PDXCON, Paradox Interactive's convention in Berlin, just kicked off its announcement show with the news that Surviving The Aftermath, the post-apocalyptic colony manager announced last week, s out in early access today. Despite its name, and the fact it's a survival-based settlement builder, it's not got much in common with last year's Surviving Mars, and is being produced by a different team, Finnish studio Iceflake.
Surviving the Aftermath Announcement Trailer Watch on YouTube
I got to play it for a couple of hours yesterday, and I'd describe it as the colony manager for everyone who got really into the settlement building in Fallout 4. The tone, too, is very latter-day Fallout - while not exactly playing the apocalypse for laughs, it's nowhere near as bleak as Frostpunk, for example. It's got waste-scavenging and recycling mechanics reminiscent of fellow apocalyptic builder Flotsam, and feels a bit like Banished to play - only with more actual content. Some of that content includes insect farms, meteor showers, radiation and a travelling merchant who bears a weird resemblance to Doctor Robotnik.
Most of the game takes place in the classic, top-down view you'd expect from a colony sim, but there's also a hex-based world map where you can send survivors to scavenge, explore and battle with bandits who look a lot like Bane. While I liked the town-building bits, I wasn't so keen on the zoomed-out part of the game. But there'll be more to say about that later, as I'm going to be posting a proper preview of the game this evening.
Update - I didn't get time for this given I was busy at PDXCON, so I think I'll be working on a preview once the first update for the game is live.
Surviving The Aftermath is available now in early access on the Epic Games Store for £15.49. Paradox plan to release the full game in late 2020, on Steam as well.
