Tonight it will shine with the comets upon impact

Paradox is synonymous with great titles of strategy, management and other wonders deeply rooted in the PC world. Genres that little by little have been adapting to consoles, as times change and so do the media. Nowadays almost everything is customizable, especially the most “simple” and “accessible” works compared to the most ultra-detailed and mega-complex ones that require a thousand keys at the same time. Surviving the Aftermath, developed by Iceflake Studios, is an example of a game suitable for both PC and consoles, although its beta and Early Access began as exclusive to PC, now they have reached consoles without any problem. The world as we knew it has fallen from grace. Twenty years ago, a meteor shower put humanity in check, the great powers, far from collaborating, fought among themselves. Dwindling armies in the face of incessant rain. Governments fallen from grace and radiation. There came a time when there were no longer armies to fight or countries to save, only ruins throughout the planet. The survivors roam a ravaged and polluted planet, building colonies where they can, hunting mutated animals, fending off bandits, and trying to reclaim civilization. Little by little we will achieve it, but it should not be ignored that perhaps there was "something" more behind the meteorites, "something" responsible for the fall of those strange objects that fell from space... what if it was not a natural catastrophe and there really was guilty? We don't know yet but it's up to us to discover the truth. The day to day in the Apocalypse Before starting a game we choose our degree of difficulty with caution because the games are long and then it cannot be modified. It is not about typical grades such as "Easy" or "Impossible" but about numerous factors that determine the difficulty and the events that we will experience. Aspects such as the size of the initial colony, greater or lesser frequency of environmental misfortunes (pandemics, nuclear cold waves, infernal heat, meteorites, plagues of rats) or aggressiveness of bandits, abundance or scarcity of resources, the ideology of our civilians (whether to focus more on military research, social welfare or health). As a reference, our game has a difficulty of 70%, which is equivalent to a medium degree, since I chose all the environmental variants in their fair measure, without being a coward but without being crazy. The generosity in options in different sections is appreciated because they adjust to the personal tastes of each one. If we are one of those who like difficulty but not randomness, if we like the idea of ​​starting with a small colony but not feeling defenseless against an unexpected meteorite or an excess of bandits. In other words, there are those who prefer to build their own utopian city without the risks or hostile distractions of external threats. Once our colonist sets up an improvised base, he will launch a flare so that his companions come closer and organize his new life. The sooner we must build shelters for all civilians and wood and plastic collection workshops, the minimum to get by before nightfall. There is a cycle of day and night, of the passing of days, not very detailed because it does not specify the time numerically but with an imprecise progress bar. More disconcerting is when the bar empties again and we are still in the current day instead of the next. Is it overtime, perhaps? We understand that both the action turn and the day do not exactly fit with that “day” bar, but it is not explained very well. The sustenance and growth of our colony requires resources, both natural such as wood, both artificial such as plastic or metal, as well as food and water. At first we just collect berries from the bushes, wood from other people's buildings in ruins and plastic from the mountains of garbage that obscure our views, everything is around us. However, little by little these resources are depleted and are ineffective for the complex constructions that we plan to build for our growing population. Thus, scientific research comes into play to design new tools and buildings divided into the fields of safety, health, resources, food and community. Designing novelties requires "science points", which are only available on the world map. Some are easy to harvest in abandoned buildings while in more complex ones like laboratories or factories you need to build research stations to extract it turn after turn. All these infrastructures will have to be improved sooner or later to be more useful. To obtain food we will study the hunter's cabin (small and large animals), orchards (vegetable and flax crops), fishing post (fresh food) and livestock farms (giant insects). For the resources we will build buildings specialized in the extraction of underground metals, concrete and plastics as well as warehouses to store these goods. Health is vital to keep colonists from dropping like bugs, from medical tents, mass graves for corpses to urinals for pooping. Not everything is survival because above all we are people and we need pleasures and knowledge. We need a better lifestyle (bigger houses, well built, with electricity and running water), schools to educate children, movie theaters and libraries to have fun and learn, also temples to pray or cemeteries to honor the deceased. Finally there is the issue of security, present in the observation and surveillance towers, armories to manufacture weapons, outposts to explore the outside world and especially in the great main gate where we keep outsiders at bay, we receive visits from unfortunates Helpless, we interrogate suspects and fend off bandits and attackers from other colonies. All these tasks are carried out by the settlers, each with their own skills, advantages and shortcomings that hinder or enhance their effectiveness for daily work. Some carry wounds such as lameness, hooks by hands or birth defects, others have traumas or a positive attitude towards life, some even have ideology or spiritual beliefs. This information is gathered in your file, along with your portrait, brief biography and your age (childhood, adulthood and old age). These characteristics are permanent until they die (either by accident, radiation, murder or old age) but others are temporary caused by recent events such as a misfortune in the colony (bandit assault, death of a friend, sleeping on the street) or happiness (resolution positive in the face of a daily conflict, vital improvement, celebration or births in the community). Our settlers are the cornerstone of our mandate, the reason we survive each day. Some will fall but others will be born, some will leave due to discontent and others will arrive due to the possibility of a better future with us. Many faces and many lives, but also many duplicates and clones, too many. We may build a great city, but if we do it at the expense of the health and happiness of our people, what good is it? This is personal to each one, the hungry, dirty and angry civilians also work, but not in the same way as the healthy, satiated and happy ones. What society do we want to build? The specialists, specialized in their own thing All men are equal but some are more equal than others, said a friendly pig. It sounds bad to say it but the truth is that above the common settlers are the specialists. These individuals have special skills and stats, exceptional skins and biographies, the only ones who can go out on the world map in search of new horizons. They are able to fight, investigate unknown areas, mine science points in the wasteland, collect unusual goods and food (meat from mutated cockroaches and poisonous worms), and accomplish missions such as rescuing civilians from the attack of mutated bears, liberating farms from bandits, help old people pick carrots. According to the specialty of the specialist, they will be resolved in a peaceful, hostile, stealthy or neutral manner. These side quests provide worthwhile rewards, however the main story quest is not as generous. It is interesting to unravel the great mystery of this new reality, the hidden truth and discover the culprits... but if we are not interested we can also ignore all this and continue with our farm. Specialists such as Wallaby, Baron, Mr. Corteza, Jill or Sobek they are strong, intelligent and resistant heroes... but they are also human and they die anyway. However, their final resting place is not decomposition in mass graves or cemeteries like the rest of the settlers, but they will be honored with their own grave, to be remembered for years. Many specialists will arrive in our colony as members of caravans of survivors who will ask us for asylum, or we will hire them in exchange for goods and materials There are more than 101 but we will not be able to hire them all at once because there is a limit, even so a high limit , according to an emerging colony, bigger every day and with more needs During our day to day we will witness internal disputes, requests or problems from people that we will have to solve in one way or another... or ignore it. From disputes over whether children should be children or help with adult chores, to allowing an intrepid civilian to venture into the woods in search of medicinal mushrooms. The results can be negative or positive, you never know, maybe we increase people's happiness and treasures or someone gets hurt and everyone is sad. Sometimes the same problem can have different ones each time, because in a way it is quite random. Other decisions that we must make are the requests and demands of strange and unknown individuals from the outside world who will be stationed in front of our gate. Some will be desperate for food, others will ask for materials because some bandits have kidnapped their relatives, some will offer clothing and food exchanges, some are hostile and others are good people, vendors, cult leaders and a long list of quirky people. It is up to us to help them, being more or less generous, or stick to their fury. Gratitude is unexpected, sometimes we receive something in return, so it's not a bad idea to be compassionate... but there are also people who don't take "No" for an answer so we better prepare for the battle. Our gate must resist enemy attacks for a limited time and, as with attacks by bandits or mutated animals, we can lose or win the battle. Losing a battle does not mean that our entire village is destroyed and the game comes to an end, at least not with the majority of clashes, but that we lose resources, civilians or the sense of security of the community. At first it seems a bit strange that some enemies retreat in the middle of combat even though they are at an advantage, really, but almost better this way. In these moments of chaos, the essential thing is to activate the alarm so that the most helpless members of the village take refuge at home and the strongest (guards or civilians with weapons) go out to fight. If we have a specialist nearby, especially if he is specialized in the combat role, the situation will be favorable for us. As our colony grows we will realize that the initial ground falls short and we must expand. The world is a great place full of secrets and treasures, inhabited by enemies and potential allies. A set of areas annexed to each other, of varied biomes from mountainous, snowy, swampy, desert areas to contaminated places. Our specialists will walk around a bigger and bigger map as we explore unknown areas. We will inspect places with resources, we will fight threats such as bandit dens, we will complete missions (main and secondary) and we will contact other colonies like ours. All this is possible thanks to a system of turns and action points that are reset every day. Specialists have their own action points to move around the map, inspect buildings, scan terrain hidden by mist, fight, build outposts, and fight, all of which require several hours of real-time to complete. At first we will run into nearby buildings full of materials (clothes, tools, medicines, batteries), knowledge (for research), food and some small-time bandits, but the more we travel around the world we will meet civilizations with which to establish treaties of peace, trade agreements or the war for survival. All governed by a reputation system. How bellicose are you today? Strange daily life in chaos The artistic section is discreet, functional but correct. It doesn't need technical boasts to get us into a post-apocalyptic world full of dangers, a radiation-poisoned earth, dilapidated buildings built with scrap metal and civilians with tired faces who have seen better days. The zenithal view is essential to control our terrain effectively and study the territory still unexplored, it is also quite controlled and can almost be placed at ground level for a greater "sensation of closeness". We would have liked a first-person mode to explore our village, as was possible in Theme Park World, although it is more of a personal desire than a real need, but there is no doubt that this would enhance the feeling that we are founding a new kingdom among the ashes of the planet There is also a "Photo Mode" with which we will take the occasional photograph, with its detailed filters, vignette size and the option to choose the time of day (morning, afternoon, night). Perhaps this addition is not the most interesting for a game more focused on playability and fun than on visual display, but more than one will be excited to immortalize their cities and their clashes against giant sand worms. It begins as a correct accompaniment for our long game sessions, but little by little we will appreciate its feeling and symbolism. It introduces us to a dying world with glimpses of hope, sometimes mystical and sometimes harsh, sometimes epic and sometimes melancholy. On the one hand we have background music and on the other different selectable stations, such as Radio Apocalypse or Wild Frontier Radio, which further enhance the experience thanks to their decadent western melodies, future low-fi and dystopian everyday life, as well as the use of a variety of instruments from synthesizers to guitars. Good dubbing is carried out by a narrator with a hardened voice, by a man who has lived a long time and is not as old as he seems, but who still retains his spirit to describe each situation with grandiloquence. Finally, the entire game is very well translated, in a fairly professional neutral Spanish. Conclusion Surviving the Aftermath is an installment in Paradox's Surviving series that will delight fans of the city management and survival simulation genre, but also newcomers. It may not be the most challenging or longest work for the greatest experts in the field, but it is still fun, and it also has a good difficulty curve. Thanks to its detailed difficulty selector, it will allow novices to start in a game that can be very cruel at times but also patient and compassionate. Some prefer the randomness of natural disasters and meteorites while others prefer daily risks such as food shortages, having a reduced population or a war with the colony next door. It's a matter of priorities. Without the need for technical boasts in its visual section, since the important thing is its absorbing and addictive playable mechanics, it manages to convey the immensity, harshness and even majesty of a reborn world. Its leafy forests, its wastelands, its phosphorescent polluted areas, its closed nights, its promising mornings, its afternoons of extreme heat and its elegant days of icy cold and infinite snow. Personally, it brought back memories of Populous: The Beginning and the extinct “God Game” genre, since we continue to be a superior entity that observes its citizens working and living, like busy ants, being born and dying, always in constant change. . In short, we are offered hours and hours of entertainment until the end of the world. Quite an example that this genre adapts very well to consoles, perhaps the control is somewhat different but not worse. What better than to say goodbye to this dying 2021 with a game about life after the Apocalypse?Digital copy provided by Koch Media