The Tomorrow Children is one of the more unique games I’ve played in a long time. On the surface, the soon to be free-to-play game crosses several genres, making it difficult to explain what the game is exactly.
Taking elements from Minecraft, LittleBigPlanet and SimCity, The Tomorrow Children wraps it all up in a nice post-apocalyptic Soviet Union theme.
You are tasked with rebuilding towns after a Soviet Union experiment in the ’60s went terribly wrong, having turned the world into a desolate landscape now called “the void.” To build towns, you need to collect resources, build homes and restore humanity by collecting Matryoshka dolls, which contain human souls.
The game tries to separate itself in its theme and multiplayer aspects.
Deeply rooted in the gameplay, the theme of a Soviet Union dystopia goes beyond a surface level makeup. Every action you do generates points, which can be exchanged for ration coupons, allowing you to buy better tools, weapons and outfits.
There is a bourgeois and proletarian class system wherein only those who have worked long enough are allowed to be in the bourgeois class. This gives the members access to better tools and weapons and allows them to vote in mayoral elections. You will also need to purchase licenses, earning the right to use weapons or vehicles. While all of this is just standard free-to-play mechanics, it still fits nicely with the theme.
There is also a lot of waiting — you must wait in line to receive your ration coupons, buy supplies at stores or wait for the bus to come to transport you to new islands. While this sounds counterintuitive for a video game, it strengthens the Communist theme and drives home the multiplayer aspect, since you will have to queue up with other players.
The mining mechanics are similar to Minecraft. Once you arrive at an island, you and your comrades have to search out minerals, such as metal and crystals, cut down trees, harvest fruit for food and transport all the newly mined materials back to a loading station.
Simply moving materials from one place to another proves an important game mechanic. The communist machine cannot turn without the dirty and dull work, which in itself can be entertaining and tranquil.
While the town takes shape, a giant Godzilla-like monster attacks and tries to destroy you. This requires the townspeople to hop on a turret to take down the beasts.
If your mission is successful, you can mine the corpse of the monsters for materials. If you fail, the town is destroyed.
Even when you are offline, your town continues to grow. As the town grows and more monuments are built, eventually the rebuilding process is completed, making it time to move on to the next town. This cycle furthers the repetitive nature of the game.
At the end of the day that’s what this game is: repetitive. However, after about six hours, I find myself still enjoying this game.
The Tomorrow Children won’t be for everyone though. It’s for the niche audience who enjoy completing simple tasks and building something with other people.
The success of a game like this depends entirely upon the community that develops around it. If there is a large enough player base to constantly have work to do, then this game will make it into my rotation of games to play while relaxing and listening to podcasts or music.

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Courtesy of Sony Interactive Entertainment

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