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Project Aftermath

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Developer: Games Faction Publisher: Games Faction Genre: Strategy > Real-Time Strategy Released: Oct 14, 2008 Players: 1 Website

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- 2008 Strategy Game of the Year - November 2008 Indie game Round-Up - Project Aftermath Review

Michael Scarpelli: 7

Sroject Aftermath is a large part of the reason BC Kings suffered so much for me this month; Project Aftermath looks like it was made 20 years in the future after BC Kings. I'm very impressed with the presentation of Aftermath. It looks like a game you'd pay $50 for and it plays smoothly. This is a really well put together product.

Aftermath is a fun, squad-based RTS with just a ton of options to play around with. You have different heroes to use, each hero has a set of powers to employ, between levels you purchase new armor and weapons and spend research points, each level you try to gain maximum energy points to boost rankings and rewards… there's a lot here.

Though, as I kept going, I found there was just as much to gripe about. The energy system in the game being called GOOP is a bit of a mood-breaking from the rest of the game's tone, for one. My largest gripe, though, is the squad tactics. Your troops start out looking pretty slick. You can arrange their formations, specify their attack weapons… but it turns out that on their own, they're useless. They attack random things, ignore teammates in danger, run off by themselves and get killed. It's annoying. A big part of survival is effective use of waypoints to attack… but you can't queue two heroes up with waypoint progressions separately and then unleash them at once. They either go as a pair, or go one after the other. All together, this kept me from really getting into the game.

Pany Haritatos: 9

Project: Aftermath is one of those games that makes you forget you're playing an indie game. The 3D graphics are slick and they run liquid smooth on my somewhat older machine. The story is interesting, presented in a memorable comic book style, and is supported by decent writing and professional quality voice acting. The hybrid RTS-action gameplay isn't perfect, but it is fun and different enough to grab your attention and keep it during the course of the campaign. The mouse control scheme is generally well done, but I was a little irritated a couple times when I issued move orders accidentally. Project: Aftermath is a quality game that is easy to recommend to anyone looking for a high-quality AAA game at an indie price.

Coby Utter: 8

Project Aftermath is a one trick pony but that one trick is pretty good. PA is touted as an RTS, but it's much more of a tactical action game. You won't find any resource collecting or settlement building here. What you will find is intense squad-based action and an interesting weapon and armor system. If your idea of the perfect RTS lacks wood cutting and constructing forgeries, then PA will be your gaming nirvana. Otherwise, you will likely find PA lacking in substantial depth.

The presentation for PA is solid and fairly polished. The visuals are good, the music and sounds are effective (surprisingly, the voice work is quite terrific) and the comic style cut-scenes add some nice variety. Technically, the game is also capable: the AI is reliable, the UI is nicely integrated and the game ran smoothly most of the time. PA is fun, but for me, only in limited bursts; the game never enveloped me to the point of losing track of time. That said, PA was my reliable and frequent dose of high octane action.

Russ Carroll: 9

Project Aftermath bunks the typical indie 'smallness' and goes all out with a game that feels like an epic a AAA title.

That feeling is helped in no small part by the graphics. The game looks absolutely fantastic.

Game play is squad-based RTS, which means you'll be controlling your five captains, who have a small unit of troops that will work around the commands you give your captain instead of controlling every individual unit.  It's much easier in that way and leads to some great game play.

The battle is in the future, complete with a wide assortment of blasters that are all destructive and beautiful to see on screen.There's also melee weapons for those who like to get up and personal with the enemy.

A large piece of the game revolves around the 'energy' type of the armor and weapons you are using. Each comes in a specific color (Red, Blue, Yellow, Green) and every enemy is also marked as to what type(s) of weapon and armory they have. You must continually equip your characters with different weapons to kill the enemies, which notably sometimes breaks down and feels clumsy when combat is intense, especially as you are switching back and forth between your squads.

Other than that issue, I really enjoyed Project Aftermath, despite it being fairly difficult and punishing, due to not having any save points. I really enjoyed it quite a bit more than any other squad-based RTS I've ever played.