If Sky: Children of the Light was a little more gloomy and surreal - After Us Quick Review

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PLAY IT OR SKIP IT?

Play it! After Us is a narrative-driven adventure game with beautiful visuals that explores a strange, abstract world of decay and death. If you’ve played Sky: Children of the Light, After Us will feel pretty familiar, but it offers a more surreal and abstract experience.

TIME PLAYED

I played After Us for four hours. I managed to get decently far, finding every dog constellation spirit in the first major area as well as the dog vessel itself. I got lost exploring a couple of times along the way, but I’m currently traversing across the world and making my way through the second area.

WHAT’S AWESOME

• Narrative. After Us’s story dives into a strange, abstract world where humans have gone extinct because of their gluttony and hatred. I played Gaia, the spirit of life, and embarked on a perilous adventure to save this corrupted world and the animal spirits trapped inside it. The well-written, emotional story is delivered through cutscenes. It took a little while for me to make sense of what was going on, but once I did, I felt fully immersed in Gaia’s adventure.

• Exploration. After Us allowed me to perform a variety of exciting actions, including running across walls, climbing giant boulders, and leaping across caverns. As someone that loves exploring in any game, I spent most of my time searching every nook and cranny while traversing the world. The massive world of After Us provided the perfect space for me to keep getting lost while letting my curiosity lead the way.

• Searching for spirits. Spirits are the primary collectible in After Us; I needed to find them and free them from their material bodies. Spirits are hidden all over the game’s world, hanging out on top of gigantic stone pillars or stuck under floating rocks. Finding these spirits was an exhilarating puzzle, and the challenge has ramped up at the perfect rate as I’ve progressed.

• Visuals. After Us has some of the most beautiful visuals I’ve ever seen in a game. Every area features its own unique and enchanting environment; some places gleam with radiance and other spots look miserable and gloomy. Not only do these visuals look stunning, but the ambiance of these different environments sets the mood throughout the game and helps guide the narrative in an immersive way.

WHAT SUCKS

• No keyboard and mouse support. After Us currently only supports controller play for the PC version of the game. Busting out my controller every time I wanted to play was only a minor annoyance, sure, but I wish the game had keyboard and mouse support built in from the start.

💬 Are you going to play After Us or will you pass on it? Let me know in the comments!