The task is easier said than done as Gaia explores districts full of waste, arid wastelands, and deteriorating skyscrapers. Thankfully, she possesses various abilities, from air dashing and double-jumping to bursts of life that can clear out hazardous oil. It will all be necessary to traverse the world, especially when the Devourers notice her.

For more details on After Us, check out our official review here, where we awarded it an eight out of ten. The platforming, controls and aesthetic are compelling, though there are some performance hiccups, middle-of-the-road combat and missed opportunities with the lore.

However, After Us isn’t about chiding humanity for its mistakes, but holding a magnifying glass to their most extreme outcomes. It’s about nature, specifically Gaia, the Spirit of Life, as she ventures to the ravaged wasteland to free the Spirits of the last animals. There isn’t as much to say as there is to witness, but the imagery is as raw as it is stunning.

"The environments are imaginative and more than a little overwhelming. Technically, they’re gorgeous, with stunning atmospherics and particle effects."

When first starting, Gaia witnesses the end of all the animals on Earth. Mother tells her of the Devourers and how she used the last of her energy to save each animal’s soul. However, they’re trapped in the animals’ desiccated bodies. It’s up to Gaia to find and free them. Along the way, there are minor Spirits to save, each adding to the mystical glade all the more as life flourishes anew (on the spiritual plane, at least).

Gaia ventures forth, taking in the sights and sounds of a post-Devourer landscape. And these environments are truly stunning to behold. Extensive highways have been torn apart and float as small land masses. Massive skyscrapers dot the landscape with hordes of Devourers either waiting in line or stumbling about. Tangled messes of power lines and extensive networks of TVs, advertising more things to consume, dwarf you.

The environments are imaginative and more than a little overwhelming. Technically, they’re gorgeous, with stunning atmospherics and particle effects. Perhaps most impressive is that such a dreary future could still offer such vivid colors. Even a grey cityscape looks beautiful amidst a sea of neon screens and signs.

As abstract as the imagery may come across, it resonates more than a little with the current state of the world. Perhaps the only flaw to all this is when the frame rate dips in Performance Mode in certain sections where it rains. Otherwise, you’ll get a near-constant 60 FPS throughout (Quality Mode is also available for 4K).

"Exploration can initially feel a bit too linear (trying to jump somewhere very much landable results in instant death), but quickly expands as you venture to new locations."

As such, there is minimal dialogue outside of the conversations with Mother. The environmental story-telling is strong, and seeing Gaia’s reactions to the state of the world (spoiler: none of it is happy) adds more emotional weight to her tasks.

The main Spirits you must rescue also have their fates tied to certain areas. The Crow is at the top of a stock exchange, sealed in a cage that requires climbing higher and higher. The Honeybee is amid a range of power plants and TVs, their hive mimicked by the snaking networks of power cables. As contrasting as they may seem, there are more similarities between humanity and nature than we think, and seeing what happens when that balance fails is fascinatingly morbid.

As Spirits populate the grove, you’ll see them roaming about unburdened and can even pet them. It would have been nice if the location could have served as more than a simple fast-travel hub.

Exploration can initially feel a bit too linear (trying to jump somewhere very much landable results in instant death), but quickly expands as you venture to new locations. At its core, After Us is a 3D platformer. Gaia starts with a simple jump before learning to sprint, hover, double jump, air dash, wall run and more. She can also release a burst of life to clear away some (but not all) oil spills or create vines on electric cables to grind on.

"The Devourers are well done and interesting conceptually – they’re as pitiful as they are disturbing, whether it’s seeing them attracted to shiny screens or mulling about aimlessly."

The overall controls are solid – Gaia is incredibly responsive, if a bit floaty, and transitioning between jumps, rail grinds, and dashes feels natural. The differences between jumps can be a little odd at times – a sprinting double jump won’t give as much height as a regular double jump, which can lead to falling in certain situations. These moments aren’t overtly punishing, as you respawn close to the same spot. While there is a bit of jank in some points, like when repositioning during wall-running, it’s nothing to ruin the experience.

Overall, there’s a healthy mix of platforming abilities, and After Us presents some intriguing scenarios to use them. For instance, Gaia’s burst can trigger temporary openings at the tops of cages in a certain section. You then have to open them from the side, the bottom and so on, traversing this precarious climb in various ways. Another example is while grinding rails in the power district, as you’ll need to jump over from one to the other or even transfer to some overhead.

Of course, the other major part of After Us is the Devourers. If it weren’t obvious enough, they’re humans, or what once passed as the same, now part of a new ecosystem of waste and decay. Some are stationary as husks, seemingly frozen in time and/or dead inside. Others are covered in oil, which has also grown sentient and threatens to drag Gaia into the abyss if she gets too close. The Devourers are well done and interesting conceptually – they’re as pitiful as they are disturbing, whether it’s seeing them attracted to shiny screens or mulling about aimlessly.

"As you purify Devourers, you unlock Memories – still images that tell the story of a specific area."

There are plenty of occasions where you’ll “fight” the Devourers – which is to say, Gaia can fire a light that passes through them (also used to collect the minor Spirits), dodge their attacks and move out of the way. She can also use her burst to stun them. Some Devourers are tankier than others, while others require attacking from behind.

Overall, very straightforward and nothing too special. I’d argue that combat could have been further streamlined, with attacks one-shotting the weaker Devourers. Since Gaia’s light purifies, this would have felt better, even if the Devourers are supposed to be this all-encompassing, part-ruinous, mostly pitiable force.

As you purify Devourers, you unlock Memories – still images that tell the story of a specific area. What could have made for interesting additional lore, like unique stories for different Devourers, makes for some of the weaker narrative aspects.

For instance, a man meets a woman. They get married, move to their home and have a child. The man does some gardening, and then some years later, his daughter has grown up and seemingly moved out. Cut to the man looking grumpy as he cleans up the area around what used to be his house, which turned into a commercial district. If that didn’t sound dull enough, it’s even tamer in-game.

"After Us doesn’t reinvent the wheel in platforming and exploration, but it offers very compelling gameplay in both areas."

Given the potential of these Memories to tell more personalized stories, it would have been nice for each to be a mini-sequence of animated images instead of a slideshow where you need to collect the slides. It’s also annoying when you get them out of order, missing the context of certain sequences. Sure, they’re optional collectibles, but they could have been way more.

After Us doesn’t reinvent the wheel in platforming and exploration, but it offers very compelling gameplay in both areas. The abstract art style is vivid and raw – all over the place, at times, but in a good way, while the environmental story-telling (outside of the Memories) is solid. Mild performance hiccups can be annoying, and the combat is mostly fine without being extraordinary. However, if you can face your future failures, it’s a somber yet endearing journey down the rabbit hole.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

Set in a far-flung future version of Earth where all life has been wiped out, you play as the Spirit Gaia and are tasked with salvaging and reviving the souls of extinct animals, restoring life to the planet in the process. The game will take players through a variety of ethereal locations while also offering a number of platforming and combat challenges, plenty of which is showcased in the new trailer. Check it out below.

After Us is due out later this month, on May 23, for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

After Us will launch on May 23, and it will take players to a surreal version of Earth set in a far-flung future where all life has been wiped out, with players playing as a small nymph brought into the world for the first time. In a PlayStation Blog post, Piccolo Studio’s general manager Alexis Corominas describes the game’s setting as “a strange, oneiric, but ultimately captivating world where everyday objects float around, some small, others massive, and where a coat of hazardous oil taints the land”.

On the gameplay front, After Us will employ a mix of combat, platforming, puzzles, and traversal challenges, all of which will be mixed up across the ten biomes that will form the game’s world. The game promises abstract art design, high-speed platforming and movement, a dynamic camera system, environmental storytelling, and more. Check out the gameplay trailer below for more details.

When it launches, After Us will be available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

The trailer seems to feature quite a bit of gameplay footage, but more than anything, it reveals exactly the kind of vibe that After Us will feature. The game seems to be a 3D platforming adventure game with elements of combat as well as puzzle solving.

According to the Steam page for the game, it will feature a “vast, surrealistic” world for players to explore. The protagonist, Gaia, has to explore a world where the last animals have died, and help rescue the souls of these animals.

A core theme for After Us seems to be the impact humans have on the world around them. The game’s mysterious apocalypse seems to have been caused by human impact, players will uncover just what lead to all animals in the world dying out throughout the course of the game.

After Us is set to be the second game developed by Piccolo Studio, after Arise: A Simple Story.

Die Gute Fabrik, based in Cologne, is working on a new story-driven game and wants to “push the boundaries of what games can be”. Meanwhile, Evening Star in Los Angeles, which last worked with Sega on Sonic Mania Plus, is working on its own unannounced 3D action platformer utilizing their proprietary Star Engine.

Then there’s Piccolo Studio, known for Arise: A Simple Story, and is currently developing “a unique new IP”. Finally, Quebec City-based Yellow Brick Games, comprised of industry vets who’ve worked on Dragon Age, Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six, and more, is working on an “ambitious” new action RPG, and wants to create “rich, interactive worlds” with “emergent systems”.

As you may have gathered given how little we know about all of these projects, they’re all confirmed to be in early development right now. At the earliest, they will begin launching in Private Division parent company Take-Two Interactive’s fiscal year 2024.

Private Division also has a publishing agreement in place for the next game developed by Moon Studios, the developers of Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps, while internal studio Intercept Games is currently working on Kerbal Space Program 2.

"There’s so much depth to the story Arise tells, and it succeeds in almost everything it attempts to do, making it an unmissable package for anyone looking for an touching and heartfelt experience."

When you look at a lot of other stories told in the gaming medium, even those that are well-received, it’s relatively uncommon that they embrace interactivity as a legitimate avenue for storytelling. While they use gameplay as moments for exposition, many games could work even without their interactive elements. With Arise, though, it’s hard to imagine another medium that could tell this story as well as gaming. When the cutscenes stop, the story doesn’t take a backseat. Instead, seemingly every aspect of the game adds something to the overall emotional impact the entire package presents. The environments, animations, and even the gameplay itself have clear impacts on the game’s story and tone, in a way that makes for a true escape into a world filled with symbolism and connection.

At its core, Arise is a platformer. Your primary method of interacting with the world is controlling a timeline of the environment. By pushing or pulling the right stick, you can go forward or backward in time, which changes the environment in unique ways and allows you to solve platforming puzzles. One level sees the timeline range from winter to spring, so moving the right stick can either add snow to the ground or melt the snow and raise water levels. Another has you controlling diminishing daylight to position beams of light and allow the man to stay safe from demons. Doing this allows you to traverse the environments and complete levels, each of which has a unique environmental change over time. Turning the time back to winter and increasing the snow level, for instance, might allow the man to jump down from a ledge onto the snow to save him from falling to his death, while melting it and increasing the water level may allow him to then jump on a wooden platform and move across the water to a previously unreachable island.

The magic of the gameplay is that each level uniquely represents a different period or significant event of the man’s life, and the game is very effective at allowing you to learn and improve at the gameplay without becoming repetitive or stale. Of the ten primary chapters, there were very few moments where I felt I was doing something I had already done, but I always felt as though I was becoming better at controlling the flow of time and platforming throughout the levels, especially as later levels require more precise timing. Admittedly, as these later levels progress, puzzles get a bit more difficult, and the fixed camera causes some depth and signposting problems, especially when the platforming becomes more precise and there’s less room for error. As an entire gameplay package, though, while this isn’t necessarily the first game with the idea of moving time back and forth, it’s one of the most effective at making it feel vital to the whole package, instead of just a means for more intricate puzzle-solving.

"The magic of the gameplay is that each level uniquely represents a different period or significant event of the man’s life, and the game is very effective at allowing you to learn and improve at the gameplay without becoming repetitive or stale."

The story, then, is the centerpiece that everything in this whole package adds to. While it’s not particularly complicated in terms of the actual story beats that play out in this man’s life, it does not take away from its impact. Starting from childhood, we don’t even know the name of the main character, and yet we can fully relate to and connect with him. From this moment on, you’ll have the ability to experience the highs and lows of life, from triumph to heartbreak. Even though the moments themselves aren’t particularly complicated or out of the blue, they remain full of emotion. Despite a lack of dialogue, I consistently felt emotionally connected to this man. One moment had me physically fist pump out of happiness, while another pushed me to tears. It does an incredible job of pacing to allow for some of the somewhat common occurrences to become so powerful and moving. Anything beyond these details, though, you should experience for yourself, as it’s worth it to experience it for yourself by interacting with the world.

It’s all a testament to how well the story is told, both in substance and in structure. The astoundingly beautiful score makes up for the lack of dialogue by creating a palpable tone for every moment. And while the cutscenes can tell enough of a story by themselves, the environments through which you’re interacting add so much to the story. Chapters that celebrate triumphant moments of this man’s life are bright and cheerful, using warmer colors and classic symbols for happiness. One unforgettable happy moment happens on top of a bed of sunflowers. But when the chapters take a turn and represent the sad or dejected moments, they become dark and depressing, using sparse lighting, raging fires, and demons. Each chapter is different and uniquely displays the distinct emotion felt in that point of life, even if they usually fall into either generally happy or generally sad. Some of the chapters are less impactful than others, overshadowed by more important moments or more unique elements of gameplay, but it’s admirable that almost every chapter takes a new perspective on the core gameplay and allows for a new understanding of that moment in life.

It’s beautifully designed, too. Darker chapters represent the more challenging moments in life, and, by design, are often more difficult. Brighter chapters, then, are more upbeat and are often much more forgiving, creating environments that focus more on the general beauty than on any particular struggle. The visuals complement these ideals, too. Nearly everything is beautifully animated, from the hand-drawn pictures that explain particular memories to the man himself, who, despite having no facial features apart from eyes, emotes exquisitely. It’s also incredibly detailed, showing the man’s progressing age as time passes, moving slower and even stopping to crack his back when he falls at older ages.

"Nearly everything is beautifully animated, from the hand-drawn pictures that explain particular memories to the man himself, who, despite having no facial features apart from eyes, emotes exquisitely."

Everything comes together to create the feeling of a real person who’s gone through an actual lifetime of memories. Framing the story as an old man looking back and reliving his memories allows it to be more reminiscent than experiential, but watching him experience his memories again is almost as powerful as your ability to experience it for the first time. In the 6 or so hours it took me to complete the game, this was the reason I could not put it down. It’s touching, beautiful, emotional, heartbreaking, and, most of all, real. Despite it being a simple story of one man, there are moments in here that almost any person can relate to. So yes, simple is a misleading term, but I applaud Piccolo Studio for using it, because even though they were right in the spirit of the name, they managed to fit a phenomenal experience inside it.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Piccolo Studio’s beautiful narrative adventure title, Arise: A Simple Story, is out today, and the developers have released a launch trailer to commemorate the occasion.

Along with setting up the game’s central premise, it also does a great job of conveying the tone the experience is going for, while showing interesting snippets of gameplay, and a variety of locations from the game. As always, the game’s art design continues to stand out. Take a look below.

In our review of Arise: A Simple Story, we called it “a fully immersive and unmissable experience” and praised it for its “diverse gameplay, beautiful environments, and touching story.” You can watch the full review through here.

Arise: A Simple Story is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, but the developers are also open to bringing the game to the Switch. You can get more details on the game in our interview with director Alexis Corominas through here.

"We were inspired by some concepts in Journey, mostly art direction and overall pace, but as a game we are very different in many aspects."

Arise gives off some pretty significant Journey vibes- was that game something you consciously looked at for inspiration? Are there any games that served as influences for Arise?

The launch of Journey opened a door to a type of game (and a type of studio) that was not noticed by a large audience before.

We were inspired by some concepts in Journey, mostly art direction and overall pace, but as a game we are very different in many aspects. In terms of experience we are closer to games like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, that employed two sticks for the gameplay, and Inside that uses the environments to communicate emotions. They are all games with strong personalities that have that “X factor” that makes them unique, and we think Arise has that in common with them.

In terms of music and art direction, we were also inspired by Studio Ghibli films. Actually the name of our studio, Piccolo, as well as denoting the size of our small studio, comes from a character in the film Porco Rosso.

How will the time-bending mechanics work from a gameplay point of view? Are they tied to puzzles or traversal?

The whole game is tied to the time mechanics, which makes sense when you’re telling the story of an old man that is recalling the highlights of his life.

explore the world with the left stick, and explore time with the right stick. Every chapter places you in a different time lapse and environment, and you can freely move the time back and forth. The challenges are a mix of exploring time, space, and platforming.

What happens in every chapter, and the kind of changes that time produces in the environment, are so diverse and creative that you are constantly surprised and using the controls in a different way.

What do you play at and how do you play evolves with the story – in Arise everything is tied together.

It seems like Arise is going to put a lot of emphasis on environmental storytelling, as the players’ environments shift alongside the nature of the story. Is that primarily how you’re looking to weave the game’s narrative, or are you also going for much more direct ways to tell your story?

Yes, environmental storytelling is very important in Arise, it plays a big role in putting you in the right mood at every step of the story. But there’s a clear, understandable story that is told through other elements that you find along the road.

Arise tells a universal tale, one that depicts the roller coaster that is life. The hero is an ordinary man, he could be any of us, and the story is not a complex plot, there are no dialogues, no words at all. This is why the subtitle is “A Simple Story”, because everyone will understand what we are talking about. Ultimately, it’s all about basic emotions that all human beings can relate to: joy, sadness, melancholy, excitement, love, hope…

How important is Arise’s music going to be in terms of contributing to the storytelling? David Garcia’s scores in previous games have certainly played a huge role- can we expect something similar in Arise?

Sure, music in Arise plays the same role as the environment, it underlines the different emotions of the story. David García has done something very special with the music, because we have a beautiful main theme that is constantly adapting to the different moods of the journey, from a tender lullaby to a mysterious and dark tune.

We are giving the full OST of the game as a bonus for pre-orders, which is an awesome gift. If you hear the complete OST once you have played the game, it’s as if you were still there, playing it: gameplay, story, and music are totally intertwined.

"Arise is a story about life, love, loss… it’s the story of a lifetime, so it makes sense that you can play it with the ones you love."

Can you tell us how co-op works in the game?

Arise is a story about life, love, loss… it’s the story of a lifetime, so it makes sense that you can play it with the ones you love.

The local cooperative mode, that we call “Together mode”, is the same game as the single player mode, but one player controls the old man, and the other player controls time. It’s very simple, and you can switch from single player to Together mode on the fly.

It’s a mode that forces players to communicate because the actions of both participants are equally important, so they really have the feeling of overcoming challenges together.

My wife plays now and then but she’s not a hardcore gamer. She loves watching me play story driven games, but I would love it even more if we could play together. There aren’t many local coop games out there to play with your loved one, be it your mate, daughter or grandpa. In Arise, the second player has a more relaxed, laid back experience, suited for the kind of players you would love to play with and never found the right game to do so.

Also, being a game about life and emotions, it’s a lot more powerful if you play with someone you love at your side. I’m eager to see reactions of couples that have played the game together.

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of Arise be?

For most players, the journey should take between 5-6 hours for the main story. There are also collectibles to be found and hunting them all down might take some more time.

The interesting things about the collectibles is that they expand on the main story. I’m not going to reveal what it is that you find, but we believe it is  good value for your effort.

That being said, when you build an emotional journey, you can’t rate it in terms of quantity, but it is all about quality, so we preferred to stick to what is crucial and memorable, so we actually cut some content that didn’t work well with the overall flow.

Do you have any plans to launch on Switch?

Of course, we would love to!

The Nintendo Switch looks like a great fit for our game. But in terms of hardware, and compared to the PS4 and Xbox One, it’s less powerful and therefore some sacrifices will have to be made.

Arise may not be as demanding as other games in terms of textures and geometry, but we have intensive post-processing effects and real-time lighting. Also, shifting back and forth through time impacts the world in different ways, and sometimes it takes a lot of CPU processing. This is because you have the full environment changing, we’re talking about hundreds of things moving at the same time.

Some great games have had average ports to the Switch, and that’s something we wouldn’t want to happen to Arise. We are estimating how to port it in the best possible way.

Will the game will feature Xbox One X specific enhancements? Is 4K/60fps on the cards?

On Xbox One X the game runs at full HD at 60 FPS.

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

The PS4 Pro also runs at full HD at 60 FPS.

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

Both PS4 and Xbox One run at full HD at 30 FPS.

The PS5 is confirmed to have an SSD. From a development perspective, how will this help you to improve game performance in the future?

Being a studio keen on story driven games, it’s essential that you can pace how everything flows. Shortening loading times is a great way to control your narrative. And even more, it gives you more freedom to explore different ways to tell a story, because you can have access to a lot more content to be used on the fly. The more content you can access, the more tools you have at your disposal.

"Being a studio keen on story driven games, it’s essential that you can pace how everything flows. Shortening loading times is a great way to control your narrative."

The PS5 will have a Zen 2 CPU processor which is a major leap over the CPUs found in the PS4 and Xbox One. From a development perspective, how will this help you in developing games of the future?

It would have been great to have it for Arise! We had some cool ideas that couldn’t be implemented with the current console generation, because they were too CPU intensive. More CPU performance equals to more creative freedom.

As a studio we think on the ideas first, and sometimes hardware limitations shrink those ideas. The less we have to shrink them, the better.

Xbox Scarlett features GDDR6 memory. How will this increase in memory bandwidth help you in the future?

Again, we value technology as a ladder that helps us reach our goals. The bigger the ladder, the higher the goals we can achieve. We are eager to start working with new  development kits.

Backwards compatibility is a big feature PS5. How will it help your past library to evolve and grow?

It’s great news for small and medium sized studios, because you can instantly offer your content to a broader audience. And from a player perspective it is also great, of course, most of my games are digital purchases, and I would love to have them available on a new console from day one.

The PS5 was recently confirmed to have Haptic enabled controllers. How do you think that will help games to evolve?

This is the thing I’m personally more excited about, more than raw processing numbers. More memory or more CPU at the end is a quantitative improvement, while the Haptic enabled controllers sound like the kind of qualitative step forward that can offer new ways of interaction with the player, it opens a lot of doors on how to tell things.

I want to try it and experiment with it ASAP!

Sony’s revealed lots of interesting new info on the PS5 lately, with the most notable and most recent new detail on the next gen console being that its controller will be replacing the industry standard rumble with something much more advanced- haptic feedback. In theory, it’s something that can have a tangible effect on the way players interact with games, and if done right, it can lead to much better immersion, among other things.

One developer who’s quite excited about this feature in particular is Alexis Corominas, game director at Piccolo Studio, developers of the upcoming narrative adventure title Arise: A Simple Story. Speaking in an interview with GamingBolt, Corominas said that haptic feedback in PS5’s controller is something he’s personally much more excited about that raw processing power or more memory, because unlike those things, haptic-enabled controllers can, in his own words, “offer new ways of interaction with the player.”

“This is the thing I’m personally more excited about, more than raw processing numbers,” Corominas told GamingBolt. “More memory or more CPU at the end is a quantitative improvement, while the Haptic enabled controllers sound like the kind of qualitative step forward that can offer new ways of interaction with the player, it opens a lot of doors on how to tell things.”

Corominas also spoke to us about other aspects of the PS5 and what it will offer, such as its backward compatibility, which Sony recently mentioned was still in development. As per Corominas, backward compatibility is not only great for small and mid-sized studios – seeing as their catalog of titles instantly becomes available to broader audiences – but also to players as well, especially those who make most of their purchases digitally.

“It’s great news for small and medium sized studios, because you can instantly offer your content to a broader audience,” he said. “And from a player perspective it is also great, of course, most of my games are digital purchases, and I would love to have them available on a new console from day one.”

The PS5 is confirmed to be launching during Holiday 2020, so we’ll see how well it implements these features, and how much of an impact they have. Meanwhile, Piccolo Studio’s Arise: A Simple Story is out for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC on December 3rd. In this very interview, Corominas also spoke to us about the possibility of a Switch port for the game- read more on that through here. Our full interview with Corominas will be live soon, so stay tuned.