The Tomorrow Children
By Chad Sapieha,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Community crafting game has bloodless violence, boring play.
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The Tomorrow Children
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What’s It About?
THE TOMORROW CHILDREN puts players in the shoes of a "projection clone" who inhabits a featureless plane called the Void. The Void was created in an alternate history in which the USSR conducted an experiment that destroyed the world, ruining the surface but merging the minds of all mankind. Projection clones now toil under a communist manifesto for the good of the community, mining virtual materials to craft virtual towns within a virtual domain. Several clones -- each controlled by a different player -- exist within the same town, working together to defend it from roaming monsters as well as construct buildings, monuments, and other objects necessary to complete the settlement. They'll also find Russian nesting dolls which, if brought back to a machine in town, can be transformed into AI citizens who will help look after the village. There's no final objective or means by which to win or beat this game. Players are instead encouraged to move from town to town and contribute to the construction and development of each.
Is It Any Good?
This game is fascinating and not much fun at the same time. The Tomorrow Children subtly examines Leninist ideals that see the community placed before the individual, and it does so in a bizarre world filled with semi-authentic-looking Soviet videos and propaganda posters. That it takes place in a strange kind of featureless virtual reality populated with doll-like clones and Godzilla-ish monsters only adds to its captivating mystery.
But once you move beyond this eye-catching veneer, there's just not much interesting to get up to. You'll start most sessions by taking a bus out to a dig site where you'll mine a little, and then head back to town to build whatever your town needs, perhaps stopping briefly at a treadmill to run and generate some power for the village or occupy a cannon turret to take pot shots at any monsters lurking nearby. You might get a thumbs up or down from one of your fellow villagers, or you may need to stand behind her in line to use the crafting station. None of this is particularly satisfying or compelling. And without much in the way of identifiable long-term goals -- or the ability to craft anything more than the limited set of objects the game provides -- there's just not much reason to keep playing. For better or worse, The Tomorrow Children is a lot like a real communist regime: Better in theory than in reality.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about online safety. What would you do if a stranger approached you within a game and began asking questions about who or where you are? What would you do if they began insulting you or other players?
Discuss the differences between crafting and creation in games and in the real world. What sorts of steps do games typically include and leave out when they offer players a chance to build or create things? Are these omitted steps fun or satisfying when you're building things in the real world?
Game Details
- Platform: PlayStation 4
- Pricing structure: Paid (This is a free-to-play game with in-game transactions. But for the first few weeks after launch players will only be able to play by purchasing the Founders Edition for $20, which comes with a couple thousand Freeman Dollars -- an in-game currency that players must buy with real money.)
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Release date: September 6, 2016
- Genre: Action/Adventure
- ESRB rating: T for Use of Alcohol, Violence
- Last updated: November 24, 2019
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