I Played Tides of Annihilation: Thankfully, This Is Not a Soulslike

Home › News › RPGs › I Played Tides of Annihilation: Thankfully, This Is Not a Soulslike We played Tides of Annihilation for 45 minutes at Gamescom. Here is why its accessible combat system surprised us the most. German English Tides of Annihilation was already one of the upcoming action games I was most interested in before Gamescom 2026. The trailers looked spectacular, but I still had one concern: Would this end up being another game heavily inspired by Dark Souls and Elden Ring, where you first have to invest hours just to get comfortable with the combat system? After spending 45 minutes with the Gamescom demo, I can at least put that concern aside for now. Tides of Annihilation borrows a few ideas you may recognize from Soulslikes, but its combat feels much closer to a traditional character action game. I did not have to die ten times to the same boss before things started clicking. Instead, I could immediately summon knights, experiment with combos, and start tearing through monsters. And honestly, I had a lot more fun with it than I expected. The Gamescom demo for Tides of Annihilation consisted of a tutorial and three additional playable sections. Unfortunately, there was no opportunity to speak with the developers or ask questions afterward, so my appointment was purely about getting 45 minutes of hands-on time with the game. Alongside the tutorial, I was able to fully complete a section called 'Museum Tour 2.' There was not much of a relaxing museum tour involved, though, because the main attraction was a boss fight against Mordred. What stood out most was the structure of the encounter. Mordred has multiple health bars and appears to transition through several phases, which could already give us an idea of how larger boss fights will work in the full game. Defensively, I could block certain attacks, but many of Mordred's moves were much more about timing your dodges correctly. At the same time, the game did not feel as though every small mistake was immediately punished with death. At least in this demo, the difficulty felt surprisingly manageable. What makes that especially interesting is that the Mordred fight was one of the first things I played. My character already had several abilities and unlocked knights available, and at that point I barely understood how all of those systems worked together. Even so, I got into the combat fairly quickly and managed to defeat Mordred on my first attempt. Of course, it is entirely possible that the Gamescom demo had its difficulty toned down. I would not use 45 minutes at a trade show to make any definitive claims about how challenging the final game will be. My first impression, however, is very clear: Tides of Annihilation does not feel like a Soulslike. YouTube Show a video from YouTube. Loading establishes a connection to YouTube. Personal data may be transferred. Alongside Gwendolyn herself, the knights she can summon are the most important part of the combat system. The game distinguishes between a main knight and a secondary knight. Once you have unlocked them, you can mix and match different knights, and I was able to bring two pairs into battle. Each knight has different abilities that are probably best compared to additional spells. During combat, I could weave their attacks into my own combos and expand Gwendolyn's normal moveset with their abilities. Because of that, the combat reminded me far more of games such as Devil May Cry or NieR: Automata than Dark Souls. It is all about fast movement, dodging, chaining attacks together, and using the right knight abilities at the right moment. Naturally, I could not fully judge how deep this system becomes after such a short session. The demo already made it clear, however, that your choice of knights is meant to be more than a visual gimmick. Different combinations could allow for very different playstyles, especially once you unlock more knights and abilities later in the game. Tides of Annihilation is not just a sequence of boss fights either. In another section from the main story, I was able to explore part of the world, fight smaller groups of enemies, and solve environmental puzzles. You can also find new gear while exploring and further improve your character. Weapons can be upgraded or modified with runes, for example, and those runes can provide set bonuses. Regular pieces of equipment also come with additional effects. One of the bonuses I used provided life steal, allowing me to restore health while fighting. That suggests you will eventually be able to tailor your equipment quite heavily around the way you want to play. I particularly like how that fits together with the knight system. If your choice of knights, weapons, runes, and equipment all influence your combat style, there could be significantly more build experimentation here than the spectacular trailers might initially suggest. Tides of Annihilation is not completely free of Soulslike influences, however. While exploring, I came across rest points that immediately reminded me of the bonfires from Dark Souls. At these points, I could recover, replenish certain resources or durability-related elements, and change my current knight setup. They therefore seem to act both as recovery points and as places where you can adjust your loadout. The broader structure of exploration, groups of enemies, rest points, and larger boss encounters may also feel familiar if you have played Soulslikes before. The key difference for me is that the actual combat does not feel like one. Tides of Annihilation seems to borrow a few useful structural ideas from the genre without making punishing difficulty the centerpiece of the entire experience. Technically, the demo was also extremely impressive. Tides of Annihilation simply looks gorgeous. The environments are packed with detail, the character models look great, and the game certainly does not hold back when it comes to visual effects during combat. The animations are equally impressive, and the cutscenes are presented with plenty of cinematic flair. If you enjoy games partly because you want to see what your PC or console can do when it is fed some serious eye candy, Tides of Annihilation is absolutely worth keeping on your radar. What impressed me even more, however, was the sound design. Attacks have real weight behind them, and larger hits sound suitably brutal. Combined with the animations, that gives successful attacks a very satisfying impact. I also liked what little I saw of the story presentation. Forty-five minutes obviously is not enough to judge an entire narrative, but the combination of a devastated London, Arthurian mythology, Gwendolyn, and the various knights already has me curious to see where the story goes. My time with Tides of Annihilation was over much faster than I would have liked. For a Gamescom demo, that is usually a very good sign. More than anything, I am glad the game has not simply turned into yet another Soulslike. I enjoy action games, but I neither have the time nor the desire to spend hours repeatedly throwing myself at the same boss. Tides of Annihilation essentially dropped me straight into the deep end with an already equipped character, yet I was still able to understand the basics of the combat within just a few minutes. Add to that the interesting knight system, several ways to customize your equipment, spectacular presentation, and a combat system that already feels fun after a very short learning period, and the result is extremely promising. Whether the final game can maintain that quality over dozens of hours and how challenging the combat will actually be outside of a potentially easier trade show demo remains to be seen. After my 45 minutes at Gamescom, however, one thing is clear: If you enjoy Devil May Cry, NieR: Automata, and other fast-paced action games, you should definitely keep Tides of Annihilation on your radar. After this demo, I certainly want to play a lot more of it. Tides of Annihilation is coming to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. There is currently no confirmed release date. I'm the co-founder of Guided.news, and I have been running online magazines in the gaming sector since 2013. Starting with a strong focus on survival games, I now deal a lot with role-playing games, and I'm an expert on survival and RPG titles like Conan Exiles, Baldurs Gate 3 & Cyberpunk 2077. 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