After Us Reviews
After Us is a decent 3D platformer that captures and holds your attention with the surrealist nature of its world design and compelling environmental storytelling.
After Us combines stunning vistas of environmental decay with a dreamlike flow to its light platforming challenges. Despite some missteps, such as ill-fitting combat, exploring and affecting its world is a gratifying process that comes with a wave of emotional ups and downs.
After Us is an artistic, moving, and affecting game about a world transformed by human indifference to nature. It’s a slightly heavy-handed cautionary tale, but a powerful one. As a puzzle platformer, it’s a little less successful, with controls that feel imprecise and levels that need more gameplay variety. After Us has a potent message and offers innocent hope for a planet in trouble.
The surreal and decadent world of After Us is impressive: although it is not a large-caliber production, the developers of Piccolo Studio have been masters in using the means at their disposal to create impactful visual compositions. The mechanics aren't innovative per se, but the chain of tools made available to the player, combined with a certain freedom granted during exploration, allows the action to settle on a good pace.
Review in Italian | Read full review
After Us is a beautiful game with a strong story, but unfortunately it also includes some not great action elements and platforming. It doesn't spoil the overall experience too much, though.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
The perfect proof that the Spanish video game industry has a bright future. With excellent art direction and scenarios, the game seeks to give us a wake-up call to take care of our planet and ourselves, although perhaps its formula ends up being a bit repetitive.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
A platformer that's hampered by it's focus on telling a tale of an ecological drama. The enormous environments are widely different, but are all dark an gloomy, while protagonist Gaia can temporarily bring brightness. Gameplay is diverse, even though Gaia could really benefit from the ability to shy away from edges, making the platforming more difficult than neccessary. There is a great game here, but it isn't allowed to shine due to the unrelenting desire to get the ecological story across.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
A chilling fever dream of dystopian hope, After Us takes the mechanics of an atmospheric puzzle-platformer and uses them to create a beautifully unsettling experience that feels a little too real. Its satisfying traversal challenges through gorgeously rendered wastelands provide plenty of engaging gameplay moments for platforming fans, though its relentlessly oppressive environments may prove too harsh for some. Haunting and immersive, but definitely not for the faint of heart.
A surreal but gorgeous journey through a post-human world
As a game, After Us can sin of being flat, of lacking some of those playable moments difficult to forget or even of having problems such as a distant camera that hinders the most demanding platforming. But on the other hand, its history, the landscapes it proposes and some emotional sequences will make you remember it for a long time.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
After Us poses some well-tread but timely questions about our impact on the world and its living things. However, optional discoveries throughout the game suggest that Piccolo is trying to present a slightly more ambivalent take on the subject. Some of that is best left for the player to discover for themselves. I recommend After Us strongly as a piece of visual artistry. It’s less successful as an interactive experience, but none of its problems are so glaring that it should dissuade someone from discovering its striking and haunting world.
After Us is not perfect but it is enjoyable and if you ever wondered what a Journey 2 would look like then check out After Us.
Ultimately, the new game by Piccolo Studio, after the excellent Arise: A Simple Story, is another gem that could delight fans of platform adventures, especially if sensitive to the passionate environmental message that the title tries to convey for about 6/7 hours necessary for its completion.
Review in Italian | Read full review
After Us is an adventure that entertains from start to finish and makes you stop and reflect on the serious consequences of climate change. It is a video game that transmits melancholy and beauty in equal parts that will not disappoint those looking for experiences "with soul" similar to Journey.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
After Us is an atmospheric platforming adventure that leaves you thinking about the beauty in extinction rather than the horrors. With slick controls, appealing environments to explore and a tranquil nonintrusive soundtrack, fans of titles like Journey will likely enjoy the exploration of a surreal and desolate world of post-human life.
With After Us, Piccolo Studio presents platform gameplay with many alternatives, set in a unique version of a desolate world. That's enough for After Us to be considered a good game. But in reality it is more than that. After Us is also a life lesson.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Even with the controller rage at times, I still enjoyed After Us and it's easily one of the most original games of 2023. It's emotional, engaging and more importantly plays well on the PlayStation 5 with the DualSense controller. Sure it's a platformer, however with the strong narrative behind it, After Us is not just a game but also an experience… just be warned it comes with a healthy dose of gaming frustration.
After Us combines solid platforming with a wonderfully realized post-apocalyptic vision of over-consumption. Even if Memories feel like a missed opportunity, the overall narrative and gameplay make it a worthwhile trip into a morbid future.
After Us is a sombre, succinct and surreal adventure with a compelling and emotional tale of sacrifice and healing, tied together by simple platforming gameplay that evolves with each distinct and beautiful new environment. Some control complaints and unnecessary combat aside, it's a memorable journey worth taking.
After Us from developer Piccolo is an interesting title. It tries to create a Journey-like inspiring adventure through gigantic worlds and simplistic controls. Most of what it does works well, especially with its narrative, though the mechanics from its gameplay design sometimes fight against story progression and player engagement. The game can create some frustration with the camera and controls but wins more than it loses.