2083. Humankind died out decades ago, leaving behind mere vestiges of its time on Earth. As time went by, nature reclaimed land all over. In this resurgent world, apes have kept evolving. They've been gathering in tribes, growing, mastering human items, and advancing in their quest for knowledge. As the leader of such a tribe, you need to guide it towards collective intelligence.
After Us is a deck-building and resource management game featuring an original and intuitive combo system in which players are each leading a tribe of apes. Starting only with tamarins, they combine their cards each turn to collect resources and gather victory points, attracting new apes into their tribe along the way: powerful gorillas, resourceful orangutans, versatile chimpanzees, and wise mandrills. The first player to obtain 80 points prevails in the race to collective intelligence — and wins the game.
— description from the designer
- Limited edition exposition cover art
- Colorful artwork
- Interesting card-linking mechanic as core feature
- Theme is purely aesthetic with no mechanical integration
- Card linking mechanic is sole source of gameplay depth
- Solo mode feels tacked on and underdeveloped
- Solo AI gains points too quickly to be beatable
- No difficulty levels for solo mode
- Essentially solitaire game with weak multiplayer
- Minimal player interaction
- No reason to play with more than 2-3 players
- Players ape over card choices slowing gameplay
- Impulse purchase the host regrets
- Ape society and resource gathering
- Post-apocalyptic Planet of the Apes universe
- Card combos in post-apocalyptic world
- Planet Unknown
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Ape specialization — Four ape types with different mechanics (Rage, Batteries, Victory Points)
- Card lineup — Players arrange four cards each round to create linked combos
- card linking — Create complete chains by linking card edges
- Resource conversion — Cards have resource costs and bonuses with banners
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I really enjoyed it clean you just take the cards you move up the prices
- I didn't really know much about this game because I missed a Kickstarter
- I am hyped for this game hegemony has probably been my best game I've played of the year so far
- You need to temper your expectations a bit for this game
- trade show it's just it's kind of irresponsible really
- I'm getting sick of it