After Us – Review

After Us is a platformer developed by ‘Piccolo’ and published by ‘Private Division’. It is set in a surrealist, dystopia. You play as Gaia, who is tasked with finding spirits and vessels before returning them to the Mother Ark.

The general story of this game revolves around the degradation that humans have had on the planet. The environment reflects this and it is a real highlight to the overall experience. The visuals are beautiful and striking and they really add to the sombre atmosphere this title tries to portray. It ties in very well with general dystopian tone seen here. During the story, there are numerous spirits to find with each representing a different animal. This plotline sets up many meaningful and emotional moments during the game. It was also very rewarding to find each spirit and it is something that kept me engaged and wanting to see more throughout my time playing.

In terms of the general gameplay, I found the platforming to be solid. I soon became used to the controls and there are a variety of different moves at your disposal to navigate through the levels. You can run, do a single or double jump, ride along vines, climb up certain walls and perform a boost in mid air. The combat however was a bit less impressive. It consists of shooting your life force at the human enemies called ‘Devourers’. It was fairly one-dimensional since you only have one way of attacking the enemies while trying to dodge and outrun them. Another area of the game that sometimes frustrated me was the general progression. I found it hard to know where to go next at times and I would have liked there to be some kind of waypoint to keep me on track.

When it comes to performance, there is a 4K 30 FPS mode and a 1440p 60 FPS mode on PS5. I played on performance mode. I feel like the performance was okay, but not perfect at this point. There are occasional frame drops and stutters, but nothing bad enough to seriously detract from the experience.

Verdict

Overall, I enjoyed my time with ‘After Us’. It presents a stunningly well realised dystopian world along with some very meaningful and deep messages. Saving the spirits and vessels was rewarding and had me wanting to keep playing. Despite, certain lacklustre areas such as the combat and at times performance, I would highly recommend this title if not just for the amazing visuals alone. It was definitely a memorable experience with enough redeeming qualities for me to confidently recommend this to anyone who likes platformers.

8 out of 10.

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from https://keymailer.co