Hey! You! Go to Hell... in Afterparty, which is out now
Booze 'em up
Night School Studio’s follow-up to the fabulous Oxenfree is finally out. Afterparty sends two friends to Hell, which is not somewhere you’d expect to find the drinks flowing, not unless they’re filled with maggots and an off-brand coke. But flow the drinks do, because the only way to get out of there is to out-drink Satan and his relatives.
No need for a wristband, no need to prove who you are, and no need to bribe a bouncer. You’re in, and you want to get out.
At least you're there with your best bud. Oxenfree's genius was in making the various characters connect. Dialogue filled the gaps, built relationships, and bubbled along like a group of friends would. Afterparty has the same DNA, where Milo and Lola wander the afterlife, trying to survive the drinking session of their lives deaths.
RPS has quietly lusted for Oxenfree’s follow-up for a while now. The sadly dead John Walker was particularly taken with the notion that each drink you take forms your personality, so you can down a confidence-boosting liqueur and destroy someone at a game of beer pong, or you can drink to the point where your conscience is vomited out, escaping, and leaving you with a nasty case of the mean mouths.
You can go to and fro, lurching where you want to, and the game will carry on regardless. You can miss things, too. I can imagine discussing Afterparty with people like we got split up on a night out, each with a story to tell that the other person played no part in.
It's out now, on the Epic Games Store for £15.99/$19.99, and will eventually be on Steam.