From a distance, After Us looks like a game about resurrecting a fallen world. That's certainly what I was expecting when I travelled to Barcelona for a hands-on demo this spring. A third-person platforming adventure from Piccolo Studios, the team behind GamesRadar+'s 2019 favourite Arise: A Simple Story, it casts you as Gaia, a ghostly child in the Studio Ghibli tradition with flowing luminous hair, who is searching vivid post-apocalyptic landscapes for the souls of extinct animals.
There are eight major souls, or Vessels, to recover, plus dozens of optional species found a little off the beaten path in each shattered and sprawling, but essentially linear urban environment. They appear as sparks, hovering beneath flyovers or tucked away in alleys full of rusting cars. Scoop them up by lobbing Gaia's glowing heart at them, and the animals in question refill the geography, with herds of deer and packs of dogs appearing in both explored levels and those still to come.
