One of the cardinal features of the Dark Souls games is the ability of players to leave messages for those who come after them.

These notes can offer warnings, provide directions or deliberately mislead.

In Death Stranding, players can leave items in storage for others to find and create buildings and roads that are shared with unseen players.

The new eco-adventure Tides of Tomorrow adds to the possibilities of asynchronous gameplay by inviting you to explore a world shaped by the actions of previous players.

After I was fished out of the water and heaved onto a boat, I declined a character’s final dose of medication so the next person could use it – just as the person I was following had left it for me.

I wagered that if they could live dangerously with a depleted health bar, why not I? This game, an admirably finite communal project, is set more than two centuries after a great flood reduced the world’s landmass to a clutch of small islands and eradicated almost all wildlife.

What little remains of the human population must contend with an environment ravaged by carcinogenic plastics.

A chronic disease known as Plastemia, the result of plastic contamination in the body, is slowly killing off all but the lucky few who can get their hands on Ozen, a short-lasting medication that slows the condition.

Two factions control the supply of Ozen: the Mystics, a religious cult that believes that the toxic state of the environment is evidence of mankind’s sin, and the Marauders, an organisation that uses violence and intimidation to maintain its status.

Caught in between are the Reclaimers, who eke out a living as they wait to die.

Standing apart from these three groups, with the ability to help or hinder each of them, are emissaries from the antediluvian world known as Tidewalkers.

It’s into their suits that players are zipped up and given the chance to cleanse the world.

The beginning of the game effectively hints at the story arc to come, which revels in a bit of classic French anticlericalism.

(The Mystics take the worship of tech to....