Developer: Grave Danger Games
Publisher: Meridian4
Platform: PC (Steam)
Tested: PC (Steam)
AFTERGRINDER – Review
A game made solely to make you rage; that’s exactly what AFTERGRINDER is. Even the developers promote this aspect of the game. The feeling of accomplishment when you’re able to complete a level, the rage when you keep failing at that same exact spot and the yelling at the character when they don’t react as fast as you pressed the button all of these are examples of what you might experience with AFTERGRINDER. The game does release some emotions, both good and bad, so if you’re ready for that then AFTERGRINDER might be the game for you.
Story
Two trashin’ gangs battle each other for supremacy. A member of one gang falls in love with the sister of his rival. That girl is known as The Lady. She needs to rush from the Urbs to the big city before sundown because that’s when her lover will get a beat down. A war has to end and it’s The Lady’s mission to do so.
That’s the intro you get when you start the game but the developers say it themselves there actually isn’t really a story to this game. Its sole purpose is to make the player rage. They at least made an effort to kind of give you a story but it doesn’t really come back after the intro. It only explains a bit of one of the characters you’re able to play with: The Lady, unless you assume that the other two characters: The Shark and The Dude, are the rivals they are talking about. Since they don’t mention any names except for The Lady, assumptions are the only things that can be made.
Graphics
The graphics are pretty simple and don’t have that much detail but for this kind of game, too much detail could distract the players. All the backgrounds behind the obstacles are some sort of city skyline. There are 3 worlds present and for each world, there is a different background/ city skyline. The skyline is one big picture that loops throughout the level. From world 1 to world 3 the buildings do seem to get bigger but that might be because world 1 is in the “Urbs” and world 3 is in the big city as mentioned in the story. The worlds also go from day till night which is noticeable by the gradually darkening from world 1 – world 3.
The characters have their own looks but don’t have a face which might be because they are pretty small. The animation from the characters are pretty limited; other than the crouching and the boost animations, there isn’t much change to their pose. The makers did give them a bit of animation to give that feeling that they are moving but for some reason, The Lady seems to get more wind than The Shark or The Dude. Her hair and jacket animation might have something to do with that. Something does seem to be wrong with her back leg in her design because it looks like it makes an extra bent at the ankle. Could be because of her pants but it looks a bit weird.
There are also robots that appear in the game but like the rest of the game, they have a pretty simple design. They do look a bit more pixelated than the characters, almost in a “glitchy” sense. Other platforms and obstacles are also present but most of them are just straight lines or blocks like most of this game. As mentioned above the simple design is easier for the player to recognize since everything goes by fast so that might be a choice the developers made.
Sound
The music is very upbeat and great to get the player pumped up. When you get to a higher level in a world and from world 1- world 3; the music seems to get more suspenseful. The music actually goes up together with the difficulty and this does add to the experience of playing the game.
All the characters their sound effects are pretty much the same. It might have been nice had they made a bit of a different sound for the “plunk” as you switch to the ceiling, between characters. The Shark looks bulkier so he could have made more a “Bam!” sound than the other more obvious lighter characters.
Gameplay
AFTERGRINDER is an indie action arcade runner that makes almost every person rage that plays it. Before you decide to jump into the game, it might be wise to check the tutorial. The tutorial nicely explains the controls, what each platform does and what obstacles to avoid. Without knowing all this, the death count would only be higher before you figure it out. An obvious death counter is present when you start the game but instead of calling it a death counter it’s called a fail counter. When you start the game it might just be a lot of zero’s but it will soon fill up. There is space for fails up to 999 999 999 so nearly a billion. Which might say something about the game.
The player gets to choose his character between either The Dude or The Lady. There is also a third option, The Shark, that gets unlocked later in the game. Characters in this game are actually the difficulty: The Dude is slow so easier, The Lady is average speed so normal and The Shark is fast which means The Shark is the hardest difficulty.
After you decide a character/difficulty you can choose a level. It might be wisest to start with world 1 level 1 but the firsts levels from all 3 worlds are unlocked from the start. The difficulty between worlds does seem to increase but the obstacles are a bit different. Level 1 of every world is a bit easier and makes you familiar with the obstacles they use most in that world. The higher the level, the higher the difficulty but also the more obstacles. One level might just have lasers but then the next level has lasers and doors that only open with a button. The speed of the game and the way it’s laid out sometimes might make the world also move when you look away from your screen but that might just be part of the experience.
Fails are unavoidable the first time you play a somewhat harder level (not world 1 – level 1) because the best way to clear a level is almost muscle memory. The player has to know where a button was and which button not to press or when a laser is going to appear and so on. Memorizing the right path is important to be able to continue. If you press one wrong button or don’t press one at all, you’re dead.
Walls you have to avoid by either going up to the ceiling or down to the floor but sometimes it seems like the hitbox of the character is a bit weird, for example when you go up from the floor to a “ceiling block” it might kill you because it registered it as you bumping into that block. It’s hard to see how close you can get to a wall/block because everything moves so fast and of course if you rage it’s not your fault it’s the game’s fault.
There are 3 stars in every level and you try to get these while trying to get to the end without dying. Getting all three stars gives you gold for that level and if you replay the level; your character has a golden glow. Of course, the makers wouldn’t put the stars on the easiest path. If you’re trying to get all the stars but take one wrong path or hit the wrong button you might just block yourself from collecting them all.
Conclusion
AFTERGRINDER is not only a game that makes you rage but also makes you feel accomplished when you finally beat that level that you’ve been trying to beat for over an hour. Its speed might make your eyes almost see the world moving around you but the game always makes you come back to just beat that one level. In short, if you don’t mind yelling at your computer or boiling on the inside then AFTERGRINDER is the perfect game for you.
AFTERGRINDER - Review,
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