Video Game / After Us

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After Us is an artistic Platform Game developed by Piccolo and Private Division and released in 2023 on PlayStation 5 and Steam.

After the last animal on Earth goes extinct by the hands of the uncaring Edaci, the Mother tasks her daughter, the fairy-like Gaia, to gather the souls of every extinct species, so that the Mother may bring new life in a world free of the misdeeds of Man.

During the game, Gaia travels the post-apocalyptic wastes of a world ruined by pollution and haunted by the petrified remains of the Edaci, and witnesses the atrocities by which the Edaci have condemned the planet and themselves.

Gameplay-wise, After Us is a linear 3D platformer interrupted by object collection and the occasional fight against the possessed Edaci. The main focus of the game is on its hauntingly tragic atmosphere and silent dirty landscapes, which carry the work's potent ambientalist message by showing the effects of untamed human intervention from the receiving end.

After Us contains the following tropes:

• Ambiguous Situation: Just what exactly happened to the world? Given the minimalist and often surrealist glimpses of the dreamlike environment, it's unclear whether what we see is the "real" world after the Apocalypse, some kind of afterlife, or the dying dream of the planet itself.
• Biblical Motifs:
  • The story is basically a rendition of Noah's Story Arc from the Book of Genesis: the wrath of God at the evil of Man, who end up exterminated. The Mother's homeplace, where animal souls are gathered before the world's renewal, is even called the Ark.
  • The ending is mostly reminiscent of Adam and Eve, and the Ark itself, more than a ship, resembles the garden of Eden.
  • On the other hand, Gaia's ultimate sacrifice for the renewal of life and the redemption of Mankind parallels Jesus's death in the New Testament.
• Big Good: The Mother, the caring goddess of all living things. Well, good for the animals at least. She is not above apocalyptic rage and disowning humanity for their sins against her other children.
• Bizarro Apocalypse: The Earth Gaia walks is a polluted wasteland suspended in a dreamlike state. The cruel fate of the Edaci, and the frozen state of the world, suggest the current situation is a direct consequence of the Mother's wrathful judgement.
• Central Theme: Environmentalism, and the damage that human negligence does to the planet and the other lifeforms inhabiting it.
  • Collecting the memories shows various people living (mostly) joyful lives, often thanks to resources brought by technological progress. Thus, the game does not condemn modernity and industry in general, but its excesses and the lack of awareness.
• Collection Sidequest: Two of them:
  • All animal souls, which show up as spheres of blue energy around the world. When one is gathered, the corresponding specimen (in form of ethereal spirits) will show up both in the world levels and in the Ark. Only the eight major ones are required to finish the game.
  • The memories collected when certain possessed Edaci are liberated, showing mostly joyful moments of human contemporary life.
• Crapsack World: Both for the animals, who are all dead even before the Apocalypse, and for the Edaci, who sleepwalk through the miserable hellscape they mindlessly crafted for themselves.
  • Double for the children, whom we find starving, hypnotically anchored to TV, and even moving heavy loads in a factory!
• Gaia's Vengeance: A very literal example: the Mother spells the end of the Edaci for the sorry state they brought the world to and for all the animal life they snuffed out.
• Green Aesop: The Earth is the common home of all lifeforms, of which humans are just one. A planet treated without care becomes an unlivable hellhole.
• Hub Level: The Ark, where the Mother dwells and where Gaia returns after each major soul is collected. Initially empty, it is gradually populated with all the lifeforms Gaia salvages from the dying Earth. Apart from a bit of solace between a gloomy level and another, the Ark does not offer any service to the player.
• Minimalism: The only dialogues in the game are Mother's "debriefing" after each major soul is collected; otherwise, the game is silent and all narration is demanded to the landscapes and the frozen dioramas showing the last moments of the Edaci.
• Ominous Multiple Screens: The Powerplant is filled with TV screens transmitting only what appears to be advertising. Many of these TV screens are stuck on the head of Edaci statues.
• Ominous Obsidian Ooze: Vast areas of the world are covered by an insidious sticky black goo, vaguely resembling oil. The worst is that tentacles protend from the goo, threatening to grab Gaia and drown her. The possessed Edaci, who aggressively try to capture Gaia, are covered in the same goo. The goo seems to spring from excavation drills, which can be turned off and converted in gardens acting as checkpoints.
• Player Character: Gaia, the fairy-like daughter of the Mother.
• Taken for Granite: Every location is "populated" by the petrified (and naked) remains of the Edaci. No explanation is given on what exactly happened to them, but their casual postures suggest the transformation was instantaneous and claimed them all at once.
• Television Portal: Certain TV screens in the Powerplant allow Gaia to teleport to another screen broadcasting the same ad.
• Time Stands Still: Throughout the world, many objects are found defying gravity, including the Edaci, who seem interrupted during mundane activities.