AFTERGLOW Reviews

Needs a lot of polishing, but it seems promising.

I have quite a lot to say about this game. This game contains a variety of things that make a game good: -visual style/atmosphere -upgrade system -bits of lore/story -combat -a variety of hand-crafted encounters/levels that utilize the game's mechanics to create challenge However, these characteristics should describe the skeletal structure of a game's design, not the game itself. THE GAME WORLD: AFTERGLOW has large, desolate environments that are rich in ATMOSPHERE, but navigating them is largely a process of moving forward in a straight line. Slowly. For hours. Without any vehicles, sprint, or fast travel. Now, I love atmosphere, and would guess that this game takes inspiration from Half LIfe 2 and STALKER, and am no stranger to large empty spaces in games. But, AFTERGLOW has taken this concept to an extreme where it simply cannot be enjoyed in this quantity. It's reasonable to expect a world like this to be ripe for exploration, but the perimeter of the primary path is consistently blocked by giant walls, empty fields, or invisible mines. Every game in history has an 'invisible wall' that stops a player from moving, but the world in AFTERGLOW is so empty for most of the playthrough that it has an uncanny feeling of walking through the world's widest hallway. The games has buildings, but there are very few meaningful interiors and many of the buildings are virtually as undetailed as literal primitive cubes. The game has a rather ambitious runtime/lots of 'CONTENT', but most of your time will be spent on very slow, repetitive mechanics. The game has PLATFORMING, but there is no visible feet/legs/shadow. The game has an UPGRADE system, but it is punishing to choose any upgrade aside from increased energy regeneration most of the time. The game has multiple WEAPONS, but they all shoot similar projectiles, just with varying arcs or firing rates. The game has combat encounters, but nearly all of them play out the same way, as I cover in the next section. THE ENEMY(S): This game has one enemy. One. This one enemy cannot move, it only rotates. This one enemy cannot use different tactics. This enemy can only shoot a projectile. The very first encounter with this enemy, which is just a few minutes into the game, is identical to nearly every encounter that follows. Every enemy is a turret that simply tracks your location and shoots, and can be avoided by simply holding a strafe button and shooting. This is as basic as a video game enemy can be. The fact that they shoot slightly different types of projectiles is completely inconsequential. Any amount of time spent programming more game mechanics would've been well spent, but combat, which constitutes most of the gameplay (ignoring the act of walking in a straight line), is completely de-prioritized. Even if it might be rewarding to upgrade weapons and more quickly dispatch turrets, it's knee-capped by the fact that these turrets are copy pasted relentlessly at very long distances from each other. UI: I'd like to briefly commend the game for providing a decent interface. The menus function well, the game does a good job of communicating its mechanics, and there is a surprisingly robust graphics configuration menu. My only complaint on the UI/UX front is that the upgrade screen features incorrect values for transactions after actually selecting an upgrade. Might as well mention here that the upgrade structure is quite nice: a small and large currency that generally have different functions but the large currency can be traded in. Simple and compelling. SUMMARY: This game is comparable to walking a literal mile in the desert, stepping on a single bug, and then walking another mile on an endless loop. If that sounds fun to you, then I must recommend AFTERGLOW. Otherwise, I feel compelled to say that although I admire its ambition and atmosphere, it is perhaps the most tedious game I have ever played. The game is extremely cheap at the time of this review, and retails for $10 normally. If I recall correctly, it was $15 at its initial release. I don't like to try and put a dollar amount on entertainment or art; I'll just judge whether it is enjoyable or not. I give it a 4/10, lots of potential, but ultimately not fun.