Have you ever drank with the devil in the pale moonlight?
Oxenfree holds a special place in my heart. It was the first game my wife and I played with each other when we were still dating. It was something we both enjoyed even if my wife doesn’t really play video games. It was due to the fact that unlike a lot of quality games that release on the daily, Oxenfree had voice talent that felt genuine. People stammered over their words, paused awkwardly, and just felt natural. Even when the story was strange and obtuse in some areas, we both thoroughly enjoyed it because of its delivery. Now, Night School Studios has came out with their next game Afterparty that feels a lot like Oxenfree in almost every way – including the delivery.
Lola and Milo are best friends that have pretty much grown up with each other. They have just recently graduated college and are attending a graduation party to say goodbye to classmates and drink the night away. Suddenly, they find themselves being processed by a demon who tells them they are now dead and are in Hell. While Hell is not what most people realize, it’s not a fire burning pit, there is fire and people do burn in some places, but the demons there hold 9 to 5 jobs where they torture the damned souls. After they clock out for the day they, along with humans,go bar hopping to drink their troubles and tortures away. Not knowing how they died, got sent to hell, or what exactly is going on, Lola and Milo decide to take on the loophole challenge – out drink Satan in a drinking contest and get a 2nd chance at life. It’s either that or torture for the rest of eternity.
Platforms: XB1, PS4, PC
MSRP: $19.99
Price I’d pay: $19.99
Taking pretty much every step from Oxenfree, Afterparty is a story-driven game where character interactions take the forefront. Players respond to people and demons with a number of dialog options that are time sensitive. This will affect how others interact with the duo or even how the duo interacts with each other. Since this is a drinking oriented game, all the drinks in Hell get a person plastered after only one. What makes the difference is the kind of drink. Ordering different kinds of drinks will give characters different dialog options based on what the drink does to the person. Some give the good ‘ole liquid courage or a flirtatious attitude while others will make Milo talk like a pirate or Lola talk like a mobster. Using these special drinks and dialog options open up new dialog paths as well as story options to the player so knowing what to say, or better yet how to say it, is what matters.
Players will be travelling through the streets and islands of Hell in a side scrolling 2.5D plane that looks pretty interesting with the art style they’re going for. It feels a little like Oxenfree combined with the style of the band Gorillaz animation. It’s both dark and colorful, much like a bar-laden street with bright neon signs displayed around.
Much of what made Oxenfree so special makes its return here in Afterparty. The dialog is so well done. Once again, it feels genuine even if these two unlikely heroes find themselves in a sports bar with a demon security guard named Fela which is short for Fellatio. At least, I think that’s his name. Afterparty leans heavily into the comedy and it got a few chuckles out of me, but it also hits hard in the drama at times. Since this is a story-driven game, the choices made determine how the story plays out. Some of these choices weren’t a walk in the park. They were actually hard to make at times where the main characters felt genuinely bad afterwards. This then leads to different endings based on what was chosen. Also, to keep up with all the bad things they have done, Milo and Lola are appointed a “Personal Demon” to constantly remind them of their faults and choices throughout their lives and the game.
There were a few issues I had with the game and full disclosure, this review is based on an older build of the game. The developers have assured me that many of the issues I experienced will be fixed in the day one patch, but I want to be fair and mention them anyway just in case others may experience them. Every once in a while the audio would bug out and go silent. This was only twice during my playthrough of the game. What happened a lot was the progression halts. There were times a scene was obviously supposed to end and it never did. The characters on the screen would finish their dialog and then just sit there. Usually during this time the screen would fade out into the next scene, but it never did. I would then have to quit the game completely back to my desktop and reload it. This happened at least eight or nine times in my four and a half hour playthough. To be honest, it got more annoying every time. Let’s just hope this day one patch really does fix the issues, because we have a good game on our hands here and I don’t want it to hamper anyone from enjoying it fully.
Along with the technical issues, I did find a few dialog options to be a bit confusing. There were a few times I chose an option and what was said was not really what was conveyed in the dialog bubble I had selected. Sure, I get it was what they meant, but I didn’t realize it was going to be that tone or said in that way, which ended up me not wanting that option, and since the dialog boxes that the player chooses are just paraphrases of what is actually said, it sometimes was a little confusing what was actually going to play out. It was only a few times, but it did happen during a pivotal moment near the end of the game and I was slightly bummed about it.
At the end of the day, Afterparty felt a lot like Oxenfree. In pretty much all the gameplay aspects, aside from the radio turner from Oxenfree and the aiming mini game in Afterparty during beer pong, they mostly play the same, and that is completely fine. What matters here is the story and the voice acting that goes along with it, and I’m happy to say that Afterparty stands up and does a fantastic job. For anyone looking for a good story driven game that has some pretty hard hitting decisions as well as some really goofy moments, Afterparty is a fun one to take on, and with the multiple options and branching paths, there is some room for replay in there as well.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
