Tides of Annihilation at gamescom 2026: China’s Eclipse Glow shows Anubis boss demo

The demo begins in a museum-like environment labeled as an Egypt gallery, complete with Rosetta Stone displays and a Ramses II bust that morphs into a giant statue tied to the first puzzle. Puzzle design is straightforward: carry specified parts to set locations, rotate pieces, and align symbols that are all tied to Egyptian mythology. While exploring you can find treasure chests containing new armor and weapons; Gwenoldin can use knight summons to move objects, perform a double-jump, and manipulate the environment, so the adventure sections lean on light platforming and item-based problem solving in addition to set-piece puzzles.

After solving the gallery’s puzzles you encounter the Book of the Lion and are pulled into its interior, which immediately launches the Anubis boss fight. Combat favors fast, stamina-free action rather than classic soulslike pacing: Gwenoldin can chain attacks and dodges continuously, and parries exist as a timing mechanic rather than part of a stamina-block system. Knights operate as a built-in companion mechanic — landing normal attack combos can automatically summon a knight to assist, and the summoned knight’s identity alters combo effects and patterns. There’s also a charged ‘Burst’ move that fills from attacking enemies, producing a cinematic leap and sword plunge attack; Anubis’s teleportation patterns can sometimes evade that sequence, so Burst is flashy but not guaranteed to land every time.

Anubis himself cycles through a range of clear, telegraphed patterns: ground-pound shockwaves, strange hooked swings from behind, summons of translucent allies, and phases where he slams giant obelisks to create shockwaves and then drops his weapon from above. The boss signals most attacks in advance and opens explicit windows for heavy damage after a successful parry or evade, so high-reward timings show up often during the encounter. Damage output felt moderate in the demo, and the battlefield sometimes dropped small restorative items you can pick up, which let players recover without returning to a separate menu.

That satisfying parry-to-finisher rhythm is one of the session’s highlights — landing four consecutive parries into a powerful follow-up produced a tactile hit and a strong rush of feedback. Still, the demo left some rough edges: Gwenoldin’s movement chaining (jump into dash into double-jump) didn’t always feel seamless, and occasional input or animation delays made otherwise avoidable hits land. These hiccups showed up in both traversal and combat, producing a slightly stuttering sensation in a game that otherwise pushes for fluid, continuous action. There’s no release date announced yet, and the build at gamescom ran inside NVIDIA’s booth setup rather than as a public demo.

Eclipse Glow’s use of Arthurian motifs — summoning knights as archetypal companions — layered over an Egypt-themed museum set gave the demo distinct visual and gameplay beats, and the gamescom booth crowd suggested broad on-site interest. The playable segment balanced museum exploration, item finds, and a single, multi-patterned boss encounter that emphasized timing, parry windows, and quick reflexes over stamina management.