PS5 players can look forward to Hardspace: Shipbreaker, while PS4 players gain access to LEGO City Undercover, Just Cause 3, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun and Surviving the Aftermath.

PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers can look forward to four classic titles. Rally Cross and Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace are playable on PS4 and PS5, with both titles released on the PS1. Street Fighter: 30th Anniversary Collection, Legend of Mana and Secret of Mana (the 2018 remake) are playable on PS4.

Thanks to backwards compatibility, all PS4 titles will also be playable on PS5. As for PS Plus Essential subscribers, check out the latest offerings here (which includes A Plague Tale: Requiem).

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.

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.

Paradox Interactive have announced a new city-builder called Surviving the Aftermath, set to release in late 2020. It’s unique for a number of reasons, not the least of which includes an early access launch on the Epic Games Store later this year. This is essentially a follow-up to Surviving Mars, a title about colonizing the red planet and establishing dominance amidst competing colonies.

Surviving the Aftermath is a post-apocalyptic title though more details are yet to be revealed. Lead producer Nikhat Ali said that, “With the staggering growth of Surviving Mars this year we knew we had something special and we wanted to find new ways to utilize survival management gameplay. Surviving the Aftermath gives us the opportunity to experiment with these mechanics in new and interesting ways that we think our players will love.”

Check out the teaser trailer below. Along with fully launching next year for PC on the Epic Games Store and Steam, it’s also coming to PS4 and Xbox One (with a launch on Xbox Game Preview also coming this year). The early access deal is all the more interesting when you consider that Surviving Mars is free this week on the Epic Games Store. Simply login and claim the title on October 10th.

PDXCON 2019 is on October 19th so expect an official reveal and other details for Surviving the Aftermath at 1 AM PT on Twitch.