Project Afterfall Review

Project Afterfall combines post-apocalyptic survival, Slavic mythology, strategic card-based encounters, and RPG progression into an ambitious experience where every decision can influence your journey.

Many post-apocalyptic RPGs explore the aftermath of Civilization’s collapse. Still, Project Afterfall does something different by blending traditional survival systems with Slavic mythology, science fiction themes, and fantasy-inspired storytelling. MuHa Games, the studio behind Thea: The Awakening and Thea 2: The Shattering, developed the game.

It blends multiple genres to offer an experience different from standard RPGs. Rather than tossing you into a wasteland with foes, the devs drop you into a universe where tech, magic, weird creatures, and humans fighting for survival all coexist. Project Afterfall calls itself a survival strategy RPG, and the longer you spend with its numerous systems, the more you understand that definition.

Exploration, resource management, character development, colony management, and card-based interactions all contribute significantly to the experience.

The game also offers a strong narrative element, with more than 200,000 words of branching storytelling that promises plenty of choices and alternative paths throughout the quest. One of the first things that jumps out is exactly how much freedom the game provides you when creating your character. You can choose from numerous character origins (technology, magic, darkness, divine). Each origin offers options and identities you can use to define the kind of character you want to manage.

The game also offers fascinating appearance customization, with varied hairstyles, clothing, and unusual skin colors. You can even create a character that looks rather weird, which fits the game's mix of fantasy and modern technology. But character creation isn't just about choosing an appearance. Your choices will also affect your character's skills, traits, and starting benefits.

You can choose from many races and character types, each with traits that can shape how you approach certain challenges. This makes the initial setup unexpectedly crucial, especially since the game often asks you to use specific abilities during confrontations.

Project Afterfall begins when your character, Alloy, wakes up after an emergency awakening protocol. Sorry to say, things haven’t gone so well. An AI attached to a gadget on your character's arm tells you the awakening procedure damaged your brain significantly, causing memory loss and confusion. You are also told your odds of survival aren't particularly hopeful.

The AI serves as your main source of knowledge at the start of the adventure.

It tells you what is wrong with you and gives you your mission instructions. It monitors your progress and offers ideas whenever something crucial happens. Several funny moments unfold between Alloy and the AI, especially when the AI tries to explain intricate issues to someone who can barely recall what happened.

Your first job is to find Dr. Blood Maker, a scientist who was kidnapped just before you woke up. She has something crucial for your survival: a biomag chip that must be inserted into your cerebral base. Without it, you are in more danger.

As you explore, you realize the world is full of abandoned places, unusual signals, peculiar survival challenges, and people who have adapted to the harsh environment around them. The plot slowly unfolds, revealing the Project's background, the mysterious events leading up to your waking, and the people behind it all who put you in this predicament.

What makes the storytelling remarkable is its mix of science fiction concepts and fantasy mythology. This isn't another survival narrative after the fall of Civilization; Civilizationnuniverse also includes supernatural abilities, odd animals, and links to the mythology of the developers’ earlier work. It provides Project Afterfall with its own personality.

Voice acting also makes interactions more engaging. I especially like the AI’s attitude; it gives simple explanations and sometimes cold replies, which is fun. Meanwhile, meeting other survivors brings in new personalities and opportunities to learn more about the world. Clearly, there's plenty of story to uncover, and the branching dialogue system gives you reasons to care about the choices you make during your adventure.

The gameplay is where Project Afterfall starts to show how many systems it wants you to control.

Exploration takes place on a map divided into hexagonal tiles, giving the experience a strategic structure that immediately recalls games like CiviliCivilizationwander the map, find points of interest, explore areas, gather resources, and complete missions.

You have a limited amount of action points for movement, so you can’t just go wherever you want regardless of what you have available. Movement varies by location, and once your points are depleted, you must complete your turn before moving on. This creates a fascinating rhythm: you have to choose whether to explore more places or focus on your current task.

Points of interest are extremely essential, as they often provide supplies, equipment, encounters, and opportunities to progress the story. Some places also present situations where your character needs to use specific abilities to overcome obstacles. You may come to a locked door, a broken machine, or a force field guarding a vital installation. You can tackle these scenarios differently depending on your character's strengths.

Another big piece is resource management. While exploring, players can find items such as plastic debris, witch bones, food ingredients, and other stuff. You can then use these resources to build, sustain your group, and improve your overall chances of survival. The camp management system further enhances this experience.

Have characters work on diverse activities such as territorial control, exploration, patrolling, scavenging, medical work, and more. These tasks let you build your community and give you more opportunities to collect resources. Crafting is linked to this system, and you can make various equipment and useful items from the materials you collect.

Depending on what you have, you can make weapons, meals, and other gear.

It’s especially satisfying to know that acquiring seemingly unimportant materials will one day help you upgrade your party’s gear. Pay attention to the upkeep system as well, since meals and their perks can affect your group’s condition and morale. These smaller management mechanics make it clear that survival takes more than just destroying enemies.

The inventory and equipment choices are also worth checking out. You can wear many items that boost stats like scouting, engineering, shield defense, and other skills. This is especially true when you need specific expertise. If you find something that helps improve a weakness in your character, it can make a big impact in future trials.

The card-based encounter system is one of the most interesting elements in Project Afterfall. Instead of resolving every scenario with standard combat or dialogue choices, the game often throws you into skill challenges where you must accomplish a successful result using your character’s abilities and available allies.

For example, during the first medical assessment, Alloy must perform a procedure despite the relatively low chance of success. You can boost your chances of success by having characters in your party help you. Each character has a special bonus, but using it costs energy. This generates an interesting risk/reward situation.

You might have a poor chance of pulling it off without help, but bringing other characters into the task can drastically improve your odds. But if you use too much energy on one battle, your party may be hard-pressed when another challenge comes around. What's interesting is that failure can have consequences. 

Depending on the outcome, a character may get hurt, a resource may be lost, or a situation may get harder. You can also spend materials to try again after a failure, giving you another shot at success if you're ready to pay the price. Combat adds another layer to the card-based mechanics. In your first encounter with an armed group, you're given a fighting probability, and you can choose to fight automatically.

The battle itself is over quickly, but how it goes still matters, because characters can be wounded even if your party wins.

That’s why preparation is key. You can’t go into every confrontation expecting your characters to exit unscathed. You have to watch their health, keep track of their energy, and use the medical systems when needed.

Another exciting feature is the opportunity to customize your fighting deck. You can gradually customize the cards and enhancers your group has access to, perhaps developing a layout that better suits your preferred method. That adds yet another progression mechanism on top of the usual gear and character attributes.

Perhaps the nicest part of the encounter system is that it lets you approach scenarios in multiple ways. When presented with a force field defending a facility, you can try to disable it with magic instead of using another approach. Or you might find a survivor stuck and surrounded by bandits. Bribe them, talk with them, or even fight them.

These events keep the gameplay from being completely predictable. Your character's strengths affect your choices, and the consequences make you think before you act. In Project Afterfall, you progress by completing encounters, exploring areas, collecting resources, and upgrading your characters. You earn experience points for many activities, and successful challenges may grant additional benefits.

Your characters’ skills will be vital in how you handle some circumstances. Depending on the context, skills like engineering, medicine, rituals, scouting, intimidation, athletics, and magic can all be valuable. The Destiny point system also adds another layer of growth. You can then invest these points in several programs that give you initial benefits and further bonuses.

Some upgrades provide you with more resources, while others boost your settlement’s population or unlock additional rewards. But you have to think hard about where to invest these points, as not all upgrades are immediately available. Some choices require you to be further along or to have more Destiny points than you do today.

Your friends are just as important. Each character has unique stats, powers, and qualities, so party management is integral to the experience. Placing the appropriate characters in specific confrontations can really boost your chances of success. The recruitment system also allows for some fascinating alternatives. You can also rescue other survivors, which can grow your group, but you have to think of their safety.

You can tell newly recruited characters not to fight, which is nice if you have anyone vital to protect.

Project Afterfall features a strange visual identity that sets it apart from more standard post-apocalyptic RPGs. Its universe blends future machinery, abandoned technological buildings, fantasy-inspired characters, and odd monsters. Character customization options help to define that persona right off. The different races and appearances offer your party a varied look, while the equipment and character designs further emphasize the blend of technology and mythology.

The interface also deserves praise. Alloy’s wrist-mounted device displays information about the world around her, while various menus organize character statistics, equipment, inventory, and management options. Some interface elements even resemble vintage game cartridges, lending the presentation a nostalgic feel. 

Another key feature of the visual presentation is the hex-based exploration map. It gives a good sense of the surrounding area and makes finding new places feel like an important part of the journey. But with the sheer quantity of menus and systems, it might be intimidating at first. Many alternatives are available, and it takes patience to figure out what each one does. A fuller account of some camp management activities would also make the early experience easier to understand. Another area where Project Afterfall leaves a strong impression is the audio presentation. The voice acting adds individuality to critical interactions and makes the opening story easier to follow.

The AI companion works especially well because its delivery matches the character’s odd situation. Alloy’s perplexity comes through in its analytical explanations, leading to some amusing discussion in the early stages. The sound design also helps with the atmosphere of the world, especially in exploration and encounters.

The game’s accessible gameplay gives you more room to appreciate the dialogue than the music itself, but the overall presentation helps develop the game's post-apocalyptic feel.

Project Afterfall is an ambitious RPG that blends numerous gameplay elements into one experience. It has real depth, blending survival management, hex-based exploration, character customization, card-based encounters, crafting, and branching storytelling. But its strongest point is perhaps how well its systems connect.

Your characters' talents affect encounters, your companions improve your odds of success, resources support crafting, and camp management offers more ways to grow your party. Even seemingly basic decisions can affect future encounters. The card-based challenge system is particularly fun because it makes you think about your available characters rather than falling back on a single solution. 

The many methods around hurdles and the interactions also make exploring more intriguing. Of course, there is a learning curve. Some of the administration options aren't obvious, and the number of systems offered early on can feel overwhelming. Don't forget combat prep and resource management, especially if your characters get hurt or run out of stamina.

But Project Afterfall has laid a solid basis for a personality-filled RPG. It is an interesting alternative to more familiar post-apocalyptic experiences, mixing Slavic mythology, science fiction, and survival mechanics. There’s definitely more to discover, but the introduction gives you plenty of reason to keep exploring.