58 / wfmag.ccReviewRated
GENRE
Adventure / Story /
Drinking
FORMAT
PC (tested) / Mac /
Switch / PS4 / XBO
DEVELOPER
Night School Studio
PUBLISHER
Night School Studio
PRICE
£15.99
RELEASE
Out nowInfo
ReviewThe master needs a margarita
ometimes adult life can seem a
bit like hell – we work day in, day
out at jobs which can feel pretty
torturous, reflecting upon how our
choices might’ve changed things,
upon whether we lost something vital when we
became adults. For Afterparty’s protagonists and
lifelong friends Milo and Lola, these uncertainties
are very real. Having just graduated college, they
stand on the brink of entering adult life, when
they suddenly die and are sent to actual hell.
But as above, so below. After
aeons of torment, the demons
have grown tired of their nine
to five, and now live for the
weekend, partying alongside
those they torture. Even the
Devil has grown disenfranchised, sequestering
himself away in his mansion and holding grand
parties every night. With the help of trusty cab
driver Sam, Milo and Lola discover their only
redemption is to beat the Devil in an ancient
drinking contest, thus earning their freedom.
It’s a goal which takes them all over the
underworld’s party district, ‘Nowhere’, and
it’s hard not to admire Afterparty’s hellish
neon nightlife, haunting choral bass, and the
wonderfully voiced cast of damned souls and
demonic entities. The game consists primarily
of dialogue, and though it can be occasionally
cheesy, it hits the right beats for the most part.
The ‘drinking’ component of the game manifests
mainly in a selection of cocktails at every diveand pit stop on your bar-crawl to oblivion.
Whether ‘Witty Vaudevillian’ or ‘Lovable Lush’,
each drink provides a different effect, unlocking
unique dialogue options, which, although
affecting little, do provide hilarious results.
Afterparty isn’t really a game about drinking, but
the idea does provide the beer pong and dance-
off minigames which will keep you relatively
entertained through the duration. It also lends
the game a structure, a night of madness and
escalation, allowing for the creation of one of the
most playful representations
of hell I’ve seen. But just like
drinking, beneath the veneer
of fun and superficiality,
deeper reflections are at work.
Afterparty uses hell to parody
and precipice the anxieties of adult life that Milo
and Lola are paradoxically fighting to return
to. It also explores a fear of losing ourselves, of
becoming ‘lost souls’ consumed by regret, and in
turn, those who are willing to remind us of who
we are. Because most of all, Afterparty is a game
about friends – not those who leave you when
the party ends, but those who stick around, and
will, quite literally, go through hell for you.Afterparty
S
VERDICT
Vibrant and playful, yet
also profound, Afterparty
gives the devil his due.86 %
Milo and Lola have died.
Time to drink!
The array of cocktails on
show is varied and fun.
REVIEWED BY
Sean Martin
ReviewRated
“Redemption is in
beating the Devil in
a drinking contest”HIGHLIGHT
One character I’ll definitely
remember from Afterparty
is Sister Mary Wormhorn,
personal demon. Her vivid
design couldn’t help but
remind me of the demon
troupe in The Master and
Margarita, and alongside
stellar voice acting, you’ll
love to hate her, as she
tries her best to make your
life miserable. Your journey sometimes
doesn’t involve drinking.