After The Fall: Complete Edition Review

Two common phrases pop up when talking about virtual reality. The first is used when people recognise tell-tale mechanics or features about a trailer or press release that lead them to exclaim, “That looks like a VR game,” before the inevitable reveal that it is, in fact, a VR game. The other phrase is slightly more upbeat, birthed from curiosity and optimism. It’s most commonly uttered when someone is thinking about one of their favourite games or is getting increasingly invested in a game they’re playing for the first time, bringing them to say, “I wonder what this would be like in VR.” I can only assume that the fine folks at Vertigo Games found themselves saying exactly that when playing an office-wide game of Left 4 Dead, leading to the creation of their co-op shooter, After the Fall.

Following an apocalyptic event in the 1980s, the world has been left in ruin, ravaged by a perpetual snowstorm that has brought savage, zombie-like mutants known as the Snowbreed. Decades after the end of civilisation, humanity lives on in underground bunkers, relying on Harvest Runners to venture out into the world to eliminate Snowbreed and bring back the fuel-like substance known as Juice they leave behind.

You play as an unnamed survivor who, at the start of the game, is making their way through a Los Angeles that’s in a complete state of disrepair, so much like real-world LA, but covered in snow. After being jumped by a horde of Snowbreed, including a huge lad known as a Juggernaut, you’re frozen solid and left for dead until a badarse driving a snowcat comes barrelling through to defrost you and bring you to a safe haven known as The Line.

Alright chief, we all know you lift, now put me down

Much like the game’s aforementioned inspiration, the story told throughout the five-six hour campaign drives you from mission to mission, but it’s not the reason for attendance. The Line acts as a hub where up to 32 online players can upgrade their gear, purchase new weapons and buddy up with up to three other players to take on various challenges by using one of the many arcade cabinets dotted throughout the base. You can also test out your gear at the shooting range, making The Line one part social hub, one part gun-lover’s paradise.

Being a shooter, gunplay is After the Fall’s meat and potatoes. An armoury of ten unique weapons, including handguns, assault rifles and shotguns, can be found and purchased during the game, with dozens of attachments used to modify their stats. Every weapon handles differently, with recoil and firepower differing between each gun.

As soon as you’re handed your first firearm, you’ll be given two reload options: basic and advanced. Basic reloading feels similar to a light gun arcade cabinet, with a press of a face button ejecting your empty and a quick flick of the controller to your waist, getting you all prepped with a new magazine. The advanced, on the other hand, is far more deliberate and immersive, with you being required to retrieve the new mag from your waist, load it into the gun and then draw back the slide before you start blasting again. The advanced option will also grant an added 50% headshot damage to incentivise you to practice and persevere. While the basic method speaks to my lazy side, the rush of adrenaline you get from fumbling around with a new magazine as Snowbreed bound towards you is worth picking the advanced option alone.

Take a good hard look at yourselves fellas, I only had two pistols

While they’re definitely a zombie in all but name, the Snowbreed are no less terrifying and visually well designed. Covered in shards of ice, these mutants come in your tried and true, fast, exploding, heavy and colossal archetypes, each with their own distinct look and sound to help players identify the threat. Encountering huge waves of these freezing foes will surely get your blood pumping, especially as they tend to attack from various angles, but I would’ve liked some more variety. You don’t want too many enemies, as it would make preparation a nightmare, but some added flair, or a few unique types would’ve gone a long way.

Once you’ve gathered a squad of four, you can jump onto an arcade machine and load into one of three modes. The primary mode, Harvest Run, requires your team to collect Juice from areas with a high concentration of Snowbreed. These missions have you working through linear maps as you mow down waves of Snowbreed, progressing until you happen upon a safe room that lets you gather your thoughts and ammo before moving on. These safe rooms contain arcade machines that allow you to purchase ammo, consumables and throwables, such as pipe bombs that can turn the tide of battle.

A big issue with gearing up is that your inventory is extremely limited and often fidgety to access, as it resides in your wrists. Floppy Disks intensify this issue, collectables that must be deposited at an arcade machine to unlock weapon attachments and other valuable items. Having to ditch a life-saving Booster to carry the game’s answer to a progression system is irritating, to say the least.

I played with a group of fellas that spoke a different language, but miming my way through the mission was still better than putting up with a mullet-wearing computer.

Making it to the end of a Harvest Run level culminates in a huge standoff between your squad and a mess of Snowbreed, ending with a boss encounter that will test your skill and your synergy as a team. While these missions are fun, there are only five available maps, forcing repeat playthroughs before long. A range of difficulty options spices things up somewhat, but there’s undoubtedly a lack of content on offer when it comes to locales.

You can also test your mettle in Horde mode using the same maps. Doing exactly what it says on the tin, you and your team are thrown into the belly of the beast, with wave upon wave of Snowbreed descending on your location, wanting nothing more than to end your run prematurely. Like most horde modes, you’ll sporadically be given a respite to gear up and gather yourself before jumping back into the action.

Regardless of the mode, I strongly recommend playing with living, breathing, talking, sentient humans instead of the game’s AI fill-ins. While the CPU companions can make up the numbers if you’ve only got two mates, being the only flesh and blood on your team can be an exercise in punishment. They’re not the worst AI partners to grace the gaming landscape, but they are certainly not crackshots. I played with a group of fellas that spoke a different language, but miming my way through the mission was still better than putting up with a mullet-wearing computer.

A hallway of death, nice

If you’re not in a cooperative mood, the third mode, named Tundradome, might better scratch your violent itch. This PvP offering pits two teams of four against each other in Team Deathmatch, or you can throw caution to the wind in free-for-all. Matches begin with a service pistol and a Booster only, with all other weapons found lying around the map. With a few matches under my belt I can say that the Tundradome is a nice inclusion and will keep diehard After the Fall players happy, but I’d much prefer to play the co-op modes, or head to Pavlov for my PvE VR fix.

Final Thoughts

If co-op shooters are your bread and butter and you’ve picked up a PSVR2, you should certainly give After the Fall a whirl. Gunplay is tight, and the core experience feels well-suited to VR, producing nail-biting moments that will stick in your memory. The problem that cools off the good times had is the lack of interesting content. The missions, weapons, enemies and modes on offer are entertaining, but there aren’t enough of them to keep me coming back time and time again.

Reviewed on PS5 // Review code supplied by publisher

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