Games worth discovering

AFTERPLACE - A PLACE YOU'LL NEVER WANT TO LEAVE!

150 View2024-08-27

Released: July 23rd, 2024

Price: 14.99 USD

Afterplace is a short 10 hour multi-ending calm and relaxing adventure centered on a floating island in the sky, filled with terrifying interdimensional beings and friends!

It was certainly a journey as it's one of the few Indie games built by a single developer who truly wanted to create a fun and everlasting experience that encompasses the feeling of making you feel like you would want to stay in this universe forever, rather than to leave or continue forward to the end of the game. You don't want it to ever end or to cause harm in this simplistic world that feels more like a resting spot when you're done with all of your other games, after a hard days work, it'll be here for you waiting with a lot of dark secrets to be discovered around every nook and cranny.

Story

Emotionally Engaging

Without spoiling. Every action you take, no matter how dumb, nice, or idiotic it is, will have an influence on your ending. You may receive a one of few endings, but each ending is certain to provide serenity to those who feel it to be the appropriate ending.

It's difficult to determine exactly what this game is at first. You have no memories, and you are adrift on this strange floating island along with everyone else that has been brought here, but as you move forward, finding every secret, every friend, in a small but vast realm of narrative creativity and passion, you will begin to piece together what is happening here and once you do, you'll wish you hadn't trying to undo it all.

The secrets that pertain to who you are, why you are here and where your choices will lead you to down this journey of courage, tragedy, comedy and friendship.

Presentation

Jawdropping

For a game produced by a single developer, it's remarkable to see such massive talent behind something that doesn't appear to be that deep or intriguing in terms of visual presentation from the outside until you start to dig deep. Going into this game, I was glad I did since AfterPlace seemed like a place to go after a long hard day of work, being angry or irritated, to simply sit back interact with the people of this world and to listen to some peaceful and well-designed melodies, even if they were free sounds from a website, and just to simply unwind and feel at peace.

Everyone has a lot of things to share with you here. You could walk into a new town only to be tormented by some kids taunting you from a vantage point, and subject you to peer pressure every time you walk by to do things because you respond to them out of spite, which is how everything works so well comedically.

You have people with shy personalities trying their hardest to be courageous for others and even for themselves, those with the grief of losing family after being taken from their previous world into this world, and the anger that comes from the truth being revealed to understanding and acceptance. Even if it is temporary, it helps add more personality for you to become more connected to this universe making it feel like less of a game and more like a safe haven for you to come back to every once and again to check up on everyone. Making you want to soak in everything around you and to stay and not leave even when it's over.

Gameplay

Tons to explore & Fight

Primarily, it is comprised of exploration, traveling to different parts of the island, uncovering hidden mysteries, and engaging in conversation with new NPCs you meet along the journey, all while occasionally slipping into and out of your current reality. In no way is it a challenging game; rather, it is more along the lines of a casual experience that throws combat at you here and there as a hack and slasher.

If you do by chance fail, you are transported back to the beginning of the game, where Clover the lumberjack in the forest places you in her hut where you may rest and recuperate while chastising you for being so stupid. Despite this, you never heed her warnings and continue to frolic in the forest falling prey to more monsters!

Only Issues

If you get through some of the latter stages of the game, it may be extremely frustrating to have to go backtrack for around five minutes in order to get back to where you were before since there is no save file locations. One simple choice of caravan travel to all major towns would have been great, though I understand this would not aid in your finding of all the hidden locations strewn throughout every screen you walk through.

It does become rather difficult to navigate the world when you have no overworld map, you do, but it's something you have to find and it's more like a bunch of scribbles on a napkin than an actual map that shows you where everything is. You get used to it, but for navigational means you just have trust your memory for a lot of them!

Conclusion

Worth every second

When I noticed it on my discovery list, I didn't give it much thought. I simply saw cute little creatures sitting together, laughing and having a good time so like any sane person would do, I decided to try it not because it seemed insanely well designed, but because it looked cute, but never would I have imaged what it had in store.

It was an amazing journey, it's also quite sad that not a lot more people are ready to give it a try considering that it hasn't gotten a lot of publicity. I had originally planned to 100% this game which isn't something that I do very often getting up to 47% of the achievements. But after my second playthrough, things weren't going as intended, and I started to feel that this wasn't just a game, but rather a universe within a universe that should be left alone, something to come back to just say hello and watch everyone happily running around rather than resetting them all.

If you're looking for a nice short adventure featuring whacky and lovable characters in a world you can save or destroy due to your own stupidity or curiosity. AfterPlace certainly is the game you should without a doubt get your hands on to fully immerse yourself especially if you're interested in adventures an secrets.

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