After Us is a harrowing glimpse at humanity's effect on nature

It's becoming increasingly common for games to take a stance on global matters. Whether it's a political statement as is found in the Road 96 games, or environmental activism efforts as we see in Endling: Extinction is Forever, games are great ways to drive awareness for issues plaguing humanity as a whole. Speaking about the latter, developer Piccolo is joining in on the effort of showing just how destructive and damaging humanity is to the environment and what that may ultimately lead to, all in the form of a new adventure platform game called After Us.

Set to debut on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles on May 23, I've had the chance to preview the game and to experience an opening portion of it to see how it shapes up, and while its underlying message is very clear, the gameplay didn't leave me with as much of an impression.

After Us puts players into the shoes of the Spirit of Life, Gaia, a being that must travel a devastated Earth in the effort to locate extinct species of animals, all so that she can gather their life essence and help preserve them at the eternal Mother's Ark. This journey will take Gaia across all kinds of places around the planet, locations that have been scarred by oil spills, motorways, wrecked cars, concrete structures, power lines, and a variety of other types of human infrastructure that puts our needs ahead of its impact on the environment and the creatures that live there.

With this in mind, After Us asks you to lead Gaia around these locations while avoiding deadly pollution and other hazards, and you do so by using an array of platforming techniques and special abilities that can help clear danger. Between jumps, glides, dashes, and a few other platforming moves, all the way to charging up Gaia's energy to be able to clear certain hazards (and briefly replace them with a verdant lawn of grass and wildflowers) so she can pass over them unharmed.

The platforming systems are quite basic and easy to grasp, and from my experience, can be a little janky and difficult to manage. After Us insists on having multiple different abilities all being based on the same inputs, which means you end up having to use the right trigger on a controller to both dash in mid-air, charge and use Gaia's clearing ability, and more, and this leads to frequent misused actions and ultimately failed jumps, which is simply put, frustrating.

As for the actual level and world design, it's rather linear and only really allows Gaia to travel in one direction and on one path, which means there isn't really too many alternatives to how you can approach the gameplay. Since the levels are designed to reflect a post-apocalyptic Earth, which is dotted with what can only be described as fossilised humans, you don't wander around and feel a sense of awe either. It's harrowing and creepy, and while the level design might not be the most ingenious and thrilling, it does at least make you think about what we as humans are doing to the planet.

There are a few ways to venture off the beaten path however, with these coming in small open areas along the journey. When you arrive at these, Gaia is able to look around and locate smaller animal spirits that can be collected and will start to spruce up the world, by adding actual spirit creatures around the levels. These spirits don't make up the core, major spirits of After Us, as Gaia is mainly looking for bigger spirits, but these are minor collectibles that work to enhance the gameplay a tad.

After Us is also a game without much audio. Gaia doesn't seem to speak, and aside from the occasional bit of dialogue from the Mother, the only audio comes from the ambient soundtrack that plays as you explore the world. I've always had middling thoughts about this style of game design, as it puts even greater emphasis on how the narrative and story is conveyed through the gameplay, and this is something that After Us really does struggle with at times due to its more basic level design.

While I'm not particularly gripped by what I've seen of After Us so far, the underlying message it is looking to convey does intrigue me, and I'm excited to see what the rest of the narrative holds, and how Gaia evolves and grows with further skills and abilities.