Paradox Interactive, publishers of titles such as Hearts of Iron IV, has released a short teaser trailer for the next game in their Surviving brand, Surviving the Aftermath. The last game in this brand was Surviving Mars, which recently saw the release of the Green Planet expansion. While the trailer doesn’t show off any actual gameplay, it does set the scene for what we’ll be doing in it, showing something very different to the red planet. Check it out below and read on for more details.
Surviving the Aftermath will be officially revealed at PDXCON 2019 in Berlin on the 19th of October. However, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that this is a post-apocalyptic survival game. Whether that apocalypse was caused by bombs or asteroids doesn’t matter, what’s important is that players take the reins after some sort of world ending disaster. Surviving Mars was a game about pushing the limits of human ingenuity, moving them to their first new planet, and carving out an existence there.
Surviving the Aftermath will be very different, even the developers, Haemimont Games, have said as much. They explained in a press release that Surviving Mars allowed them to play with survival management mechanics, and they created something really special. Now they want to push those mechanics even further, and challenge players to do even more in some much tougher situations. If Surviving Mars was about expanding the prosperous human race, then Surviving the Aftermath is about keeping them alive without any of the technology that helped them get to Mars in the first place.
Most games with a post-apocalyptic setting put players in the shoes of a lone survivor, someone who they can mould to become a hero, or a menace, of whatever is left of the world. Surviving the Aftermath will put players in control of everyone who survived whatever disaster has befallen the Earth. There are no choices that will ensure the destruction of a small town such as Megaton, or doors to unlock for hideously mutated monsters in a building full of power mad survivors. In Surviving the Aftermath, players control everyone, and that’s part of what will make it different to every other survival game out there.
Games such as Frostpunk put players in charge of a colony, the last one on Earth, and task them with keeping them alive. If they don’t play their cards right, then they could lose everything and be murdered by their people. Surviving the Aftermath won’t be about ruling over a group of survivors though, it will be about making them work together for the greater good, and for keeping everyone safe and alive against the now hostile environment.
Surviving the Aftermath has a lot of directions that it could go in. There might be enemies that hunt the survivors at night, or it could just be that the planet is now extremely hazardous. However the game progresses, there are areas in which players can fall prey to the unknown in a very familiar setting. It will be interesting to see some gameplay when the title is finally shown off at PDXCON 2019. So far it’s been confirmed that Surviving the Aftermath will launch in late 2020 for PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One, after a year of early access on the Epic Game Store and Xbox Game Preview. Anyone who wants to will be able to start playing the game for this entire year, allowing them to experience it much, much sooner.
Let us know if you’re excited to see Surviving the Aftermath in the comments.