After Us tells an important story about the effect of humans on our planet and the potential dangers of our current lifestyle. The story is one of the game’s main selling points but sadly the gameplay itself isn’t on par. Is it worth playing? Time to find out.
Platform your way to the truth
In the game, you’ll play as Gaia who is sent by Mother to explore a destroyed world. All of the animals are gone but Mother made the ultimate sacrifice to seal the souls of the lost animals. As Gaia, it’s your job to explore the world through platforming and puzzle-solving. The story is what keeps you going and is certainly the beating heart of the game. You start at The Ark, your central point, and are tasked to find eight more locations. At the end of each location, you’ll find a source of life which you’ll have to return to The Ark. During your adventure you’ll encounter souls of other animals and even find relics of the world before the destruction. It’s a clear metaphor for what we are doing wrong on our beloved planet and the game does offer a couple of learning experiences from that perspective, it’s a shame the gameplay stands in its way.
Although I love the potential of the theme, it’s not as rewarding as it should be, resulting in a rather straightforward platformer with the occasional puzzle. The story is spread over the world and finding everything to learn the truth isn’t that easy, after a couple of hours, I gave up and didn’t go looking for all the secrets which made me miss out on a lot of the lore and background. The idea of the world and the atmosphere of it is perfectly done and it really sets the right tone but sadly, a great message and stellar world aren’t always enough to save a game from being mediocre.
It could have been so much more
At its core, After Us offers fun navigation and platform gameplay combined with some puzzles. It works well and controlling Gaia is fluent and responsive which works well with the parkour-like gameplay. During my first minutes with the game, I certainly had a blast running and jumping around the gorgeously crafted world. After a while, however, I started doing the same thing over and over again. There are a couple of things that bothered me while playing such as the lack of variation and the lack of true combat mechanics. There are some enemies and Gaia does gain new skills along the way but none of those really changed the way I played and definitely missed a real impact on the world. It’s almost like I was playing an early version of a great game but instead, the developers just went with what they had and published it. A true shame in my opinion because this could have been an unforgettable journey if it offered the needed variation. As it stands now, it’s a gorgeous game with stellar visuals and an immersive soundtrack but the repetitive gameplay keeps it from being truly great.
Conclusion:
After Us has an important story to share and has everything to offer an emotional journey. The world-building is top-notch both on a visual and audio level. What keeps it from being truly amazing is the variation in gameplay. The parkour-like platforming and puzzle-solving offer fun during the first hour but fail to entertain the more you advance. A mediocre game with an important message but sadly, this isn’t enough for me to be able to recommend this game to everyone.
