Their identities and goals are what intrigued me. The specialist selection screen also has little context to help with your first game or two. I picked a scout and warrior the first time, though not because I was particularly keen on their perks. Surviving the Aftermath gives you nearly a dozen unique characters with interesting backstories, and theyвЂ™re the heroes of your settlement with special abilities to help in certain areas, such as fighting or scouting. Surviving the Aftermath adopts a minimalist approach to its tutorials that often meant I was scrambling to figure out what it expected from meДЄfter that, itвЂ™s time to meet your specialists. A happy side effect of confusing difficulty options or not, I appreciated the flexibility. They woke up grumpy every day thanks to a lack of hygiene facilities and a dearth of drinkable water, but it had minimal effect on the settlementвЂ™s overall satisfaction. Happy survivors happy something that rhymes with survivorsД®ither way, it turns out my wish for happy survivors was a good thing. More extensive options or descriptions, or maybe even just preset game modes, would make this step much easier. Is 75% difficulty with a moderate chance of natural disasters and easy to please civilians a good formula? You probably wonвЂ™t know in your first game, though admittedly, itвЂ™s difficult to figure out even in your second game and beyond. Surviving the Aftermath asks you to tailor the difficulty as you see fit, and while the available options are extensive, thereвЂ™s not much context to help you know what youвЂ™re actually doing.

Your journey into the polluted wilderness starts with a set of choices. ParadoxвЂ™s survival management sim has the potential to be something special, but never builds on that to set itself apart from other, more unique games in the genre. I mean what Surviving the Aftermath has me doing to contend with these disasters is something IвЂ™ve seen before, many times. I donвЂ™t mean that in a philosophical sense, although the exploitation of resources, warmongering, and frequent disasters have clear parallels with modern society. The end of the world is a familiar thing in Surviving the Aftermath.

Bloodshore characters