Parents' Guide to Eldrum: Red Tide

Back in the earliest days of computer gaming, text-based adventures were all the rage, as players chose their paths, read their story as it unfolded, and let their imaginations fill in the rest. Eldrum: Red Tide revisits this old school formula, dropping players in a branching story along a set, but winding, path. The game does toss in a few extra layers, borrowing elements from pen and paper style role-playing games, such as some turn-based combat encounters, as well as light inventory and character management. For the most part, it's less "game" and more "interactive novel". That's not necessarily a bad thing, if the story is engaging enough to stoke the players' imaginations.

Unfortunately, this is where the Eldrum: Red Tide starts to stumble. Like many of these styles of story, choices you make early on can have major consequences later down the road. But many times, you've got no clue how important some action might be. Even when you do get a hint of it, this is generally after the fact with some throwaway line akin to "I'll remember this later," or "You'll owe me." Sometimes, these choices may never even come into play, leaving you scratching your head and wondering what the point was. Even more frustrating, though, is the length of the game. The initial download only includes the first act of the story, which can be wrapped up in less than a couple of hours. You'll need to buy the "full" version of the game to unlock the other acts and complete the story. But even then, the additional acts play short as well. While there's some incentive to replay the game to check out which other plot directions exist and where they might lead, the thing is, the mundane plot doesn't do much to actually convince players there's any reason to reinvest the time to do so.