Before starting this review I want to warn that this will contain some minor spoilers. This is a point and click adventure game, as such story and puzzle solving is the main focus of the game, talking about the game without spoiling at least some of that is impossible. If you are fine with that, continue reading.
Perfect Tides is a game about Mara Whitefish who lives on a small island called "Paradise Tides". That island is a popular vacation spot during summer but mostly uninteresting for the reminder of the year. Mara has to go to school and shop on the mainland which is also her only real way to socialize with others. On the island she has only two friends, Lily, a girl who also lives on the island and goes to school with her, and Simon, a young man who owns a large mansion on the island but usually lazes around.
Mara has trouble with socializing with other people, mainly because of her isolation on the island. This led to her developing an inferiority complex and thinks she isn't popular with others simply because she is ugly and uncool. We learn that this isn't true as the game goes on and there are multiple people actually interested in Mara.
The game is set over an entire year with each season being framed as their own section of Maras life. Each season has you see the world through Maras eyes, her daily struggle with her family, her school and her attempts to get to know people and become popular. These are the typical struggles of a teenager and anyone can associate with it. Mara also likes to hang out on the internet where she is fond of a writing forum in which she has some personal contacts.
You will have to do some basic tasks, go to school, talk to people, do some house chores. It isn't always clear what the game wants from you, so you have to talk to everyone and click on anything to get further.
Now, my problem with the game isn't that it's bad, my problem is that it's boring. This is often worse because a bad game can be made fun of and you at least have something to talk about. A boring game on the other hand does not even have that.
Why is the game boring? Because the story doesn't go anywhere. The overarching story is, like mentioned above, Maras struggle to socialize but nothing ever comes of that, in fact it even gets worse as the story goes on and she risks losing the few friends she has.
And this is my biggest issue with the game, the protagonist. She is incredibly insufferable. Mara likes to paint herself as a victim whenever she can. Her own inferiority complex makes her think she is unlovable and whenver something bad happens to her, no matter how little, she sees that as proof. It is clear she has mental issues and normally that does make an interesting character but in this case it's really badly designed. Mara constantly lashes out at others, especially her family. She burns every bridge she has just so she does not have to face the fact she is responsible for her own problems.
Other characters in the game try really hard to reach out to her but Mara does not have it, everything looks to her like a plot to sabotage her. If the goal was to make an absolutely unlikeable character than the dev was succesful.
Because the game is just us following a year in Maras footsteps, there is also never any goal or anything which you expect in an adventure game. There are several subplots you can follow but most of those are optional, worse, the game does not even make it appear like you are following a narrative. For example, early on you are given some peas in the game and the player has the chance to plant different vegetables throughout the year and even take part in a harvest contest. But besides some comment in the beginning it isn't entirely clear to you that you can do that or how to do that. You have to find some soil (good luck on an island fuill of sand), a book that describes how to plant seeds and then find various seeds through the game.
There are multiple such side quests you can follow but some are so obscure that you will only find them by checking a walkthrough or by clicking every pixel. There is one example that's really bad where you can find a disk in the sand and the only clue you get is a tiny line of red pixels.
I find some of the side characters have much more interesting stories to tell than Mara and I would have rather played a game about them. For example Simon, Maras other friend on the island. He is depressed because his boyfriend Mitch lives on the mainland, rarely visits and is a much more succesful writer than he himself is. This leads to a big fight between the two and them breaking up towards the end. You only see pieces of this when Mara intrudes on his home which she frequently does (if the player allows so).
But there are some good aspects about the game. Mainly the graphics. The game uses a pixelated cartoon style and characters outside of cutscenes have this chibified artstyle with short body proportians and eyes that are far too large for their tiny heads. It is somewhat endearing.
I also liked the classic gameplqay design of a point and click adventure with multiple actions like "look", "use" and "walk". But this game also shows why this style of adventure games is a dying breed, it's frustrating to cycle through your actions to chek for every interaction and find out if something works, the different interaction symbols all have different sizes and shapes, good luck to find the tiny pixel of your interaction icon that interacts with the tiny pixel of the object you want to click on. I had numerous moment in the game when I tried to click on something and Mara would just say "no" because I didn't click at the exact point I needed to click.
Overall the game is pretty average and boring to play through. If you look for a classic adventure game, maybe look for something else. Or wait for a sale if you are really desperate. But hey, maybe you like th egame more than I did.
