Author: Darlinganddeath
Date: 05-23-2023
We have to start this article by giving a massive amount of thanks to Piccolo Studios and their Publishers, Private Division, for allowing us not only a review copy but exclusive access to play After Us early. It’s for that reason that we’re able to put out this review the day of release and we can’t even begin to describe how deep of an honor it’s been for our humble little Pillow Fort to receive an opportunity like this. We’ve been under a review Embargo for a few weeks now and our lips are bleeding from how hard we’ve been biting them trying to keep our mouths shut, so we’re so relieved that the day has come and we can finally share this with all of you.
It’s been no secret that I’d been utterly dying to hop into the world of After Us the moment I saw it. I was raised under the beliefs of Mother Gaia and to respect all life, no matter the size, shape, color, or species. We all deserve a chance to survive and thrive on this planet and any act that prevents another life from doing just that is one that goes against Mother herself. Now, we aren’t here to talk about my beliefs or anyone else’s, but considering you get to play as child Gaia in After Us, you can probably better understand why I was so interested in the title from the start.
Despite my excitement to play After Us… I was sorely unprepared for what it did to my heart, mind, and honestly, my very soul. It tears into you in ways I’ve never experienced and made me question every single action in my daily life to a depth it’s going to be hard to explain in a written article, but I’ll do my best. While this article and its structure will be similar to our other reviews and will absolutely highlight things like gameplay, audio, and visuals, there’s infinitely more to After Us than can be broken down into simple categories so bear with me as we get through this incredible title.
I need to make this statement prior to getting further in as I can’t wait until the end to say it, but… After Us is singlehandedly the most beautiful and profound game I’ve ever played. I strongly believe every adult on this planet should play this game at least once in their life if possible. Perhaps if they did, our planet might start to recover from the plague that we as humans have spread upon it and we could all start the process of helping it heal. Maybe that’s wishful thinking, but I’ll keep the hope alive in our heart.
With that out of the way… let’s get started.
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It’s not just a Story… it’s an experience…
In previous articles, I’ve had Story as a big bold section that we spend a few paragraphs talking about, but in After Us, the story is the entire experience of the game, so having one word above this text does not do it justice.
After Us is, as I stated above, an experience. One that everyone should have to experience in their adult life at least once. Why? Well, we as people like to forget that our actions have consequences and this game throws those consequences like daggers into your heart.
Your entire goal throughout the game is to go to different parts of the world and save animal vessels to restore the sacred heart of Gaia. Once we’ve done so, life on the planet can be restored to its former beauty and glory. I, as always, will not give away any spoilers as I have achieved 100% in this game, but I can and will say that the way you experience the story of this game is incredible and unlike any game, I’ve ever played.
Sometimes, developers deliver the story through creative imagery, voice lines that inspire deep thoughts, cutscenes that leave you intrigued or curious, or game mechanics that force you to think outside the box. After Us though… forced thoughts into my mind that are impossible to ignore. Let me try to explain why because I feel like I’m faced with the impossible task of attempting to and I’m just hoping I’ll be able to do this game justice.
Right as you’re starting the first level of After Us, you realize that you’re in a post-apocalyptic world. This is life after humans to its truest extent. The world's a graveyard for everything and anything that used to exist. Nothing but trash, ruins, and pain remains on the surface of the planet, and boy is it heartbreaking. You always hear people talk about what happens after humans and this one nails it on the head. The sense of dread and isolation you feel when navigating the world is eerie at the best of times, and terrifying at the worst. Nothing, though, compares to the pure fear, pain, and misery I experienced when you’re just about to find one of the main animal vessels (there are 8 in total).
I can happily say that navigating the levels prior to that final part is fun, and you feel a sense of accomplishment finding the little spirits scattered throughout them. When you find each one it restores that spirit to the world around you and gives you a sense of joy when seeing the little animals filling up the world once more. To top it off, you can pet them, and it’s an interaction I’m immensely glad for. It restored a bit of hope in my heart and I often found myself greeting a few of them before entering the final stage of each level.
I needed to add that fluff because each final stage of the level tore into me in a way that scarred me and has me quite literally considering becoming a vegetarian. Yeah, you’re going to ask why, or maybe write the comment off with the thought of, “Yeah but you’re an animal lover anyways so, of course you have empathy for them”, yes, but let me also state that my entire life I’ve boasted about my resolve in being a carnivore. I love meat despite my love for animals, and have always felt confident in my ability to stomach death, both in animal, and human form. It’s a resolve I still maintain. I’ve lived on a Native American reservation for a portion of my life and two of my sons are half Native. It’s through those teachings and studies that I’ve always been the type to appreciate and thank the lives that are given to nourish mine but I’m going to say that After Us has shaken my resolve to its very core.
The experience you go through right before reaching a vessel is a gruesome one and I know why this game has itself marked for an older audience. I’ll use one and only one level as an example and it’s not the worse one, I promise you that much. Leading up to the Stag spirit, you experience a forest biome littered with traps, ropes, and spotlights. When you first start the level it seems easy enough to navigate and avoid most of what is scattered around. Something I quickly realized is that you’ll need to avoid the lights for fear of taking a bullet to the face and having to restart, but even that seemed doable. By the end though? You feel the incredibly real fear of what a Deer experiences when running through a forest to escape a hunter. A forest that… is supposed to be its lush and beautiful home. A safe one that provides shelter from predators with its shrubbery and thick trees, but one that humans have learned how to use against it by installing bright lights to confuse you, traps for your feet to fall into, ropes that will hang you up and leave you to die. Even if you do escape all of that, you’re left with nothing but the sounds of gunfire coming from, what feels like, every direction. I was nearly in tears by the time I got to the end of the level because I allowed my heart to tap into what the animals might feel and by Mother Gaia herself we should be ashamed as a species for doing this to animals. The Native Americans used bows and arrows and stalked their prey the way a wolf would. They hunted together and took down only the weak, injured, or old. But… what we do in the name of hunting the “Prized Buck”... it’s disgusting. I feel an insurmountable amount of shame for my own habits, but also for humanities as a whole. We need to do better and be better, and this game will make you see and experience that in a way I didn’t think possible for a game to achieve.
The story also creatively shows you why simple habits are bad. You’ll collect “memories” along the way that show innocent things such as a girl receiving a stone slab in the mail and creating something cool with it… all the while you’re in the game maneuvering through the quarry and releasing the souls of the humans who gave their lives to the very rocks we use for something as simple as a school project. This is what I mean when I say it has you question even your daily habits. The ones that are wasteful and unnecessary. You know… how you bought your 10th notebook this year because you enjoy journaling? Yet, didn’t even consider the fact that an entire forest was destroyed for the passive pastimes that we justify in the name of rest and relaxation. Ones we right off and never even think about… yes… After Us will throw them in your face and have you realizing that those habits need to change in ways that are helpful towards our environment, not harmful.
I know what most people are going to say and do too… oh… just another environment lover going off on a tangent again. It’s not like you’re killing the rainforests with your habits… right? Loves… nearly every human on this earth thinks how you do and its why it’s dying. Sure. We can keep ignoring the exceptionally real truths of the world and watch “After Us” come to light in our real world, or… you can start taking responsibility for your daily waste and harmful actions and do something about it. I’m well aware that 99% of people won’t, even if they play this game, and that’s okay… but even if a few change their ways then the planet will be a better place for it and hopefully you’ll all get to enjoy your creature comforts a few years longer.
It doesn’t matter what Spirit Vessel you’re seeking out, each one will cut into you in a new way, so be prepared for some hard-to-stomach life lessons that you absolutely need to experience to appreciate our lives and this planet. Please. Just go play this game. It’ll hurt, but you’ll be a better person for it.
The last thing about the story that I feel is exceptionally important to mention is that the human's aren’t just the big bad guys. Through the lines that get dropped during cutscenes and your personal experiences with the morbidly grotesque husks of humans in the levels, you come to learn that our mission isn’t to outcast the humans and treat them as undeserving of this world, but rather, the opposite. Again, I don’t want to spoil too much, you need to go experience it for yourself, but After Us is not a game aimed at painting humans to be the big, bad, uglies that don’t care if the world gets destroyed. We deserve to be saved just as the animals do, so thank you to the development team for delivering this part of the story in the creative way that you did, it’s beautiful even if horrendously dark on the surface. It gives you a sense of hope for humanity, one that says, “We’re not lost, just going down the wrong path, but we can fix it together”.
The Gameplay in all its glory…
So, with all the hard-to-write stuff out of the way, I want to talk about what is incredibly fun about this game and what does a fantastic job of keeping you interested and absorbed into it, and that’s the gameplay.
This game is what I describe as a “Hardcore Parkour” game, and I hope that springs a giggle, but it’s definitely the most accurate statement. It has you sprinting and long jumping between platforms, scaling up massive walls, precision jumping to high places, skating like a Disney princess across power lines, and swimming through the depths of the ocean. It’s incredibly fun and honestly, what got me through the hardest emotional parts of the game. I have to say the Developers are mad genius’ because every level is so incredibly diverse and different that you don’t get bored of all the Parkour either. From leaping off of spirit trees in the forest level, to timing your swimming sprints to avoid underwater fans in the ocean one, to the city where you’re scaling giant buildings, it’s just genuine good fun. I do need to note that this game only supports controllers and there are no keyboard and mouse functionality at all. I’m going to be the keyboard and mouse brat that tells you, you would not want to play this game on a keyboard. I broke out my controller and I suck with that piece of technology because I was raised on keyboard and mouse, but I had no real trouble getting through this game. Sure, some parts took me a few tries, but the game is generous and auto-saves quite often so you’re not going to be massively set back if you do end up falling to your death as I did more often than I’ll admit. One quick tip, because it's bound to happen to more than just me, but if you’re ever on a level and not sure where to go, look at the walls. I found myself looking around at a location a few times with great confusion on where to go, only to realize after a few minutes that there was an exceptionally obvious wall to run up right in front of me. It made me laugh with frustration at my lack of attention, but alas, I’m hoping that tip will spare you the few minutes I lost.
Let’s talk about the “combat” in this game, because there is combat, however, it’s not in a true combat style. Your job is to cleanse the human husks that come chasing you down and they’re terrifying, believe me. However, I found it no trouble at all to get through any and all parts that did have combat in them. Even when you see a horde of them, it’s not as intimidating as it definitely feels. Your ability to maneuver around them, dodge their attacks, sprint, and dash out of the way, all while throwing your cleansing orbs, was incredibly fun and fluid. The movement in this game is fantastic, truly no complaints here.
Another clever little feature in the game is that, while you’re wandering through the world, you’ll come across little golden sprouts sticking out of the ground. You’re able to restore these with your powers to grow huge trees and spawn an area of lush grass around them. You bet your tail I found every single sprout and grew them up in order to feel a sense of accomplishment in restoring the world around me. These do exist on a larger scale as well and they act as fast travel spots in the levels. It’s a feature that didn’t necessarily have to be added in this particular manner, but they almost feel essential to the story in a lot of ways.
One last thing I greatly enjoyed was our ability to return to the Ark at any point, or rather, the beautiful tree where all the spirits live after you’ve set them free. This gave me a sense of joy and a great mental break when the heaviness of a few of the levels came bearing down on me. I’d return to the tree and pet every little spirit I could find before continuing on our journey to save the rest of them.
One big thing to note about this game is that it’s long. It took me just over 11 hours to 100% the spirits and most of the memories, and I did my best to move pretty fast through the levels. I’m no speed runner by a long shot, and I suck with a controller and died a decent bit, but I don’t feel like I’m any worse than your average player so prepare for at least 9 hours to 100% it, with 5-6 hours for a casual run-through. Sure, you could blow through it in 3-4 if you’re crazy good and fast, but take your time and absorb the experience, please.
Stunning visuals and highly accurate audio…
From the trailers alone we knew that this game was going to be visually gorgeous, and it absolutely is. Each level is textured and painted with care to create a sense of realism in the world that you absolutely have to take a moment to appreciate. From the stones being cracked and crumbling, to the city buildings that are rusted and weathered, even to how glass breaks and shatters around you in a few of the levels, it’s simply exquisite.
I want to particularly bring notice to the water levels as it’s hard to appreciate an underwater scene a lot of the time just due to their nature, but make no mistake, the team at Piccolo Studios has ensured that the visuals will keep you captivated in every level.
I need to give an extra special shout-out to their team for the audio as well. The sound effects are eerie and accurate. The sound metal cars make when you jump on them, the sound the trash makes as you’re running through it and it scatters around you, to the electrical wires and their feint buzzing. They left nothing out and for this game in particular, both the visuals and audio were vitally important to have be correct in order to send the message in the most powerful way. You absolutely get the sense that you’re in a destroyed and decaying world. I can’t compliment the team behind this game enough. What they delivered to us is near perfection and that’s hard for even Triple-A companies to deliver, let alone a smaller one.
All this brilliance and not a single bug to report…
I am extremely happy to report that I experienced no bugs. I will include that there were a few moments I jumped to areas that… I wasn’t supposed to be at anyways… and found myself a bit stuck falling into the wall. The game though, will automatically reset your character if you’re falling for too long. It’s a good thing to keep in mind not only when jumping from high places down to lower platforms, but if you do find yourself in my situation, the game will get you out of it on its own. High compliments to the team for delivering such a well-rounded and bug-free game. Maybe others will experience them, but we did not.
So here we are… at the end of it all…
I’m once again left with that feeling of “words don’t do this game justice”. I could write far more about it but it wouldn’t help satiate it. I will end simply by saying, go experience the game.
There might be some good excuses why you shouldn’t, such as, if your hands or body capabilities don’t allow for the use of a controller, or if you’re hypersensitive to topics involving death and deep questioning about life and how we live it. I’m not going to be naive and say this game is for everyone and for the love of Gaia please do not play it around young kids. The humans are grotesque and you will see the animal's corpses at the end of each level. It digs in deep and there’s a reason it requires you to enter your age on Steam to access the page.
But… if you’re a lover of Platformer games with real-world messages that will instill lifelong thoughts into your head and lead you towards living a better life overall? Yeah, go play it. I know some won’t be nearly as affected as we were, and some will blast through it without even paying attention just to enjoy the sheer mobility and movement the game has to offer and that’s completely okay. At the end of all of it, it’s a brilliant, well-rounded game that offers as close to a perfect experience as you can get. Between the Audio, Visuals, Story, and Gameplay aspects, well… we don’t score games here but you can’t do much better than After Us.
One last little Easter Egg for anyone who does beat the game... look for my tree at the edge of this cliff. It's so wholesome that After Us included the "Garden" at the end of the game, and I look forward to seeing how it grows. Once you've beaten it, come back and drop a picture of your tree! We'd love to see where everyone plants theirs.
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Disclaimer:
Please note that while we did receive this game for free, we have not been paid or promoted for this review, and are not affiliated with After Us or its developers officially in any way. All thoughts are based on our own genuine experience of the game. All footage is based on the Game in its current state as of 05/23/2023 and is subject to change or be completely omitted in future patches at the developer's discretion.
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