I love good preachy games, and there are plenty of them out there. The most infamous of the bunch is the Fallout series, which shows how war created by simple-minded and power-hungry individuals can devastate a landscape. Huh. That sounds familiar. *looks at Russia intensely*
Anyway, developer Piccolo and publisher Private Division have thrown their magical warning of environmental damage from humans and the consequences of that damage into the ring with After Us. It’s an interesting and beautiful game that is part Journey and part Fallout, with a tinge of horror and suspense to create and drive home emotion.
While the thematic part of the game is thick with tales of woe and a reminder that we must take care of our planet to survive on it, the controls at times get in the way of the message and engagement. In a sense, this reminds me of David OReilly’s Everything which was more thought-provoking than it was a mechanically sound game. I enjoyed that as it was wild, mysterious, and whacky. And After Us is equally as enjoyable in the same vein.
On that note, let’s get right into After Us.
The story is the centerpiece
Sometimes you just know when a game is going to be story-centric while everything else takes a backseat. Like, the way-way-back. Sometimes that method of game design works in favor of the experience, such is the case with Journey, which had jumping/floating as its main mechanics, as well as calling out/collecting scarves. Journey’s wordless story led the rest of that game and was far more connective to the player because it was meant to be that way, where no mechanic competed against purpose.
With After Us, it lays the story on thick. You’re playing Gaia, who has been awakened to help repair Earth after the fall of man and bring back animals who have all but been pushed out. Gaia’s purpose is to rid the world of remaining evil, while also collecting and salvaging animal spirits to re-populate the earth, and to give them a haven. The story is simplistic in its construction, as you know the purpose of Gaia’s seeming plight to cleanse the world and repair it is a heavy burden, but a purposeful mission, nonetheless. From visuals to gameplay, this story leads the charge with the game’s design. I’m a huge fan of strong stories, so it’s a good thing that After Us went this route.
The only issue a story can run into is sometimes the gameplay design, especially the mechanics, falter and push back, causing a distraction to the gamer. If your main design is a story, then you don’t want to take gamers’ eyes away from it. And After Us hiccups occasionally in the mechanics department which threatens to break gamer concentration and attention from the game’s story.
Let’s talk about why this occurs.
The Why
The balance of story and gameplay design must be even for a game like this to work. Neither can compete or hinder the process or other, otherwise, it becomes a tough experience to enjoy. Maybe that was the driving point of the game, where the journey is difficult, and the story lets you know that Gaia has a tall task ahead of her. Whatever the case might be, as a game After Us has a stronger story with hindering mechanics that get in the way of the tale. But, unlike the earth that Gaia is trying to save, you can look past the difficult times with the mechanics and still get an almost balanced game.
Those Mechanics
The game has basic mechanics that fit in a gigantic world. Those mechanics are throwing out a light spec to defeat would-be enemies, jumping and double-jumping, riding some rails, climbing up walls, spiraling through the air once you jump, and growing grass/trees, if not only temporarily. These are the main mechanics in the game. Without any of these mechanics, the gamer cannot possibly survive the world that Piccolo has built. And the latter is the reason why the game has a tough time with mechanics because the impactful world that is built to support the story is sometimes pushing back on the mechanics. For example, there were many moments in the game where I had a tough time estimating my jumps to land in the right spot, as there is a vast amount of landscape to traverse sometimes, and the camera will automatically pull out to let you enjoy the world’s girth. By pulling the camera out, the game also unintentionally makes jumps more difficult, as getting the right angle is sometimes hard to line up. The game even knows this is going to be a challenge because it will cast a faint circle on the ground to show you where you’re landing. On one hand, bravo for them catching this, and kudos to them for knowing that they don’t want to compromise the world girth for the gameplay mechanics. It’s nice to be able to land a jump when you’re being forced to watch the giant world.
On the other hand, I died so many times from falling from great heights in the game because what I thought might be the right spot for a landing turned out to be the right spot for the falling. It was frustrating at times to try and make jumps, which took away from the journey. For example, there was a stage early on that had me trying to time jump on a moving wrecking ball high in the sky. I had to perfectly time that jump and stick the landing up top on the round, curved object. I must have died at least 10 times trying to hit the mark because there wasn’t a good margin for error. There were many times like this and for every failure there was a tiny bit of frustration building. At one point, I had to walk away from the game and air out the frustration before returning to it. I do understand that story and message were at the forefront of this experience, but dying multiple times took away from connecting with that story, and it all started with the mechanics.
The other issue that hurt the mechanics was the completely manual camera controls. There is no way this would have worked with automatic camera movement, so I get this was the only sensible way to go, but it still felt like a burden at times when having to be accurate with jumps or movements. The camera did help sometimes, but other times it had something in the way to time jumps or was janky in finding angles around objects. I’m grateful that the loading times after death are pretty quick, but that still didn’t take away from the sting of fighting with a camera and dying multiple times. I’m not sure what could have been a better method in the game’s design, as keeping the scale and scope required the player to be fully in control of the camera.
What I did like about the mechanics is how the releasing of spirits works. Occasionally, you will find angry spirits still trying to hang onto the past, while patrolling walking the landscape. When they notice you, they will come after you. The variety of spirits is impressive, and how they can be taken down is equally creative. You simply cast out a small ball of light, hit the spirit multiple times, and boom…they’re back to the spirit world. There are other times angry spirits require some strategy, such is the case early on with a spirit that has a television for a body (CRT). You must hit them from behind, which requires you to cast the ball of light out, angle the angry spirit perfectly, then recall the ball hitting them from behind. They’re boogers but set the tone for different types of enemies and how you can use your light weaponry to take them down. While the aiming can be janky at times, and you will certainly forget to turn and cast the light out when you’re running for your Gaia life, but it works. You can get the mechanic down well after a while, but the perfection of said mechanic just doesn’t seem possible given what else in the world(s) you must worry about during gameplay. I like this mechanic a lot. It’s creative, useful, and mostly manageable.
As critical as I might seem about the mechanics in After Us, they aren’t terrible by any means. They are difficult at times, and downright frustrating during others, as balancing out jumping/shooting with camera can be maddening, but they do their best to complement the story being told. I think they work more times than not.
The Worlds
The game is divided into spirit animals that represent different maps and environments. I started with the doggo spirit animal, which put me in a cityscape filled to the brim with lifeless technology, large broken buildings, towers, and still and eerily sad people who didn’t make it out. As you progress in the game, you get to go through many worlds that have sad and destructive themes attached to them. Some of these themes are straightforward and relatable, while others are nightmarish and unsettling. Regardless, there is a variety, and they create player motivation and agency.
The joy of these worlds is exploration, as Piccolo has made them huge. I mean huge-huge. There are a lot of landscapes to journey and the developer wants gamers to explore because they don’t give you visual direction on which way you should be going. That’s not to say there isn’t some push here and there with lights or with secondary characters or objects pointing in the direction you might want to go, but for the most part, you’re leading the way, and discovering your path. All of which will lead you to many different tiny pockets of interest that aren’t directly part of the purposeful journey. The devs want you to feel this world and the consequences that befell it.
In this department, I think Piccolo nailed the worlds and worked together with the story. If devastation, destruction, and aftermath were in the cards to create and support a dreary story of death and redemption, then welcome to After Us. It does this dance perfectly. The worlds are creative, engaging, and interesting. Excellent environments for this type of tale.
Overall, this is the main gist of the gameplay in After Us. You’re exploring, cleaning, and rebooting the world to save Earth. While the gameplay is clear in its intentions, it does stumble with mechanics but doesn’t completely fail in that category. The gameplay is mostly engaging, and the story-centric gameplay design is very much on track for most of the game. The variety of worlds, enemies, and the sheer haunting creativity of it all helps to keep the gameplay focused, as well as the gamer…mostly.
Visuals and Music
Visually, After Us is an absolute masterpiece. Its haunting imagery mixed with its graphic details makes for a visually memorable journey. There is a heavy amount of ray tracing while balancing out gorgeous detail and frame rate performance. While there are repeating visuals and obvious copy/paste of environments, the girth of the worlds you explore makes for an awe-inspiring graphical buffet of impressiveness. In short, it’s a gorgeous game. It helps sell the story.
On the music side, someone must have been a huge fan of Vangelis. Led by synths and a love for the first Blade Runner, the music is simple as it is euphorically melancholy. It certainly sets the tone for the game and pushes the bleakness of Gaia’s plight through devastation and destruction. It’s a great compliment to the visuals and does support the story’s tone.
On that note, let’s wrap this up.
Conclusion
After Us from developer Piccolo is an interesting title. It tries to create a Journey-like inspiring adventure through gigantic worlds and simplistic controls. Most of what it does works well, especially with its narrative, though the mechanics from its gameplay design sometimes fight against story progression and player engagement. The game can create some frustration with the camera and controls but wins more than it loses.
