Horror game review: Afterfall Insanity Extended Edition (2011)

The game that I am going to be talking about this afternoon is one that you probably aren't all that familiar with, which is more than likely a good thing if I'm being honest, it's called Afterfall: InSanity Extended Edition. Afterfall: InSanity Extended Edition is a single player survival/horror game which was developed by Intoxicate Studios and then published by Nicolas Entertainment Group. If you haven't heard of the developer or publisher, that's probably because this is the only game that they've ever worked on or released from what I can tell. The game was originally released for the Windows/Steam platform in November of 2011, with a free updated version being given out later on about a year later. I'm reviewing this updated version of course on the Steam platform.  

Now, I'm not going to sit here and say that this is the worst game that I have ever played, but it's definitely not a good game at all. While there is a fairly decent sized chunk of the game that has some entertainment factor to it and could be considered enjoyable, it goes downhill fast and never comes back up from the downward spiral it takes. A good way to describe this game is if you tossed Dead Space, Fallout 3 and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series into a blender alongside a burning bag of garbage, and an old crack pipe. It's honestly hilarious how awful this game gets to be, especially with the inspiration that was taken from great horror/sci-fi series.  

As soon as you start playing this game you'll notice that it takes a lot of inspiration from the predecessors that the devs were fans of, which is me putting it nicely. The games protagonist is one of the very last human beings alive after a nuclear holocaust has happened, who makes a fair living as a psychologist within a dark, claustrophobic underground facility which is heavy controlled by the government. Of course, not too long goes by before things start getting bizarre and chaos promptly ensues as citizens within the shelter begin turning into mutated monsters that kill one another. You might be asking why I haven't mentioned his name, and I'll be honest. This game was so boring and forgettable that I honestly just don't remember it, because I didn't like or care about the character at all. 

The plot of this game is definitely one of it's weaker elements, as it's basically the plot of a B-horror movie with poorly done voice acting and visual elements to boot. (You know, just like the games that inspired it...Oh wait.) Not everything within the game is done poorly, however, as the first portion of the game has some interesting parts to the gameplay and provides a decent sense of paranoia in the atmosphere and environment. The dark mechanical areas work well, and provide some decent overall atmosphere within the game. Beyond that though, not much else is very impressive. The animations are very stiff to watch, the voice acting is hilariously bad in quite a few parts of the game and it has poor controls that feel clunky. The game just rarely does anything right, especially after you're a few hours deep into it.  

Now, while this is supposed to be a survival horror game, it's honestly pretty damn far away from being just that. I would honestly say this is much more of an action game with some minor, poorly done horror elements scattered about. It is also slightly a survival game, but only because ammo is scarce for the firearms you can find within the game. That really doesn't even matter though, since most of the combat in the game is done with melee weapons, which are split between blunt objects and edged weapons which are categorized in light and heavy. Something I noticed right away in the game is that you never really feel pressured even when all you have is a axe or a pipe to defend yourself with. That's something I think is an issue when you're playing a horror game with monsters in it. Even when fighting 3 or 4 enemies, you feel like you're beating a small child with a bag of oranges. It's just not scary or anxiety inducing. 

That is really a good way to describe the combat in the game, because it is beyond dull and boring. You will never have your pulse rise from being anxious or nervous or feeling like you're struggling to stay alive. All you need to do is click your mouse over and over until everything around you is dead. Man, that sure sounds fun right? There is a dodge and block system you can use, but honestly it seems less effective than just trying to beat or shoot things to death and going all out. There is a stamina system to try and counter balance this, but it refills itself pretty much instantly once you move slightly away from the enemies, nullifying any downside to being on offense the entire game. Maybe if the AI wasn't some of the worst I've ever seen, this would be a system that actually influenced the way that you play. But, it really freaking is. 

Besides the combat parts of the game, there are some small sections that break things up from pretending you're a B-movie action star. This is done by having very simple puzzles given for you to solve, or strange hacking sections of the game that are also pretty simple to do since they're almost all just a memory game or figuring out a simple pattern. Nothing here is challenging at all, and just feels like a waste of time that could have been spent trying to improve the other sections of the game that are poor. Which is basically the entire rest of the game that is presented to us. 

While the first part of the game has some decent atmosphere within it, the second half of the game ditches it all entirely. I can honestly say the game didn't even remotely come close to scaring me or making me nervous, but I can say that I appreciated the small semblance of a creepy atmosphere for the first few hours. But, beyond that the atmosphere is basically crap. About halfway into the game it becomes like a discount version of Escape from New York in video game form. The narrative becomes an even bigger mess at that point, as there are far too many quick time events for me to enjoy and combat focuses on firearms over melee weapons since several enemies appear that can't be beaten to death. This becomes an annoying issue when they don't increase the amount of ammo available to you though, making it just a pain in the balls. 

I don't quite understand why the game changes so much in this section, but it is beyond sloppily done even when the first half of the game was already pretty poorly done. This game is honestly a very sloppy piece of video gaming that is just beyond mediocre. All of the games problems become far more noticeable in the second half, and it shows how imbalanced the game really is. I probably would have thought the game was at least a bit better if they had stayed the course trying to make a creepy atmosphere for their poor horror game, but instead they give us a poor action game on top of a poor horror game. Considering what games inspired the creation of this, I find that hilarious. The amount of disappointment I felt was staggering, even when my expectations were pretty low. 

This game could have been at least a pretty entertaining horror game had it been polished up a bit with some rewrites to the script/story, more work on the animations and a better voice acting cast. More than likely, it would have been a good indie game success at the very least. I really feel like it's a shame, and that the people who developed the game should have known better than to put something like this out considering things like Dead Space, Fallout and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. were the biggest influences on the people who made this. It could have had its own little charm, but they just fell flat on their face and produced a product that I would never recommend to anyone unless they want something to laugh at. 

Well, I guess that's just about the end of this review. If you want to play something that is so bad that it makes you laugh from time to time, then I would recommend this. Otherwise, this game is a big stinker and I'd avoid it at all costs pretty much. The game could have been such an interesting piece considering the story and early atmosphere, but it all just goes downhill. I hope that if the devs have enough face to actually make another game, they learn from their mistakes and produce something that actually pays respect and tribute to the things that inspired it. 

Anyways, thanks for stopping by to check out the review. Appreciate it!