DOS

Afterlife

If you ever wondered how Heaven and Hell look like, LucasArts's vision of the Afterlife might answer some of your interrogations with their new game so rightfully named "Afterlife". Far away from LucasArts's choice of predilection -- the adventure genre --, Afterlife's concept is based on what awaits living beings after they die, and puts you in charge of the organization a la 'Sim City 2000'. Chosen by the 'Powers That Be', you must control both Heaven and Hell, and make these two realms grow and prosper to welcome the SOULs (Stuff Of Unending Life) which have left the world of the living.

At the end of the day, Afterlife is really Sim City Plus with different scenery. Ardent players of the granddaddy of god games aren't going to find much that's different and so should perhaps knock a bit off the final score. However, if you're looking for something that says to the genre, 'Look, you can have all the fancy themes and ideas you like. Sim City is still the most playable game of its type so that's going to be our basic model', then Afterlife is your man. It manages to improve upon the basic game without remoulding it into something else entirely that loses playability in the process. I can see myself still returning to Afterlife in four or five years' time. Which is surely the best thing you can say about such a game.

Om du gillar spel i samma skola som Sim City 2000 och är begåvad med någon sorts humor ska du definitivt springa iväg och inhandla ett exemplar av Afterlife snarast. Amen.

Afterlife represents one of the most unusual videogame concepts to ever make it to store shelves. As a semi-omnipotent being (I know that's a bit of an oxymoron, but this game's full of things like that), you are responsible for laying out a functional heaven and hell to reward or punish the denizens of a strange planet. To do so, you must keep an eye on the most common sins and virtues of your people (who look a lot like the monsters from Critters), the balance of temporary to permanent souls in each of your buildings, and more mundane tasks like the building of roads and training facilities. For each soul you process you are rewarded with pennies from heaven, which may in turn be used to purchase more edifices and services.

Gibt es ein Leben nach Sam & Max und Indiana Jones 4? Für Michael Stemmle schon. Der Spieledesigner hatte es offensichtlich satt, einen Adventure-Superhit nach dem anderen programmieren zu müssen. Also verkündete er: Ihr Menschen bei LucasArts, laßt uns eine satirische Himmel-und-Hölle-Simulation erschaffen! Die nachvollziehbare Überlegung: Was mit Freizeitparks, Großstädten, Ameisenkolonien und Wolkenkratzern klappt, müßte doch eigentlich auch im Jenseits funktionieren. Zeit für das Jüngste Gericht der PC Games: Ist Afterlife etwa die schon lange erhoffte Reinkarnation von SimCity 2000?

Wenn das Leben nach dem Tod so enttäuschend ist wie Afterlife, dann wünsche ich uns allen viel Ausdauer beim Verweilen in irdischen Gefilden. LucasArts' erster Ausflug ins strategische "Götterspiel"-Nirwana begeistert mit einer überirdisch witzigen Idee. Deren Ausführung läßt aber zu wünschen übrig: Etwas mehr als einen mittelmäßigen SimCity-Clone hatte ich schon erwartet.