Take-Two Interactive isn’t just about 2K Games and Rockstar Games. Private Division, its independent game publishing subsidiary, is a video game gold mine. It includes in its portfolio the Spanish studio Piccolo, which had already touched the editorial staff during the test of their previous title, Arise A Simple Story. Their new project, named After Us, caught our attention when it was presented at the Game Awards 2022. This is not the first time that the impact of humanity on our planet has been addressed in a game and we were eager to know the vision of the studio. We weren’t disappointed, because the beauty of After Us goes way beyond its art direction.
A new flood
The starting point of our adventure is largely inspired by the Bible and the flood desired by God, in order to erase the error committed during the creation of men. Our Mother Earth is exhausted from the evil that is slowly eating away at her. Humanity absorbs all his energy and the cataclysm is inevitable. In a last burst, gathering her last strength, she nevertheless manages to save the spirit of the animals. She now needs us to free these entities that have remained stuck in their lifeless bodies.
Our character, named Gaïa, must therefore travel through the ruins of the ancient world to carry out his heavy task. We quickly understand, during the first moments, that After Us is not only a game, but that it is above all a call for awareness. The developers have chosen a sober and soft artistic direction, but the message is very powerful. Humanity is a poison for the Earth and if we don’t change our way of life, it will erase us from its history.
All in simplicity
Coast gameplay, simplicity matters. Our character can perform a double jump, dasher forward to reach a platform or run over walls. Added to this is the possibility of projecting one’s mind or concentrating it to cause a shock wave that vegetates our environment. We were rather skeptical, at first, about the risk of lassitude, controller in hand. All the genius of the developers is to get the player to use these mechanics differently, depending on the areas crossed. A shock wave can just as well purify a passage blocked by an oil spill as vegetate a cable on which we can now grinder To progress.
We also had doubts about the corridor effect that this type of game generally provides. The first hour did not reassure us, but we quickly forgot our fears thanks to the intelligence of the level design. To break the tunnel effect, environments sometimes take height and are built vertically. On the other hand, the player is regularly invited to follow the path of his choice to experience the adventure in the order he wishes.
Nothing therefore comes to hinder our pleasure, not even the difficulty. After Us is not a punitive game in its design: our character does not die, normal for a spirit you say. An unfortunate fall (and there are many) brings us back to the last save point, which is often only a platform from our failure. There is no health gauge, but during our confrontations, the screen darkens as our opponent drains our life force. However, these bad encounters pose few difficulties.
There remain two strings to our bow that we have not yet tackled. One, rather anecdotal, allows us to greet or caress the spirits that we have freed. The other, much more useful, is singing. It is even essential for success hunters since After Us has 189 collectibles more or less hidden in the environment. A semblance of a map makes it possible to determine their approximate location, but when our character sings, a “lyrical flight” precisely designates the location of nearby artifacts. The presence of many teleportation points also facilitates these searches.
Technically close to flawless
Although it does not have the ambition to compete with a AAA, the title offers more than respectable graphic quality for an independent game. In addition, on Series X, we have the choice to favor quality in 4K 30FPS or performance in 2K 60FPS. The lighting management is generally mastered, even if we sometimes noticed some brutal changes of effects on the textures. On the version made available to us for the test, we observed rare sudden drops in framerate, two of which ended in the game closing, forcing a restart. However, this has not harmed our immersion and will probably be corrected by a patch on release.
The title offers full localization in French, but since our character communicates by vocalization, regardless of the language chosen, all conversations are subtitled. There are in fact very few exchanges between Gaia and her mother, which greatly limits the reading effort. The narration essentially passes through the soundtrack which, although subtle, manages to give rhythm to the different moments of the adventure.
The only weakness of the title is the management of its camera during certain passages of platforms. Even if we have full control over its position, it is sometimes complicated, if not impossible, to find a satisfactory angle allowing us to apprehend the space and thus avoid falling stupidly during a badly engaged jump. The developers have however made every effort not to spoil our progress, since a white halo appears under the character during jumps. Despite this, we could not avoid many falls, especially during vertical progressions.
However, these small points for improvement did not spoil our pleasure and we did not see the 10 hours that were necessary for us to conclude the adventure pass, while gleaning a very large part of the collectibles. This brings the lifespan to around 12 hours for completists.
Tested on Xbox Series X. (in 4k 30 FPS mode)
