If you read a pitch about a game blending the Arthurian legend with a London-and-another-world setting, you would naturally picture an action title from a Western studio. Surprisingly, however, Tides of Annihilation is an action game currently being developed by the Chinese studio Eclipse Glow Games, featuring Gwendolyn, a survivor in a London left in ruins by an otherworldly invasion.

In particular, the title leans heavily into its eclectic charms, incorporating various mythologies, letting the protagonist Gwendolyn summon the Knights of the Round Table for assistance, and offering soulslike combat. Perhaps because of this heady mix, the Tides of Annihilation booth at Gamescom 2026 was packed with crowds eager to try it out. I managed to go hands-on with the Anubis boss fight at the Nvidia booth.

The experience kicks off in what looks like a sprawling museum. Climb a ladder, approach the nearest sign, and you will learn that this is the Egyptian gallery, boasting exhibits like the Rosetta Stone and a bust of Ramses II. Shortly after, a towering statue of Ramses II makes an entrance, prompting you to solve the game's very first puzzle.

The puzzle is remarkably straightforward: head to a designated spot, pick up a puzzle piece, and rotate it to match the correct target. The symbols carved onto these puzzles tie straight into Egyptian mythology, keeping the aesthetic of the backgrounds and props nicely unified. Beyond that, exploring rewards you with new armor and weapons tucked away in various treasure chests. Adventure elements are also front and center, allowing you to move objects using the knights' strength and pull off double jumps.

After wandering through the small museum and finishing up all the puzzles, the Book of the Dead appears. Place a hand on it, and Gwendolyn gets abruptly sucked inside, triggering the boss battle against Anubis. Since there were no real combat encounters prior to this, rehearsal turns straight into the live show.

Diving into the initial skirmish, the overall combat felt less like a soulslike and gave off a strong aroma of action games like Stellar Blade. The character lacks a stamina meter, meaning you can chain attacks or evasions back-to-back. Parrying is available, but it is less about holding a defensive line and more about precision timing, making it safer to deploy only against clear-cut patterns.

Then there is the signature mechanic unique to Tides of Annihilation: the knights. As you string together basic attack combos, a knight automatically materializes to strike alongside Gwendolyn before vanishing, with the specific summoned knight altering the properties and patterns of your standard strikes. That said, amidst the visual overload of a boss fight, these summoned companions were easy to miss.

You can also unleash a burst—essentially an ultimate move charged up by wailing on enemies. This lets Gwendolyn leap into the air, plunge a spectral blade downward, and slice up opponents with flashy flair. It is not an absolute guaranteed hit, however, as Anubis possesses teleportation patterns that let the boss sidestep the burst entirely and scamper off elsewhere.

The much-anticipated Anubis boss fight delivered a solid level of satisfaction. While Anubis pressures the player with a diverse range of patterns, the boss is far from brutally difficult. Clear telegraphs precede incoming attacks, and successfully parrying or dodging heavy blows consistently rewards you with a generous window to dish out damage.

Anubis boasts quite the bag of tricks, from slamming the floor to send out shockwaves, to swinging strange hooks from behind, to summoning translucent allies. On the flip side, the offensive output is not overwhelmingly punishing, and occasionally beating up the enemy drops recovery items on the ground to top up your dwindling potions.

Design choices like this trick the player into feeling like a gaming god, which really helps with immersion. Nailing a parry on all four hits of Anubis' combo string followed by a crushing counterattack provides an incredible tactile payoff and a momentary rush of euphoria. Once the patterns escalate further, fittingly for a 'God', Anubis hurls a massive stele to generate shockwaves, and while your eyes are diverted, drops a weapon straight from the sky. The golden murals rendered during the sequence add an extra layer of divinity.

Of course, the current build is not entirely flawless. Gwendolyn's movement felt slightly stiff in places, with aerial dashes and double jumps failing to chain together smoothly. The action occasionally carried a fragmented, stuttering sensation, and there were moments where attacks that looked completely dodgeable still clipped Gwendolyn due to subtle animation recovery frames. Still, with no release date announced yet, there is plenty of time for things to be polished during development.