After Us Review (PS5) | Push Square

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When developing a game, having lofty ambitions in mind for your project can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, if everything involved works in concert to execute on a well-defined creative vision, the results can be magical. However, if any of what you strive to accomplish misses the mark, each failure shines that much brighter, drawing attention to itself. Developer Piccolo's After Us falls somewhere in between these two extremes, nailing some things, but dropping the ball on others.

After Us sees you assume the role of Gaia, a nymph-like creature, tasked with restoring life to a now-desolate planet. Humans have come and gone, and all that remains are the vestiges of their ignorance and wastefulness. The world is a polluted, hazardous wasteland, devoid of life or optimism. And amid this, Gaia must locate the spirits of deceased animals and free their essence, thereby releasing life into the world once more.

To do so, the game makes use of a pretty standard platforming control scheme: jump, double jump, dash, etc. While none of the movement or controls feel bad, there is definite room for improvement. Jumping feels floaty, dashing can sometimes be tricky to gauge distances with, and there's just a general lack of polish to your movement. This is compounded by the fact that much of the platforming requires the utmost precision, without which you'll face instant death. Many environments are bordered by a toxic sludge, with creeping tendrils that reach for Gaia anytime you get too near. But the game's definition of «too near» never feels consistent. What feels like a safe distance can result in getting snatched up, whereas other times, you'll be perfectly fine at a distance that feels dangerous. And yet, this is