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After the End: Forsaken Destiny review - A magical mobile adventure with some lovely twists

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After the End: Forsaken Destiny review - A magical mobile adventure with some lovely twists

Mobile games are constantly surprising. I know we spend a lot of time bemoaning the fact that the App Store is full of shovelware, but barely a week goes by when something fresh and exciting doesn't find its way onto my iPad.

And this week is no different. This week that game is After the End: Forsaken Destiny. It's a lovely looking adventure puzzler with some amazing ideas and a heart of gold.

It's the sort of game you'll want to lose yourself in. And while there are a few niggles here and there, I can wholeheartedly recommend that you do.

Journey to the end

The game takes its visual cues from a combination of sources. There are shades of Journey here, as well as Monument Valley and Poco Eco. It's a dusty, symbolic combination of all three, with a good chunk of its own swagger thrown in.

You're playing a little black creature with a trailing red scarf, and you're working your way through a series of puzzling levels.

But there's something distinct about all the challenges. There are switches to pull, musical machines to play with, and sometimes you'll switch time periods, playing as a different character in slightly changed versions of the levels.

You control your character with a floating joystick, and move the camera around with swipes. You'll need to as well, because sometimes the solutions you're looking for won't be clear at first.

Context sensitive buttons pop up when you're near something you can interact with. There are soul gems to collect, and secret statue pieces you're going to need to grab as well.

One of the niggles concerns these statue lumps. You need them to unlock content later in the game, but that's never made clear, meaning you might have to head back to levels you've already completed to open up more content.

And sometimes you're left wondering where to go. The levels might be small, but you're not always sure about what it is you need to be doing. That's in part down to the camera, and in part down to slightly wonky signposting.

Don't stop believing

But these are minor problems with what is a dreamlike and engaging experience. Even when you get stuck, you're rarely stuck for very long. And the checkpoint system usually means you don't get thrown back too far if you do die.

After the End: Forsaken Destiny has a bit of a rubbish name, but it's a brilliant example of mobile gaming done right. Throw some cash at it, you're not going to be disappointed.

After the End: Forsaken Destiny review - A magical mobile adventure with some lovely twists

A clever and charming adventure that does more than enough right
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.