After Us

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.

After Us succeeds in delivering a unique and stylish platform experience. While the mechanics are simple, you are challenged to use them in different ways throughout the 12 hour(ish) experience, although sometimes depth perception may cause an aggravating amount of falls. Personally, the story was interesting but lacked the depth needed to feel the emotions which were conveyed on screen. This being said, After Us is a visually stunning game, containing a variety of interesting art designs being followed by the soothing, sometimes eerie soundtrack.

Published by Private Division, Piccolo’s platformer set in a post-human world is a solid offering and another reminder that indie games can provide well-rounded, memorable experiences. After Us can be completed in about 10 hours, 20 for thorough explorers, and nearly every minute of it will be enjoyable. The visuals are impressive, the gameplay is fun, the levels are varied, and though the story is rather simplistic and a bit vague, it serves its purpose. After Us probably won’t rise to the top for many people, but it definitely won't sink to the bottom either.

After Us a mesmerizing narrative on the PlayStation 5 of hopes, dreams and clever gameplay that also serves as a challenge.

After Us succeeds in what it sets out to do. The world that Gaia is trying to save may be a grave warning to us all, but After Us never feels heavy or oppressive. Your platforming efforts are rewarded by reassurances that maybe everything isn’t doomed after all. Gameplay is perfectly synced with the narrative to create an experience that is both enlightening, interesting, and - despite the doom and gloom - enjoyable. It is a game that makes you feel like you’re making a difference all while reminding you just how to do so in the real world. After Us seeks to better players, not just entertain them. To put it simply, it’s impactful and a must-play.

With After Us, Piccolo Studio presents platform gameplay with many alternatives, set in a unique version of a desolate world. That's enough for After Us to be considered a good game. But in reality it is more than that. After Us is also a life lesson.

After Us is a sombre, succinct and surreal adventure with a compelling and emotional tale of sacrifice and healing, tied together by simple platforming gameplay that evolves with each distinct and beautiful new environment. Some control complaints and unnecessary combat aside, it's a memorable journey worth taking.

After Us is an atmospheric platforming adventure that leaves you thinking about the beauty in extinction rather than the horrors. With slick controls, appealing environments to explore and a tranquil nonintrusive soundtrack, fans of titles like Journey will likely enjoy the exploration of a surreal and desolate world of post-human life.

After Us doesn’t reinvent the wheel in platforming and exploration, but it offers very compelling gameplay in both areas.

After Us is a great adventure that will keep you entertained from the beginning to the very end, and that will also make you think about the consequences of the climatic change. The game is both melancholic as well as incredibly beautiful, and it won't let down players who are looking for a video game with a similar feel to Journey.

A platformer that's hampered by it's focus on telling a tale of an ecological drama. The enormous environments are widely different, but are all dark an gloomy, while protagonist Gaia can temporarily bring brightness. Gameplay is diverse, even though Gaia could really benefit from the ability to shy away from edges, making the platforming more difficult than necessary. There is a great game here, but it isn't allowed to shine due to the unrelenting desire to get the ecological story across.

After Us combines unique environmental design with fast and dynamic gameplay with many secrets to discover and a powerful social message. Only a few design decisions and poor performance tarnish the final result.

Platforming, puzzles and exploration that shine thanks to the love the developers have put into this game, which transpires through the adventure.

A chilling fever dream of dystopian hope, After Us takes the mechanics of an atmospheric puzzle-platformer and uses them to create a beautifully unsettling experience that feels a little too real. Its satisfying traversal challenges through gorgeously rendered wastelands provide plenty of engaging gameplay moments for platforming fans, though its relentlessly oppressive environments may prove too harsh for some. Haunting and immersive, but definitely not for the faint of heart.

As beautiful and serene as After Us is, it tells a painful story of a world destroyed by the impact of humans. As you save each animal, the darkness that plagues the environment grows more pronounced, and you’re left wondering if this is a world even worth saving. This adventure will pique the curiosity of any player through its clever platforming sections, environment design, and strong narrative message.

After Us poses some well-tread but timely questions about our impact on the world and its living things. However, optional discoveries throughout the game suggest that Piccolo is trying to present a slightly more ambivalent take on the subject. Some of that is best left for the player to discover for themselves. I recommend After Us strongly as a piece of visual artistry. It’s less successful as an interactive experience, but none of its problems are so glaring that it should dissuade someone from discovering its striking and haunting world.

Entertaining, yet joyless. Beautiful, yet dire. After Us builds itself upon contrary subversions of videogame norms, and in many ways it succeeds. It’s just a shame that in its desperation to convey the importance of the planet's soul, it sacrificed a little of its own.

The surreal and decadent world of After Us is impressive: although it is not a large-caliber production, the developers of Piccolo Studio have been masters in using the means at their disposal to create impactful visual compositions. The mechanics aren’t innovative per se, but the chain of tools made available to the player, combined with a certain freedom granted during exploration, allows the action to settle on a good pace.

After Us stands as a thought-provoking testament to human responsibility, but it leaves untouched the broader canvas of nature's relentless force. Recognizing both sides of this environmental equation would have offered a more comprehensive perspective on the intricate dance between humanity and the natural world, underscoring the urgent need for responsible stewardship of our planet. The gameplay is serviceable and the game's length won't leave anyone asking for more, but the real showstopper is its gorgeous visuals and ambiance.

After Us demonstrates its strong personality with a title that plays at modifying its world to be more than just a responsive platformer.

Unreliable performance and some underdeveloped mechanics do hurt the impact and atmosphere of After Us, but its intriguing post-apocalyptic world and satisfying movement still make for a worthy adventure.

After Us is a stylish looking game with a very gloomy, but also realistic view of the future that awaits our consumer society. The level design is creative, the platforming is challenging using both horizontal and vertical route options, and the matching synth music enhances the surreal atmosphere. Yet After Us also drops a lot of stitches in the field of gameplay progression, character development and the story, so you don't miss much if you ignore this reality check.

Despite its immediate beauty, After Us doesn’t generate the emotional response I would hope for from a title in this genre. Perhaps if it were a bit shorter and more focused, I would have been more motivated to explore and rescue every spirit. Instead, the unpolished platforming and surplus of unnecessary collectibles diluted its intensity. Though there are certainly some memorable moments here, there are simply other titles in the genre that are much more successful at doing what After Us is attempting to accomplish.

After Us is a great platform with lots of abilities and freedom but it completely misses the point on its environmental stance by using an antiquated approach to the problem.

Gameplay-wise there’s not enough here to really grip and keep hold of you. This type of game has been done far better before.

Overall, this leaves After Us as a flawed but intriguing 3D platformer. Its moments of brilliance are great to behold, such as its varied, dreadful locales and those moments where its platforming truly clicks. However, its lack of character and story development and its more frustrating sections do mean that it's not a perfect game - but at the very least its heart is in the right place.

I liked After Us in the end, I appreciated the story it told and the imagery it used to tell it (even if most of it was as blunt as blunt gets). However, what could have felt like a two-hour conversation is bloated into a ten-hour lecture series due to overly large worlds with very little to do in them. It seems like there was an internal struggle between "brevity in storytelling" or "filling the world with collectibles," though unfortunately, the solution they reached was far from the most efficient. If you can stomach the slog, there's a beautiful, important message to be heard in After Us. Unfortunately, and ironically, it's buried in excess.

After Us presents a strong message about planet conservation and wildlife preservation. However, weak gameplay and hollow-level design make the game a running simulator rather than an engaging platformer.

There are beautiful moments in After Us worth seeing, but they’re buried in poorly directed levels featuring merely adequate gameplay. There’s not enough to consistently grab onto here to really hook most players. After Us has a lot in common with Piccolo Studios’ last narrative platformer but ultimately doesn’t offer the charm or consistently moving story that made that game so memorable.

After Us tries too hard.

After Us is gorgeous and has some important things to say about consumerism, but actually playing it isn't always fantastic.

With lofty ambitions and some great elements, After Us lets itself down in as many ways as it triumphs. Gorgeous art direction and an admirable anti-pollution message aren't enough to make up for tedious combat, performance issues, and open-ended level design that plays things a little too loose. If you're itching for an experience like this, there are better options out there, at the very least until After Us' performance issues are addressed. There's the core of an incredible experience here, but it's just not ready yet.

The gameplay is nothing special, and it isn't particularly trying to be. It exists as a framework to tell a story, and plenty of games have excelled with that mindset. But all it has to say is that pollution is bad and it's all your fault. It doesn't inspire change, it doesn't shock, it doesn't even highlight the plight of the animals we share this world with, becoming too wrapped up in casual visual metaphor than with showcasing the harsh reality of what we have done to this world. The bees are dying, but so is my patience.

After Us is difficult to recommend for its platforming alone, though its nature-focused kitsch gives way to gorgeous visuals as you breathe life back into its post-apocalyptic world. Some of its levels left a grin on my face, whereas others had me begging for sweet release from the inconsistent controls and directionless world. At least there’s a silver lining in that its beautiful art direction and entrancing musical score make for some really cool sequences. And yet I can’t help but feel like After Us is too heavy-handed about its environmentalist themes for a video game that hardly characterizes its protagonist and has literally no dialogue. By the end, I felt like I’d have done less environmental damage had I simply chosen to skip it.

Apart from racing up papery billboards and conjuring spectral trees to propel us over gaps, the platforming bits are spoiled by Gaia’s awkward handling. Combat against the remaining ‘devourers’ is worse, as you run around mashing the trigger to ‘redeem’ your gloopy pursuers. It’s basically a well-meaning but tedious lecture, telling you absolutely nothing you didn’t already know. [Issue#29, p.90]

And in declining to make any kind of meaningful statement about its environmental themes, After Us only demonstrates that, like its protagonist, it has nothing to say for itself. [Issue#386, p.116]

After Us wants to comment on the dark side of consumerism, but it fails to convey its message through mediocre gameplay. Neither the story or the mechanics are satisfying enough, there are technical issues and the action feels superfluous.