dishing out damage. Don't get me wrong, dodging and counterattacking incoming moves is a requirement rather than a suggestion, but attacking is easy to learn and hard to master. The depth is certainly there for anyone who wants to take the time to learn every string of inputs for each Knight, and I'm already looking forward to being able to spend more time getting acquainted with Gwendolyn's skills come launch.
But, even if you can smash an enemy to bits without too much thought, you have to stay on your toes if you want to survive the more threatening encounters. Tides of Annihilation may not be a Soulslike, but perhaps that knowledge lulled me into a false sense of security when I dove into its combat, because it's hard.
My fight against Mordred is lengthy and hard-won – it spans multiple phases, shifting from the inside of a huge library to an outside arena where my enemy begins riding around and attacking me from a massive dragon-like creature, and it seems each of her attacks hits harder than the last. Even when I'm being pelted with damage, though, the spectacle of the fight is incredible – it's a shame you can't sit back and watch it without being in terrible danger.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/action/we-dont-get-action-games-like-tides-of-annihilation-very-often-and-after-45-minutes-im-pleased-to-report-that-its-a-lot-better-than-i-expected
