The year 1960 became a time of destruction for mankind where as a result of the failure of an experiment conducted by the Soviet State (now Russia), mankind was almost extinct because it was swallowed up by a dimension called the Void. And those who still survive try to rebuild life through “projection clones”, avatars in the form of small children, who can freely explore the Void to get various resources and also the essence of humanity, which is stored in the Matryoshka Doll. That is the premise offered by The Tomorrow Children, a game that looks simple but is able to attract the attention of gamers, which was released exclusively for the PS4 console. What’s unique about this game?
Let’s Do This, Together
Basically TTC has a game similar to Minecraft, where your task is to explore the game world to find various resources to develop the city you are in. But here you won’t be playing alone because later, your city can accommodate 10 avatars owned by other players – although the exact number is unknown. And each player must be able to work well together and try to contribute as much as possible to his community, because that is what affects the progress of your city. The more resources you get, the stronger your city will be, and the more benefits each player can get.
Initially your character is only equipped with a pickaxe and shovel that can be used to mine various resources – as well as various other objects, and exchange them for various things you need, for example coupons to repair damaged equipment. But be careful when moving because darkness is your biggest enemy, where if you stay too long in the dark your character (as well as items) can be destroyed!! But through good cooperation, we can avoid this, for example shining a flashlight on the avatar of another player who is working in the dark. In essence, TCC will direct the players to fight together because here there is no such thing as personal gain – all for the common good.
Just like in the real world, a player who works hard will benefit because the more contributions he makes to his community, the more coupons he can get. And to build good relationships between players, we can interact with other avatars through a variety of available gentures, you know.
Protecting the City
Previously it was mentioned that the more resources you get, the stronger your city will be. This is because players can create new facilities that can provide a variety of services needed to survive. For example, Treadmill Generators to provide lighting, facilities to store Matryoshka Dolls, stalls selling various necessities to weapons. What, weapons? That’s right, because it turns out that you are not the only creatures that inhabit the Void – in this dimension there are various monsters called Izverg that will attack the players and the city where you live. Some of them even have very large bodies, just like the Kaiju in Pacific Rim!!
To deal with small monsters, you only need to use the tools you have, but to deal with giant monsters we need bigger weapons. If you already have adequate facilities, later gamers can buy more powerful weapons such as shotguns to rocket launchers and work together to face the monsters. We can even build defenses around your city such as making turrets, to giant robots that will fight to protect your city!! Interestingly, each defeated giant Izverg can drop very valuable crystals or turn into an island that stores various resources.
It should be noted that when the giant Izverg attack ends, your task is not over because (of course) there is a lot of damage done to your city. To do this the player has to repair all the damage, which is surprisingly easy to do: simply by pressing the Circle button and moving the joystick in the specified direction, the repair is complete. Just like that!! This makes it easy for players, where repairs can be made by only a few people while the rest continue their work.
A Unique Experience
The first time you saw The Tomorrow Children, maybe some of you thought that the game was less interesting – especially from the visual design which (to be honest) looks weird. But behind all that, there is a game that turns out to be fun and challenging, especially with a concept that is focused on community building and requires gamers to work together with other players for the common good.
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Q-Games, SCE Japan Studio
Genre: Action-Adventure
Release: September 2016
Platform: PlayStation 4