Afterlife

aka: Afterlife: A Última Palavra em Simuladores, Afterlife: Chaos im Jenseits, Afterlife: La Simulation Stratégique enfin Ressuscitée!, Afterlife: La Simulazione per Eccellenza, Afterlife: The Last Word in Sims
Moby ID: 202
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Buy on Windows
$5.99 new on Steam
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Description official descriptions

Afterlife is is a humorous strategy game similar to SimCity where the afterlife is subject to market-based economy. The player has to make it work by managing heaven and hell simultaneously.

In both hell and heaven the player constructs zones which deal with one of the seven capital sins respectively the corresponding virtues. Through the gates new souls arrive regularly which were sinful or virtues in one specific aspect. These go to the appropriate zones to receive their gifts or punishment - but only if the player constructed a street system. If there is no place left they wander through hell/heaven which is of course bad for business. After some time they get sent back to the home planet. These souls are the source of the player's income.

Of course these facilities also need personnel. These can be either hired or trained by building special training facilities. There are also additional things the player has to keep in mind, e.g. the satisfaction of each soul and the energy supply. Every buildings has to be micro-managed by adjusting their settings but there is also the possibility to use a tool which does it automatically - for a price.

Random disasters like "Birds of Paradise" (excrement rain down on the facilities) break the economic circle and challenge the player to repair the damage. Besides the free playing mode there are also five scenarios where the player has to solve certain tasks.

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Credits (DOS version)

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 76% (based on 24 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.3 out of 5 (based on 43 ratings with 7 reviews)

Great Sim City 2000 style game!

The Good
I loved Sim City and I loved this one. It's harder than it's Maxis predecessor, but still good. It's complex nature is perfect for the demiurge player. Everyone should play this game, whether they believe in an afterlife or not. Lucasarts should pursue an Afterlife 2 with different stuff.

The Bad
The only I didn't like about the game, is that I wasn't very good at it. Other than that, it was pretty good.

The Bottom Line
Fun, Sim city like, a must play

Windows · by Laey'zur Tiberius Hawke (9) · 2001

A Good Simcity clone with poor execution

The Good
Afterlife (1996) clearly demonstrates a tremendous amount of good-old- fashion LucasArts creativity, passion and talent that has generally worked well for them. On paper, the opportunity to control the daily workings of Heaven and Hell, through the creation of various rewards and punishments sounds like a fun simulation. In practice, the game does feature some impressive graphics, music and sound effects and a witty sense of humor.

The Bad
The fundamental flaw in the game lies in the execution. Their are simply too many, highly complicated, real time things (i.e. virtues, vices, infrastructure, etc.) that you have to constantly watch out for and develop in both heaven and hell or else its game over. Making the execution worse, the game's instruction manual failed to offer an in-depth explanation of the controls, mechanics and rules. This forced the player to go through a frustrating period of trial and error or buy an official LucasArts strategy guide. While the graphics are good most of the time, close-ups of objects look terrible.

The Bottom Line
Afterlife (1996) is a Simcity-style clone that attempts to put you in control of an alien population's heaven and hell. The execution is critical in simulation games such as this, and this is where the game's flaws show up. A tremendous amount of trial and error, or access to a good, in-depth strategy guide will be required to really comprehend how to do much in the game. The game's graphics are best seen from a distance. Perhaps the best feature of this game is its amazingly witty and satirical sense of humor. Die hard fans of LucasArts humor and "Simcity" simulation games will probably get the most out of this game.

Windows · by ETJB (428) · 2010

Didn't care for this one

The Good
Well, it was original...

The Bad
The game mechanics were just too complex. The learning curve was really high, and the amount of work requred to get a little humorus payoff did not work for me.

The Bottom Line
A great idea, but probably not enough design/prototyping to insure it was fun from the start.

Windows · by Tony Van (2803) · 2000

[ View all 7 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
intro shot correct? Corn Popper (69030) Jun 13, 2007

Trivia

Earth

The manual VEHEMENTLY denies that the world displayed in the game is earth. It specifically states "THIS IS NOT EARTH", even though they have the same seven sins and seven virtues as Christians do.

Secrets

By typing SAMNMAX three times, you can make Max trounce your poor little afterlife...it's quite amusing. SAVE FIRST!

Another Secret

By typing $@! five times, you can make the Death Star wreak havoc on your heaven or hell.

Information also contributed by Kasey Chang

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Ryan Lucas.

Linux added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. Antstream added by lights out party. Macintosh added by Wizo.

Additional contributors: Mitch Kocen, Rebound Boy, formercontrib, Patrick Bregger, BrandeX, dartg55, Edwin Drost, RetroArchives.fr.

Game added August 10, 1999. Last modified March 19, 2024.