If you love atmospheric games like Inside, you're going to want to keep an eye out for AfterUs this month.
There’s a sub-genre of games out there that I like to call the “atmospheric indie.” It’s a style of independent game in the style of titles like Limbo, which tends to lean on minimalistic platforming and eerie imagery. They’re pure tone pieces that tell their stories through environmental design and aren’t cluttered with complex gameplay systems. That makeshift genre is about to get another addition in the form of After Us.
Related Videos Ahead of its launch later this month, I went hands-on with the first 90 minutes of After Us. For those who enjoy ambient games like Somerville, it’s shaping up to be a haunting cautionary tale about the ways tech and industry are sucking the life out of our planet. Just be prepared for a slow, meditative pace and drab art direction to drive home its point.
I’m of two minds about the art direction and level design here, which goes heavy on monotone grays and assets that seem to repeat over and over. On one hand, it’s functional. Gaia’s world feels both oppressive and empty in the same breath, a mess of machines that feels like it’s suffocating the planet. On the other hand, it can make for some difficult navigation through cluttered gray landscapes. Even so, it does seem to get into more striking environments the deeper it goes.
Gaia’s journey gets a little more intriguing when After Us dives into puzzle-platformer territory. A late part of my session has me following colored wires to power up TV monitors. Once turned on, Gaia can teleport through a TV, which spits her out of another one in the environment that’s broadcasting the same image. One puzzle has me warping my way up a wall of TVs, falling from one monitor to the next until I reach the one at the top.
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