Afterward is a top-down twin-stick brawler/rpg where you’ll fight mysterious tech enemies and solve puzzles. Your avatar in the game is a Shaman, which are humans that are gifted with powers of controlling certain technology. The world as we knew it is far gone in Afterward, and humans have fallen back to a tribal way of life. The shamans (like the one you play) are thought of as demi-gods for their ability to control some sort of tech. The forest you’ll be spending your time in is lush, and distinctly foreign. The setting contrasts nicely with the cyber-punk inspired enemies.
The tech that you control are spires that you project called “distortions” that serve as your main tools for solving puzzles, battling enemies and the act for conduits for your spells. These distortions can be placed and removed at your pleasure. The main attack you’ll use is a smooth, four-button melee combo, and placing distortions near enemies will cause them to be more vulnerable to your melee attacks. But, placing and removing the distortions will provide a spectacular display that also damages enemies, so much so that melee combos are pretty much pointless. The spells are pretty fun to use, too. Sucking in enemies with the vortex and then finishing them off quickly offered variety to the combat. The game is smooth, interesting and fun. Considering it takes less than an hour to beat, it’s definitely worth a try.
Download the prototype Student-Game build here.
Played it? We’d love to know what you thought about it.
This article is written by @ButNotThatGuy
