The World After Review: A Product of Pandemic Culture

The World After by Burning Sunset is an ambitious project. It takes the form of a point-and-click adventure game but sets itself apart by using full-motion video to tell its story—many view FMV as an outdated tool in the gaming world. To combat the unavoidable criticism it would draw, the developers tried to push it to its limits, including a heavy emphasis on a story with puzzle and exploration segments. With all of those elements together, this has the chance to be an incredible experience. However, it doesn’t quite hit the mark that it was aiming for.

The World After is available on PC via Steam.

Story – A Legend of the Lockdown Era

Strong narratives have become a staple of the point-and-click genre, and adding FMV into the mix gives the game a distinct interactive movie feeling. Without giving too much away, the basic story follows a man pushing the boundaries of life during a global pandemic. When our main character finds an unusual note slipped under his door, he’s forced to navigate an uncomfortable environment in order to solve the mystery. Though I don’t want to spoil any of the twists and turns, I will say that the protagonist seemed far too willing to accept those twists. He didn’t seem to have any trouble accepting world-shattering realizations and often jumped to conclusions that I, as the player, was only beginning to understand.

For a game labeled as a mystery, our main character felt less like someone trying to figure out what’s happening, and more like he was just being led along by the plot. It made the story feel rushed as if I wasn’t following along as fast as the characters within it. The other characters were also a bit bland. They’re not three-dimensional, serving more to further the narrative than provide meaningful interactions. There are a few standout moments, but overall they don’t feel like real people. 

Choosing dialogue options with a live actor staring at you is part of why the game feels like an interactive movie

I was able to unlock three of what I believe are four endings the game has to offer. While multiple endings often add different layers to a game’s story and provide replay value, each playthrough seemed identical to me up until the final revelation. In games that have more than one conclusion, it’s important that each one feels satisfying regardless of whether or not you choose to unlock the others. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case here.

Only the ‘good’ ending answered most of the questions the game posed. When I got the ‘bad’ on my first playthrough, I felt forced into a second one to find an ending that would answer my remaining questions. There’s no way to return to important decision moments either, so most endings require an entire extra playthrough.

The pandemic-based storyline is very topical right now. COVID-19 has had a far-reaching impact on the games industry as a whole. But I worry about the game’s staying power. The setting is so tied to the pandemic lifestyle that it may not remain relevant a few years down the line. It’s impossible to say, but my guess would be that in a post-COVID world, some of the impact of the story may be lost. Although, it does offer an intriguing commentary on the pandemic and how it’s affected our lives.

Gameplay – A Paltry Point-and-Click

Point-and-click games are at their best when they allow the player to connect to the game’s world. They give an exceptional way for a player to explore maps and interact with their surroundings. The World After fell short of achieving those outcomes. The map didn’t encourage exploration. They often felt more like a straight line than a real-world that I could move around in. When I tried, I usually found only two or three interactable areas. I was most disappointed in the ruins section, which had incredible potential for exploration. But most of the areas I tried to access only gave me a short cutscene of the main character entering a doorway, looking around, and leaving. I’m left wondering why those options were even included.

These castle ruins are an area that would be fun to explore if the game allowed us to properly

The highlight of the game was experimenting with a device that lets players swap between day and night instantly. It gave a new system to interact with. Getting to know a new mechanic helped me stay invested when I was starting to get bored. The device plays a key role in both the narrative and gameplay. It was the key to most of the puzzle-solving segments and allowed the developers to include intricate and satisfying solutions. I wish there had been more techniques like this employed throughout the story. If there were, it might have even saved the lackluster experience.

Audio and Graphics – The Language Dilemma

Commenting on the graphics of an FMV game is difficult. I will say that the resolution was great, and I never experienced any lag. But much past that, I think the graphics have to speak for themselves here.

The audio, however, is worth dissecting. The music and sound effects were pretty standard. The music during intense scenes really got my blood pumping. Because the game is made by French developers, the audio and subtitles for voice lines naturally default to French. I had no trouble switching them over to English, but I did worry about grammatical errors. I encountered a few in the subtitles, but the actors dubbing the English voices corrected them in their voiceover.

Playing the game in its non-native language, though, created a slight disconnect. Casting a voice to dub a human character must be difficult. While most of the characters’ English voices fit well, a few were a bit jarring. Those characters’ voices and personalities didn’t seem to match up. It created an unnecessary distraction to the experience.

This game was reviewed on PC with a code provided by Burning Sunset.