After Us review: an intricately crafted platformer with a stark message
After Us is a platforming adventure with a difference. There are no cartoonish vistas to be found here. Instead, After Us offers up an examination of our own world and the frightening post-apocalyptic reality of what it could become. The environments you traverse are stark and cold but as Gaia, you will find what once made them magical. You may spend practically all of your time jumping, leaping, and running through landscapes that are desperate to dim your light, but After Us is a surprisingly heartwarming adventure that, at the end of the day, reminds you of all that is good about humanity - and just how much we have at stake to lose.
Created by Piccolo Studio, After Us is a platforming adventure that wants us to create a better world. You’ll assume the role of Gaia, a mysterious and seemingly magical being who is gifted the power of a life by an omniscient being known only as Mother. Gaia is informed that Devourers have ravaged the world and it’s up to her to rescue what life remains. You’ll soon find out that Devourers are actually humans but this isn’t a black and white tale of ‘humans are bad’. As the game’s synopsis teases, humans are ‘agents of extinction’ but they are also ‘agents of progress, love, and hope’.
Take a look at After Us in action below.
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When it comes to platforming, After Us offers an enjoyably wide and varied range of mechanics. There are the basics, allowing you to jump, sprint, dash and glide. Later in the game, you’ll add wall running, speeding along vines, and portal jumping to your bag of tricks. I could go on. What I’m really saying is, you need to enjoy platforming if you’re going to delve into this game. That’s almost entirely what the gameplay consists of but it’s so easy to love seeing as every time I thought I had After Us sussed out, it revealed to me that Gaia had yet another clever trick up her sleeve.
Platformers can be endlessly frustrating but that’s not the case here. If you ‘die’, you’ll simply respawn right before the moment you fell. In the very worst cases, you might respawn 10 paces back but essentially, you won’t be forced to replay large chunks of levels. There are no checkpoints. Instead, After Us will save your progress as you go along. This was much to my relief seeing as much as I adore platformers, they can oftentimes fill me with rage. That wasn’t the case in this instance. I’ll also point out that Gaia has a handy circle positioned underneath her during jumps, allowing you to judge your landing spot - a genius addition that also helps get rid of one of the platforming genre’s usual frustrations.
After Us isn’t totally linear so you will at certain stages in the world stumble across Oasis points. In total, your job is to restore eight key animal spirit vessels. On the way to each vessel, you’ll encounter further - and lesser important - animal spirits, although you will want to try and save them all. Rather than tackling these in a fixed order, some of the Oasis points will offer you several branching paths allowing you to pick your next destination.
These Oases also act as fast travel points so rest assured, you will not have to retread your steps to try another path. In the centre of this world lies The Ark, an ethereal land where all the spirits Gaia has rescued will seek refuge. You can fast travel here too. There’s little point, but it’s nice to soak up the fruit of your efforts after hours on end in a desolate landscape. The Ark is a breath of fresh air if not anything else.
Desolate may seem like a harsh word, but that’s the kind of world that After Us has created. The light is always dim. You’ll traverse broken highways, jump across floating disused cars, or climb abandoned fairground rides. I was particularly struck by one region titled ‘The Countryside’. It was the complete opposite of what you’d expect. Instead of open fields, it was essentially an endless sea of trash, complete with smoking furnaces and chuddering diggers. After Us isn’t discrete in its message, but that doesn’t make it any less impactful.
‘The Countryside’ is an on the nose reminder of what might happen if we don’t respect our green spaces. An area titled ‘Downtown’ turned run-of-the-mill office blocks into liminal hellish mazes, presenting them more as prisons than inspiring places of work. ‘The Abyss’ is far from the kind of colourful underwater vista you may see in The Little Mermaid or Finding Nemo. Here, our Earth’s oceans, as the name ‘The Abyss’ may suggest, are shudderingly dark encroaching spaces. In one particular sequence, all you have to guide you is Gaia’s light. The darkness is suffocating. The feelings these environments evoke have perfect synergy with the platforming elements and therefore, Gaia’s mission.
I wouldn’t say that After Us particularly has combat, but you will encounter a few non-environmental obstacles. In one early level, plastic bags will fly at you, knocking Gaia off her feet. It doesn’t impact things too much, unless you’re standing on a precarious platform. The aforementioned Devourers (previously humans) act as your main foes, although foe feels like an oversimplification. Plenty of Devourers are scattered throughout the world but many have turned to stone, something I interpreted as signifying the complete loss of their humanity.
Others though haven’t quite ‘solidified’ just yet. Some feature a glowing blue heart, a sign that they’re clinging on to a positive memory. Gaia can throw her life force at these Devourers, freeing and redeeming their souls. They’ll then pass on to the next life and Gaia will collect their memories. These sketched images are After Us’ way of providing hope, of saying: not all is lost. Some of the Devourers I encountered held on to memories of laughter, of family, or of spending valued time in nature. There are plenty of these for you to collect outside of your main goal of saving the animal spirits.
It’s interesting that Gaia prioritises animals over humans, although I suppose the humans are by and large too far gone. You can seek both out by singing. If you’ve seen Frozen 2, Gaia’s little tune is very Elsa-esque but it’ll send out yellow and blue glowing orbs. The blue will direct you to spirits, while the yellow leads to redeemable Devourers.
In certain sections of the game, you’ll stumble across Devourers that have not yet ‘solidified’ but neither do they cling on to positive memories. With burning red eyes, they will seek to grab Gaia and destroy her light because yes, they’re obsessed with devouring all that is good. To overcome these foes, Gaia will need to dodge and outrun them. You can defeat the Devourers by flinging your life force at them. Some will pass on to the next life after just one hit, while others will take several as you dismantle their ‘armour’, typically made up of discarded pieces of metal and technology.
The most ‘possessed’ Devourers will be protected by what is essentially a TV acting as a chest plate. In these cases, you’ll need to figure out how to hit the Devourers with your life force from behind where they’re not protected. Just like the platforming, if you are overcome, you’ll simply respawn where you last ‘died’. I was glad of the inclusion of these sections as it was refreshing to break up the traversal, offering up a different kind of challenge. Narratively, the intensity of these Devourer encounters also gave me a sense of understanding of how this world came to be. The world design otherwise may have felt too abstract.
TV sets were a recurring icon throughout the game. Devourers, who had long since turned to stone, sat crowded around them, on top of them … clinging to technology in death just as they presumably did in life. After a while, it struck me that After Us shares several similarities with Stray. Both use different player-controlled vessels to tell their respective stories, but they also use movement and environment to offer a stark and sombre commentary on the threats that we pose to this world as humans.
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.
Pros: Compelling storytelling, good variety of platforming mechanics, creative level design
Cons: Occasional freezing
For fans of: Stray, Journey
8/10: Excellent
After Us is out today on PlayStation 5 (version tested), Xbox Series X/S, and PC. A review code was provided by the publisher Private Division. Read a guide to our review scores here.
Topics: PC, PlayStation, Xbox