After Us: PS5 Review

Developed by Piccolo Studios
Released by Private Division
Platform: PS5

Feeling very much like a take on Journey's simple gameplaying mechanics and a cautionary tale about evolution and pollution, Piccolo Studios' After Us is an intriguing title.

Set on Earth after all life has been wiped out, you play as Gaia, who's tasked with restoring the souls of the animals and the life that's been taken. Venturing through worlds of differing difficulties and challenges, it's up to you to follow through with your job - but also to decide if humans who placed us in this mess are worth saving.

With a white-haired, blue-eyed protagonist, After Us is very clear in its message of pollution, with its flying plastic bags attacking our heroine. But it's also vague in its gameplay, allowing for experimentation and the slightest of guidances to help you through.

Whether most platformers will appreciate that or not is debatable, but its gameplay's somewhat reminiscent of Journey and its spiritual edges as you zip around, leaping from suspended vehicles and boulders to reach higher levels and progress.

From climbing trees to wall-running, there's much in Gaia's handbook that takes time to develop, but which significantly adds to the gameplay aesthetics and ethos as time goes on.

What works best about After Us is its almost ethereal take on proceedings and its hands-off approach to having you complete tasks and levels. It's a welcome change that builds the best of the game's atmospherics and also the best of its platforming.

While it may not have the big budget of a major title, it doesn't skimp on ambition and while the execution occasionally falters, this is a thoughtful title that proves compelling in its story and mechanics and serves to show that some games can pack big emotional heft in their understated storytelling.