If you thought being a God of a prosperous land was all fun and games, then you are probably thinking of the PC game, Tidal Tribe. Developed and published by the one-man team, PowPit, Tidal Tribe will challenge your ability to create and multi-task. You have the powers of a terraforming God; entrusted with the responsibility and well-being of the Haiwenelu people. Raise up mountains, sink valleys, or even just flatten the land for good farming, the lay of the land is all up to you.
Despite your godly, earth-bending powers, you will not be the only force that will be shaping the land as water plays a key role of how your civilization will develop. Large tidal waves occasionally sweep throughout the land, filling in the valleys to make lakes, ponds, and rivers. This action creates a set of events leading to new types of plant forms and how your population will prosper from it. However, not all the flora will sprout from just anywhere as some are picky on where they grow. With careful planning and a good understanding of the vegetation, the Haiwenelu people will be prospering in no time.
With the peaceful music, lovely graphics of trees growing and aquamarine waves sweeping throughout, it should be very relaxing to play. However, with how quickly the land changes and how the environment fluctuates, all your meticulous planning can get thrown out the door. There are too many aspects of the game that you need to pay attention to and that can be quite stressful. Are your people happy? Do they have enough to eat or drink? If you need to grow more plants, what are the plants’ growing conditions? Is that a parasitic plant? Is an area too flooded? Or are there too many hills?
The execution of the game play can be unpleasant, too, especially if you are prone to motion sickness. Your mouse controls your first person view and is also how you will shape the terrain, so if you need to go back and forth to smooth over a plateau or cut through a mountain to make a new lake, prepare for some shaking on your screen. The keys and control functions are standard but using them in different ways to move around is another story. For example, hovering above the tree line to survey the land seems like the most efficient method, however if you need to help collect fruit, you must be on the ground and enter in a fruit collecting mode. If you happen to fall into one of your many lakes and valleys and are unable to walk up the steep hills, you cannot hover or switch out of fruit-collecting mode without losing all your progress.
Tidal Tribe is certainly a very interesting game with a great concept, but if you do not like to keep a mental track of the all things that you still have to do, and if you get upset at seeing careful planning going to waste, this may not be the game for you. If you do love to multi-task and see an entire civilization grow and flourish under your care, then you might be the God up to the task.
PROS: Beautiful waves, cute animation, and relaxing music.
CONS: Too many things to keep track of, can cause motion sickness, and frustrating gameplay mechanics.
Check Out the Tidal Tribe Trailer:
Tidal Tribe is available for PC via Steam.
Video games have always been a huge influence in my life and have definitely shaped me to who I am today . Some of my best memories growing up were the many adventures and stories I was able to experience and become immersed in. If my hands aren't either covered in clay, typing, editing, creating, or helping shoving food in my mouth, they would either be gripped to a controller, tapping away at the screen of my phone, or clicking away on my PC. I am always up for trying something new because why live just one life when you can live many.
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