The Tomorrow Children

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With not a whole lot going on besides grinding for resources, trying to catch the bus, and ending up doing it all over again, this game will not hold your interest for more than a few days.

The Tomorrow Children is something of a departure from Q-Games' vibrant, punchy, arcadey PixelJunk titles. This is a game far grander in scope, darker in tone, and more varied in gameplay than anything from the Japanese studio's previous gen efforts. It also explores new territory, treading the lines between genres and feeling genuinely fresh in the process. However, it's still somewhat an enigma: what exactly is it, and what are you supposed to be doing in its cold, sinister world?

I can’t think of a recent game that left me more confused after I completed the tutorial than The Tomorrow Children. Everything had gone swimmingly up until that point, as I had gone over the basics of mining and crafting, but then I was left off to explore the mysterious void without any real instruction. After running around a Soviet-themed town for a few minutes, I eventually hopped on a transport car and was dropped off at a mysterious island filled with strange geometry.

You have to admire where The Tomorrow Children does innovate—particularly its look and social engineering—but it overly burdens you and bogs down progression with dragging resource collection and bureaucratic manipulation. Even though you immediately progress from a Prole to the ranks of the papered Bourgeoisie you’re still tediously grinding for the man.

The Tomorrow Children is a very interesting game, but one that left me feeling lukewarm towards it. I was drawn in by its post-apocalyptic theme and its bizarre structures that beg to be explored, but was left underwhelmed by the lack of depth that lies under the hood. Exploring, gathering resources and then slowly building a town doesn’t result in the best gameplay loop here, and the game’s lack of scale means that you’ll see everything it has to offer before long.

A highly peculiar social game that seems to revel in the mundanity of its gameplay, despite some intriguing ideas and visuals.

The Tomorrow Children is at the beginning of its journey, with Q-Games’ next step one of the most important in shaping the game’s future. What is present shows promise, but after several days of playing it feels like most of what can be experienced has been. There’s already a sense of repetitiveness settling in, and it feels like something is missing, even if I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. On the flip side it really is great seeing players work together to help their towns grow, and finding ingenious ways to do so. The canvas is set and there is potential for a masterpiece to appea...