// PC GAMER — GAMING
Afterworld, Paradox's post-apocalyptic grand strategy game, let me conquer Florida with a band of alcoholic mutant cannibals
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With Afterworld, Paradox Development Studio is giving the post-apocalypse the Stellaris treatment, turning the end times into a ludicrously elaborate sandbox where you can live out all sorts of apocalyptic fantasies—whether you want to create a freewheeling band of road warriors or a new American empire.
I went to Sweden to play an alpha build of this ambitious behemoth last month, and I've been able to keep playing at home since then. But this is a Paradox game, so I still feel like I'm barely scraping its dusty, radioactive surface.
Here's a bit of what I've been getting up to, across multiple playthroughs:
Even in this alpha build, with its single origin and only one major threat, there's plenty to do—enough to give this would-be conqueror a bit of a headache, frankly. OK, before I get too far ahead of myself, here's the setup.
You are a band of survivors in the North American wasteland. Like Stellaris, you'll have a variety of starting options—your band's origins—but in this build there's only the Shelterborn. Think Fallout's vault dwellers. This gives you a bespoke starting scenario, where your vault is about to go kaboom and you've got to find a new place to live on the surface.
Unlike Stellaris, however, these origins let you give some input. In the Shelterborn origin, for instance, you get to decide how your survivors handled food riots, and if they want to rebuild America or dominate what remains. Your choices determine the character of your band and their starting resources.
Unlike Stellaris, however, these origins let you give some input.
From there you'll build and upgrade settlements, join up with other bands, explore ruins, create laws and belief systems, and butt heads with powerful dominions—sprawling empires ruled by immortals who were born before the collapse of civilisation. Dominions are a bit like Stellaris's fallen and awakened empires, in that they are established and immensely powerful right at the start of the game.
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