In June 2023, the game After Us was presented at the UK Games Expo by the French publisher Catch Up-Games in an exclusive design, for which none other than Vincent Dutrait (El Dorado, Heat) was responsible. For the British market, Big Ben graced the cover of Deck Builder. After Us was released for the 2023 game thanks to Pegasus Spiele also on the German market. In this country, the Brandenburg Gate can be seen in the background of the cover. You can find out in this review whether the visually beautiful game can also be convincing in terms of gameplay.
In the year 2083, humanity has been extinct for several decades. Only remnants that have been reclaimed by nature remain on earth. The great apes slowly evolve, banding together in hordes, learning from each other, mastering the use of items left behind by humans, and seeking further knowledge.
A race for points
The players take on the role of a leader of one of the hordes. Our responsibility is to lead our horde on the path to collective intelligence. To do this we must have the most victory points at the end of the game. This occurs after the phase in which the first person reaches 80 points or more.
A round consists of three phases that all players can carry out at the same time. First of all, let's gather our horde. To do this, we draw four cards from our deck and try to arrange these four cards as profitably as possible. Each card has three rows with open or closed boxes with symbols. Each symbol is associated with a resource or a reward and is activated once the box it sits in is closed. With the four cards we try to close open boxes that are on the edge of the cards as much as possible in order to maintain the advantage.
Once we have placed our cards, we activate each closed box from left to right, starting with the top row. This usually brings us resources - in the form of grains, fruits, flowers and batteries - which we can use for the rewards of the next two rows. In the coming rows we can use the rewards, for example, to reactivate any box or gain victory points, anger and other resources. These rewards are usually linked to the fulfillment of certain requirements.
Hiring new primates
After we have activated all closed boxes, the second phase begins. Here, everyone playing simultaneously chooses one of four action discs and places it face down in front of them. These are then turned over and their effect is activated. If a player wants to use an adjacent opponent's effect in addition to his own, he can spend two resources of the same type to do so.
Then comes the deck building part of the game. Here we can strengthen our deck with a new primate. There are a total of four primate species of level 1 or 2. Depending on the type and level, these cost us 3 or 6 resources of the same type. Each primate species has a different focus in terms of the rewards it pays out. The orangutan provides us with more batteries, the gorillas with anger, the mandrills with victory points and the chimpanzees with the ability to reactivate any box. Depending on which level we receive more or less powerful rewards.
Finally, in the third phase of the round, all arranged cards are placed on the discard pile and the next round begins.
Reduce your deck through anger
At any time during your turn, you can spend four Rages to knock one of the arranged cards out of play and thus reduce your deck somewhat. This serves to keep your deck as slim as possible and, if necessary, to get the good cards back more quickly. As soon as the deck has been played through, the discard pile - typical of deck builders - is shuffled and serves as a new deck.
In addition, batteries can not only serve as a resource for rewards during the first phase. They can also be used to activate one of the three ancient items. Each item can only be activated once per round and has special effects that can help us win the game. For example, we can use 5 cards instead of 4 in the current round and thus get even more bonuses or use a powerful card again in the next round.
Information about After Us
| Number of people: 1-6 people Age: from 10 years Playing time: 40 to 60 minutes Difficulty: Higher family game Classification: Deck Builder Game idea: Florian Sirieix Illustrations: Vincent Dutrait Publisher: Pegasus Spiele, Catch Up Games Official Website: Link Year of publication: 2023 Language: German Cost: 44,99 Euro |
Conclusion
After Us is described as a connoisseur game by Pegasus Spiele. However, we would place the game more in the upper family range, as with, for example Wanderlust – adventures in summer camp We are dealing with a classic deck builder here. The defining innovation is the arrangement of the cards to close the boxes, which form a nice little puzzle. Since there are not too many different symbols in the game and they are clearly designed, After Us is quick to learn. After the first game at the latest, you will have a good feeling for what works well and what you should pay attention to.
In addition, After Us can be played well in a wide variety of constellations. Whether alone or with six people – After Us always works well. Children who often play board games will also find it easy to get into the game. Casual gamers won't have any major problems with After Us either. In the first games or rounds, everyone is welcome to play their moves one after the other and announce each action in order to keep mistakes to a minimum. But after the first few rounds, most people can usually manage on their own.
And this comes with a major weakness in the title: After Us you usually just play alone. There is almost no interaction. Each person draws four cards for themselves, arranges them in front of them and activates the boxes. Since no symbol has any influence on opponents, there are never any interactions here. This means you play the game mostly in silence. That's a bit of a shame, because one or two interactions would do the game a lot of good.
In our test games, we also had the feeling that certain types of primates were a little more powerful than others. A good mix is usually the winning factor, but mandrills are still the key to victory. If you only play on one type of primate, you can usually expect a very good result. That's a bit of a shame, because other species are neglected as a result.
But After Us is by no means a bad game. It's a lot of fun and can be a convincing nightcap. With After Us, casual gamers in particular can take an interesting look into the world of deck building games, because here they not only get the basic mechanics, but also an interesting puzzle in which optimization is an important part. However, it should be noted that no interactions take place here. You have to like this.
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
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Pegasus Games 51886G After Us * |
24,99 EUR |
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