After man

Hello, adventurers of the unknown space!

"After Man" is a classic short (took me 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete, more or less) sci-fi/horror adventure by SnowOwl made with and released in 2011. I've already played and reviewed a bunch of games from this author, so I know what I was going to play, anyway if you didn't it's well worth taking a look, since there are several different dark adventures, each one with its own gimmicks, setting, characters and horrors!

A Night At Hotel Deuce
It Moves
Rust and Blood
Miserere
The Visitor
Skinwalker

Of all these games Miserere is probably the most similar, since it was another sci-fi/horror exploration game, that stars a lone protagonist (graphically quite similar, except that this time he's a white haired man in a green jumpsuit and not a brown haired man ina black jumpsuit, but the charset is pretty similar).

The year is sometime not so far into the future. Humanity is on the brink of destruction due to the environment being damaged by humanity. So what humanity does, is start building a huge spaceship, which will travel to a planet found far away which is likely to be able to harbor humanity. Our hero wakes up from the cryogenic chamber finding that the rest of the crew has gone missing, so he start exploring...


This is a dumb question... why should I leave in the dust a useful piece of equipment? Come on!

Ok, so the plot is pretty simple but the atmosphere of the game is convincing and impactful, and what follows is a dark exploration game that, unlike some of the games I mentioned before, has not only one ending, but three, depending on some choices that will be made from a certain point. Since the game has several save points here and there it may be wise to save so you can make your final choice without having to replay the whole game, but uh, that's my opinion!

Concerning the gameplay, this is an adventure but also a survival horror: not only we've to collect key and useful items, investigate and interact with various things, but also it's necessary to avoid hostile creatures, because like in Aline and Dead Space, these apparently abandoned starthips and space stations often hide some really dangerous creatures. And no, there is no combat, so being struck by these monsters means instant game over.
This lethality may surprise you if you're expecting a classic adventure and not a survival horror, by the way it's pretty clear when you're in danger and when you are standing inside a safe area.

Graphically the game is nice, as usual most of the places are made with custom assets or maybe rips, I do not know, in any case the environments are odd (the interiors of the starship are strange, but it's the far future, so maybe this is why the interiors are a bit "fancy") but convincing and fitting the mysterious setting, and it also starts ok but gets better and better as we play. But the atmosphere is also enhanced but some good background music, and same goes from the sound effects, for example when the protagonist walks through water.


Sadly no gas mask can save me from hese huge worms! Guess what? It's game over! Better reload the game!

Final Verdict
"After Man" is another solid adventure from SnowOwl, and a real classic. Any problem or issue with this game? I'd say no, except maybe for the slow walking speed that's a bit of a nuisance (especially when you're supposed to dodge monsters) and the intro was a tad too long, but aside for this I absolutely found no errors nor less serious issues.
In the end this is a pretty good game, despite being one of the first made by SnowOwl, and this is why, despite the absence of really important flaws, the rating isn't as high as some other game such as It Moves or Miserere. But this is still an ok game, and a must play if you like the genre and the other games I mentioned in the beginning.