izigame.me

I really enjoyed After Us and am a bit sad to see it likely sold poorly and kind of flew under the radar. While the game is far from perfect, there is a lot here on offer.
Gameplay wise this is a pure platformer, virtually every element of the gameplay is about movement and flow from one point to the next. You have a run button, a double jump, a brief descent glide, a forward propulsion move, and a few situational things like wall running and cable grinding. Stringing these together is what it's all about, and some occasional wonkiness aside the game is very satisfying to play and run through at breakneck pace. The game has "combat" in a way but it is largely meant to be avoided, a tool of last resort, and only forces you into it on a few occasions; it's not great, mostly just kiting enemies that are trying to grab you while striking them with a ranged "attack" (you're actually cleansing them with your heart lol), but I found it a satisfactory addition that can add tension at appropriate moments. The combat is there more for thematic purposes, and to that end it works. I think how much you'll like this gameplay wise comes down simply to how much you like platforming games, it's a solid platformer but it's also basically ONLY a platformer. I should note the game is also quite easy and extremely forgiving with death as it basically always respawns you exactly where you were when you died, which while not strictly a bad thing means this isn't some great challenge to overcome.
Visually this game is absolutely nuts. Everything presented here is highly allegorical in nature and vivid to the extreme; it's not meant to be realistic, it's meant to send a message. The message is, to say the least, less ham fisted and more ham launched out of a cannon at your face. Clouds of oil rain down on wastelands of trash as forests of jagged metal trees inexplicably burn away in the distance. The entire world is choked with oil which is full of tentacles that grab for you if you get too near. Oceans sucked dry leaving nothing but seabed canyons full of trash. Everything is constantly churning and burning in a void of absolute destruction, leaving you climbing about the shattered remains of human civilization as it flies through a maelstrom of chaos in the sky. The bodies of mankind dot the way your entire journey - most of them just stone and ash, though some are left mindless but mobile husks tethered to oil extractors via long tentacles, or left standing slack jawed in front of a TV until they see you and attack. It's all very....on the nose, with humans referred to as "devourers". I mean you get attacked by plastic bags lol. While I find from the perspective of the intended message the game can border on comical, it's insane heavy handed allegorical take is what enables the visual feast. In technical terms the game is great, everything is beautifully realized and looks stunning. My only complaint here is the game is capped at 60FPS, which my 3080/i9 never wavered from. Everything about the way this game looks is incredibly memorable and worth experiencing. Almost equally excellent is a beautiful soundtrack which is epic, somber, and mysterious all in one. Also weird aside but I have to mention it, I wasn't expecting top notch breast physics on the female human husks....but here we are - they definitely spent a minute on that during development.
This is a good game, wrapped up in a stunning package. While I feel its "political" message is a bit overcooked, like I said that is what also makes the game so flavorful in terms of atmosphere, so it's hard to slack it too much for it. I think even at $30 this is worth it for fans of platformers, but on sale? Absolutely.