The premise here is simple. The hubris of mankind has brought about the end of the world, and what’s left is dealing with a smorgasbord of apocalyptic cataclysms- nuclear fallouts, fire raining down from the sky, disease, deadly winter storms, bandits and survivors at each other’s throats, you name it. In this mess, it falls to you to establish a small colony of survivors and make sure that you not only survive, but eventually, with the right management, grow, expand, and maybe, just maybe, thrive.

Surviving the Aftermath doles out tiny bits and pieces of lore and backstory for its world, but it is by no means something the game focuses on. There isn’t much of a story here, and once the setup is out of the way, the gameplay experience takes over. You occasionally get quests and are asked to make choices, but all of it bleeds into the mechanical core of the game- and it’s better for it. Surviving the Aftermath knows what it’s good at, and it smartly chooses to devote most of its attention to those strengths.

"City building and management simulators set in the post-apocalypse aren’t all that common, with a few notable exceptions, but building on the foundations laid down by its spiritual predecessor Surviving Mars, Surviving the Aftermath is one that should probably go down as one of the better experiences in this very limited group."

Chief among those strengths is the core gameplay loop, which is ridiculously addictive, as it should be in any good building and management simulator. Every game in Surviving the Aftermath starts out slow, setting you up in a procedurally generated map with a handful of survivors and limited options for building and upgrading things. In the first hour or so, you’ll mostly be building rudimentary structures to support your colonists’ basic needs, like housing and food, while also gathering resources to build those structures. Once you’ve built a gate for your colony, that’s when the game really begins, because at that point, not only can you start taking in more survivors to expand your settlement, you can also start sending out your Specialists out into the world map to gather resources and scout out more of the map.

It’s a loop that feeds itself in a very simple but equally effective manner. You’re constantly micromanaging the inner workings of your colony and making sure that people are being put to work on the things that you need in the immediate future, but at the same time, you’re also always working towards more long-term, big-picture goals, like unlocking upgrades in the tech tree across different categories. The two sides of the experience bleed into each other, and gathering more wood or plastic becomes just as important as upgrading your tents or unlocking new buildings and structures.

As you welcome more survivors into your colony and recruit more specialists, the speed at which your settlement grows and progresses exponentially improves as well, allowing you to explore more of the world, which, in turn, allows you to expand your colony even further. It’s a tight, addictive loop that grows more layered and engaging the more you play. Things can be a little cumbersome in the beginning, especially because Surviving the Aftermath doesn’t do a very good job of tutorializing, but once you pick up on the game’s central mechanics, everything quickly begins falling into place.

"It’s a tight, addictive loop that grows more layered and engaging the more you play."

This being the apocalypse, you are, of course, also tasked every so often with putting out fires, and here, the game isn’t always consistent in how engaging it is with the activities it comes up with. Some problems, like dealing with sick or injured colonists or dealing with attacks from wildlife, become automated once you have the right structures or people in place, but they’re still engaging, because you need to make sure you do have that stuff in place. Other problems, like cataclysms that occur every now and then – like nuclear fallouts and winter storms – demand more immediate attention, and this is where the game really leverages its post-apocalyptic setting to deliver more intense tasks and challenges.

Then there are moments where you’re asked to make choices, which, sadly, just aren’t as gripping as they should be. Colonists will come to you every so often with situations that will need you to make decisions as their leader. Someone might come to you with a new experimental idea that isn’t guaranteed to succeed, but if it does, could prove to be quite beneficial. Someone else might inform you of someone in the colony who’s been stealing resources with you, leaving you to decide how to deal with the one responsible. How you deal with these situations affects the overall happiness of your colonists, but that isn’t something that I’ve honestly ever fretted over too much. Yes, making the wrong decisions can make your colonists unhappy, but not only are the correct choices usually very easy and obvious, happiness itself is something that you can cheese back up to a decent level in other ways, which means the choices, more often than not, end up feeling hollow.

Though there’s plenty going on in Surviving the Aftermath at almost all times (especially as you progress further and further into a game), the game doesn’t ever feel too intense in the way that something like fellow post-apocalyptic management sim Frostpunk so often can, which is a little disappointing, because the post-apocalypse setting lends itself so well to intense challenge and tough decision-making. Even so, while the game doesn’t fully capitalize on its potential there, the mechanical core of the experience is solid and layered enough to always keep you engaged, at times almost to a dangerously addictive degree.

"While the game doesn’t fully capitalize on its potential there, the mechanical core of the experience is solid and layered enough to always keep you engaged, at times almost to a dangerously addictive degree."

Visually, Surviving the Aftermath is a decent game. None of its environments, people, or buildings ever exhibit the kind of detail that the absolute best management simulators are usually capable of exhibiting, which means simply zooming in on things and watching buildings being built or people going about their business isn’t quite as enjoyable as it could be. Even so, the game maintains a respectable level of visual quality even at the worst of time, and best of all, doesn’t often run into any major performance issues.

Surviving the Aftermath is a solid game. It might not be the best game of its kind – it doesn’t ever reach the same heights as something like Frostpunk, for instance – and it could have done more to leverage its post-apocalyptic setting, but at its core, it’s a well-made city builder and management sim with a strong mechanical base that can keep you hooked and thoroughly addicted for long stretches of time. Anyone who enjoys the genre should give this one a look.

The Xbox One version of this game was reviewed on the Xbox Series X via backward compatibility. 

Paradox Interactive announced with a trailer that Surviving the Aftermath will be exiting early access and launching in full on November 16. Until November 1, the game can be purchased on Steam for 25% off. Meanwhile, Paradox has also confirmed that the Outback Radio Pack has been added to the game’s Founder’s Edition, which means anyone who already has the game’s early access version will get the radio pack for free when it launches.

Currently available in early access on PC and Xbox One, Surviving the Aftermath will launch in full for those two platforms alongside PS4 and Nintendo Switch. There’s no word yet on whether native PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions are also planned.

Paradox Interactive have announced that they have acquired Iceflake Studios, developers of the upcoming post-apocalyptic colony builder Surviving the Aftermath. The Finnish studio becomes Paradox Interactive’s ninth total internal studio.

In a press release announcing the acquisition,  Iceflake Studios co-founder and studio manager Lasse Liljedahl said that Paradox and Iceflake’s “like-minded approach” to development had been an important factor in this deal.

“When we started our discussion with Paradox, we knew that we had a very like-minded approach,” said Liljedahl. “Our collaboration with Surviving the Aftermath has been excellent and showed how similar our approach to development is. So when Paradox suggested that we could become part of the family, we were thrilled. It did not hurt that we were fans of Paradox games ourselves, to begin with! This new step helps us to focus on our dream of becoming one of the best developers in the game genres we love so much.”

Paradox Interactive COO Charlotta Nilsson said, “The collaborative efforts we’ve shared thus far with Iceflake have given us all the confidence that this is a natural fit. Surviving the Aftermath fits the Paradox portfolio perfectly, and Iceflake has shown themselves to be the kind of partner who can help us create more titles in our core genres. Turning this relationship into a long-term partnership is an easy decision, and we’re eager to share more great games with our audience in the years to come.”

Surviving the Aftermath is currently in early access on PC via the Epic Games Store, and on Xbox One. You can get more information on the game in our interview with the developers from a few months back through here.

Last month, Paradox Interactive announced that it had opened a new studio in Barcelona, Spain to work on grand strategy titles. Shortly afterward, the company also confirmed that it had also signed a collective bargaining agreement with Swedish unions- you can read more on that through here.

"As we were developing Surviving Mars, we knew were onto something special and wanted to keep making Surviving games."

What prompted the idea for taking the ideas behind Surviving Mars, and then taking them into a much more grim post-apocalypse setting?

As we were developing Surviving Mars, we knew were onto something special and wanted to keep making Surviving games. Before Surviving Mars launched we were already looking into expanding our Surviving brand and explore more ways to apply the survival management mechanics. Around this time, Iceflake pitched us their post-apocalyptic colony builder, Surviving the Aftermath. They had exactly what we were looking for in a Surviving game, you could say we were the perfect match.

How does Surviving the Aftermath adjust its colony-building mechanics to bring them in line with the more ragtag and desperate nature of surviving in a post-apocalypse?

Surviving Mars tasked players with building a colony capable of sustaining human life on the inhospitable surface of Mars. In Surviving the Aftermath, Earth has suffered a world-ending event that has made the planet an inhospitable wasteland. Both games require players to secure basic resources and overcome challenges if they wish to survive. While technology and atmosphere are different, the core survival colony-builder gameplay experience is similar enough that players who are familiar with Surviving Mars will feel at home in Surviving the Aftermath.

The world of Surviving the Aftermath is populated with other survivors who are also struggling to survive. These groups of survivors can join your colony, trade their resources with you, or even threaten your people and safety. Players can send Specialists out into the world to explore the surroundings, gather resources, and even make contact with other colonies or bandit groups.

Since Surviving the Aftermath is in Early Access right now, we are taking player feedback seriously. If there are survival features our community would like to see, they can tell us and we can look at incorporating them into the game.

Given the game’s post-apocalypse setting, one would assume that combat and conflict are inherently going to be an important part of the process of surviving and expanding- can you talk about that aspect of the gameplay a little bit?

Player choice and how they interact with the other groups of survivors is a major element in Surviving the Aftermath. As survivors arrive at the player’s gate, the player can choose to let them in, turn them away, or trade resources. These choices can have lasting consequences that affect the colony’s future. The world map is populated with bandits and rival colonies players can engage with Specialists.

Each of these elements is going to get fleshed out more throughout the Early Access period. One example is we plan to introduce expanded diplomacy options players can utilize when dealing with another colony. We have a major update in the works that will enhance the world map features and how players interact with the world around them — be on the lookout when it goes live later this year!

"The current version of Surviving the Aftermath is focused on letting players establish their colonies and dealing with the immediate struggles of survival. We’re still far out from releasing end-game content that will go into making colonies sustainable in the long-term."

Surviving the Aftermath’s name suggests that the main goal in the game is less about rebuilding the world, and more about surviving. What sort of a balance is the game looking to strike there? Does it start out as pure and simple survival, and gradually, over time progress into building a secure future for your colony (maybe even beyond)?

As the game’s name suggests, it’s about survival in the aftermath of an apocalypse. Civilization has been wiped out and the world is in shambles. Players are tasked with building a sustainable colony for their group of survivors, how they survive is entirely up to the player and their choices. As the game progresses, players can find themselves working towards a sustainable future for their colony and people.

The current version of Surviving the Aftermath is focused on letting players establish their colonies and dealing with the immediate struggles of survival. We’re still far out from releasing end-game content that will go into making colonies sustainable in the long-term. We can share more details on what’s coming when we get closer to release.

What impact are the environments and the various biomes going to have on how players play?

Each biome offers unique challenges for players. Different resource types are more available in different parts of the world, even soil quality and temperatures are different depending on the biome. Biomes also have location-specific hazards that will change how players approach building their colonies and adds more layers of strategic gameplay to the experience.

We have plans to add more unique elements to the biomes during the Early Access period. Some features include biome-specific hazards affecting specialists and bandits as well as a quest system that updates based on the biome.

What sorts of different natural disasters are players going to come up against? Are you planning on adding more of these disasters to the game before its 1.0 launch?

Currently players can face a wide range of disasters including heat waves, droughts, lightning storms, meteor showers, and space debris. Each disaster affects the colony in different ways, some will destroy buildings while others will affect production. Players will need to react quickly to each disaster if they want their colony to survive.

We have plans to increase the variety of disasters throughout the Early Access period leading up to launch including outbursts of nuclear waste deposits, catastrophes that affect the temperature, and even making the post-apocalyptic wildlife a dangerous part of the environment.

"We have built an entire event system to handle all in-game events in Surviving the Aftermath. Throughout the game players will face single events, like a meteor falling, or a chain of events, like a Quest to learn more about the world. "

Can you talk about the “Events” and how randomized they are in nature? Do you see them as a major avenue for storytelling in the game?

We have built an entire event system to handle all in-game events in Surviving the Aftermath. Throughout the game players will face single events, like a meteor falling, or a chain of events, like a Quest to learn more about the world.

There are two different types of events players will experience: Gate events that happen at the colony and World events that happen away from the colony. While any colony’s Specialists are out exploring the world they can enter a “hot-spot” which will trigger a World event based on a “Hazard Value” that is assigned to each zone. Meanwhile, Gate events are thematically tied to what happens at the gate, like bandits arriving at the colony or traders looking for a deal.

We’ve actually built out an “overseer” of sorts into our dynamic difficulty options called the Gatekeeper that monitors the player’s progress and triggers events based on how well their colony is performing. If a player’s colony is doing well, then the Gatekeeper may trigger a meteor shower or heatwave. Likewise, if a player is struggling to get by, the Gatekeeper is less likely to trigger cataclysmic events. We don’t want our players to lose hope when playing, it’s supposed to be challenging, not impossible. We also made it so the Gatekeeper can be adjusted in the starting screen menus when a player is adjusting their difficulty.

We’re experimenting with ways to use the events system to build out the world’s story and we have some ideas. We can’t go into specifics just yet, but we can say that there will be some story-related events coming in future updates.

How much of a focus is there going to be on directly challenging the players with hard decisions?

Surviving in the aftermath of an apocalypse is not an easy task, and neither are the decisions you have to make if you want your colony to thrive. Choices can have consequences, some good and some bad, but we want players to always feel like they are in control of their own actions within the game. The world will react to the player based on their choices. For example, turning away all survivors at the gate may protect you from thieves or sabotage; however, your people will miss out on the skills those survivors bring to the colony and you will not be viewed favorably by the other groups in the world.

The player has the freedom to react to these situations however they please, but the world outside of the colony is watching and can respond.

What are the most important things you’re looking to achieve with the game’s fairly sizeable early access period?

One key thing we want to show players is that we are listening and we want our community to feel like their voice matters. We launched Surviving the Aftermath into Early Access so we can co-develop the game alongside our community, when their feedback can have the biggest impact.

Our players helped us make Surviving Mars into the success that it is today by giving us great feedback after it launched. We want to make Surviving the Aftermath the best Surviving game it can be and we know we can do that by working with our community from the beginning.

"Surviving in the aftermath of an apocalypse is not an easy task, and neither are the decisions you have to make if you want your colony to thrive. Choices can have consequences, some good and some bad, but we want players to always feel like they are in control of their own actions within the game."

Do you have any plans to launch on the Switch?

We have not announced any plans for Switch at this time.

Will the game will feature Xbox One X specific enhancements. What can players expect if they are playing the game on Xbox One X? Is 4K/60fps on the cards?

Surviving the Aftermath currently has higher graphics settings on Xbox One X and this will continue with future updates. We’re hoping to support 4k at 30FPS at launch, but for now, we’re shooting for solid 1080p/60FPs on Xbox One X.

And how will the PS4 Pro version turn out in terms of resolution and frame rate?

Currently, our team is aiming to have similar performance and features on PS4 Pro that will be available on Xbox One X.

How is the game running on the original Xbox One and PS4, frame rate and resolution wise?

Our current target is to maintain a stable 30FPS at 1080p. While this may shift slightly during the Early Access period, we will continuously work towards optimization and improving performance to reach our targets by official launch.

Announced shortly before PDXCON 2019, publisher Paradox Interactive’s Surviving the Aftermath is now in early access. It’s available on the Epic Games Store and for Xbox One through Xbox Game Preview, retailing for $19.99. Check out the trailer below to see some of the gameplay.

Surviving the Aftermath will launch fully by late 2020 – it will be coming to PS4 and Steam by then so don’t worry. The early access launch is to ensure that players are involved with the development process ASAP. As Paradox Interactive lead producer Nikhat Ali states, “With Surviving the Aftermath we want to get our players involved as early as possible so we can make sure we’re making the game they want to play. We have an ambitious content schedule ahead of us that includes monthly updates where we will incorporate feedback from our players and we’re confident the team at Iceflake is the right team for the job.”

Lasse Liljedahl, who is CEO of Iceflake Studios and lead designer, said, “Surviving the Aftermath is the game we’ve always wanted to make. When we pitched our plan to Paradox, they recognized our passion and commitment to making this game the best survival colony builder it can be. We’re beyond thrilled to finally share our dream project with the world and to have the support of one of the industry’s leading publishers.”

As the name indicates, you manage a colony of survivors after the end of the world. Constructing settlements, catering to colonists’ needs and much more is necessary to get back on your feet. There are also plenty of other natural disasters to deal with as well along with bandits and other threats.

With six biomes, a procedurally generated world and over 46 Specialists to recruit and send out into the wild, Surviving the Aftermath has a fair bit going on. Mods are also supported so players can introduce their own features into the game. Stay tuned for more details on the title in the coming months.