Demon Tides Review – Oceans of Fun

Demon Tides Review

3D platformer games live and die by their move sets. Everything else is pure window dressing. If you can’t leap, glide, and spin your way throughout the whole map with reckless abandon, then what are we even doing here? Thankfully, Demon Tides is entirely about those moves. The story is okay, the dialogue gets pretty corny, but the moves you make are exquisite. I knew this game was something special mere moments after firing it up. Beebz is a straight-up firecracker right from the jump.

Demon Tides is the third game in the series, but you can pretty easily jump in here. You play as Beebz, a young demon waylaid on her way to meet her father in a strange land. It’s all oceans and tiny islands, each one set up with a new platforming challenge. The story is a hardened shell surrounding the soft white meat of platforming. I cracked it open and cast it aside with barely a second thought. Which is totally fine! We’re absolutely here for the action. Everything else is a very distant second in terms of priorities.

Show Me Your Moves

It’s no exaggeration to say this whole game pivots around movement. Demon Tides has a host of different ways to traverse the world. You’ve got jumps, spins, dashes, flips, and grinds. New mods to existing moves are everywhere. Plus, you can combine all these moves in a bunch of cool ways. A jump/spin/jump/dash gets you tons of distance, whereas a wallride/jump/jump/spin can conquer heights. Better still, the checkpoint system means you’re free to experiment and fail as much as you need.

There’s only one checkpoint, but it’s mobile, and you can place it wherever you want. It took me a while to get used to this idea, but once I finally did? Revolutionary stuff. You’re forced to pay extra attention to the individual slices of your run, since it’s easy to miss a potential checkpoint spot. Alternatively, you can ignore the system altogether and try the entire challenge in one go. There are even leaderboards where you can measure your fastest times against the rest of the playerbase.

Excellent Checkpoint System

Since Demon Tides is open world, you can always take a break from a particularly tough stage. It’s dead easy to just swim off and find another level, and the map shows you all the collectible totals. That way, you can do any backtracking required without too much struggle. And yet, even with this convenient system in place, I still found myself lost from time to time. It’s easy to waste a ton of time in the larger stages looking for that last gear, treasure chest, or coin. It’s hard to balance a larger world with satisfactory pacing, it turns out.

It’s not a dealbreaker by any means. But I did find myself wandering the world map, looking for new challenges. We’re not talking about a tremendous amount of downtime. But when the action is so upbeat, crunchy, and engaging, any slack in the line feels extra noticeable. Any time spent searching for collectibles, stages, or coins is naturally gonna drag when compared to the real meat of this game. This just highlights how excellent the core gameplay loop really is.

Sail By The Slow Bits

Said core loop is, in general, very well-crafted. While the controls are excellent, the stages themselves do a terrific job making proper use of your skills. Indeed, your talents will be tested at every turn. But thanks to that fantastic checkpoint system, you’re free to struggle and succeed to your heart’s content. The challenge progression is smooth as glass. Your abilities evolve and grow, bit by bit, until you’re chaining seven moves together hundreds of feet in the air. It’s honestly pretty impressive to behold.

There’s not a lot to unpack here. The story is pretty simple, the dialogue gets kind of corny, and the premise is equally stripped down. But this game shines so bright once you actually start playing. You’ve got a host of amazing moves to master. The controls are perfectly fluid and responsive. Plus, the level design is the perfect vessel for mastering said moves. Chaining together skills feels amazing, while traversing the world is speedy and satisfying. Demon Tides is a pure 3D platformer, with little in the way of fat or gristle. All that means is you’ve got nothing between you and all that unfiltered action. Better yet, there’s so much to experience once you start. If you’re looking for the next amazing 3D platformer, Demon Tides should be at the very top of your list.

***A Steam key was provided by the publisher***