Tides of Annihilation Gamescom 2026 Demo Impressions!

We're cautiously saying it - you can get hyped

For a long time now, and across quite a few events, Tides of Annihilation has been grabbing our attention with explosive trailers. Some loved the trailers, others thought they were too overloaded - but until yesterday, no one knew for sure, because they'd never given the general public access to it. We played it - and we're confident that if it maintains the level of quality shown to us, we're getting the best action game since DMC 5. The demo was divided into four parts: the first is a brief explanation of the combat, the second is partial access to the museum stage (which was shown when they first revealed the game), the third and fourth are boss fights, and there was also a bonus section in the form of a cooperative fight against both bosses. We had enough time to play everything except the cooperative fight.

The most interesting part is obviously the stage, because action games typically struggle to balance exploration and combat, falling into the abyss that so many games in the genre have fallen into before them. The last game to do this, and do it perfectly, was DMC 5. And I'm mentioning it for the second time because Tides simply reminded me of it, and that hasn't happened in years. Particularly in stage design, the two are most similar. The colors are the same colors, only Tides looks like a modern game. The exploration is very similar, with ways to move things in the world and hiding chests in places where DMC would also hide things. In Tides, the things you can find are full skins for Gwendolyn (the main character) and sword skins, which not only change how she looks visually but also add power or other advantages. You can also find armor that doesn't appear visually on the character in-game but does give you defense options against special attacks, as well as find upgrades for your knights - but we'll talk about that in the next paragraph. To solve puzzles in the world, we'll use those same knights: one is strong and can move heavy objects, and another can shoot with a bow and arrow to knock down targets or create a new zip line to a new location. In the demo, for example, the "secret" area was the Chinese gods section in the British Museum, which provided even more personality and more beautiful characters to design for this stunning game.

The game's gameplay always looked problematic from a distance - but it works excellently. Beyond the small sword strikes, an excellent Parry system that works by pressing just as the enemy's attack flashes red, and the ability to Dodge, you build yourself two groups of two knights from the Knights of the Round Table who will be your Summonings. Each knight has a different attack, with one activated using the R2 button and the other with the Heavy Attack button. You can charge each of their attacks to get not just a stronger attack - but a different one. For example, one of the knights at full charge continues to pound the enemy and then launches them into the air - giving you the opportunity to jump and land a few more hits. But that's not the end because there's a second knight: with the second knight, say, you could put one whose attack slows time around the enemy (similar to Nero's ability in DMC 5 or Bayonetta, where even the clock has the same color), and that way you keep them in the air longer. These combos work excellently and flow into the combat naturally and refreshingly, making it feel like you're experiencing a fantastic action game again like it's 2019.

The bosses didn't show anything too new, but they did feel excellent and were superbly designed. It wasn't clear to me if we'll get a new knight after each boss, but I assume that's the case. The game is expected to release soon, even without a release year announced at the moment. This is unusual, because the product we played looks polished. We recommend you try Tides of Annihilation the moment it comes out for current-gen consoles and PC.