Making a game stand out in the saturated Metroidvania genre can be a challenge – finding a unique angle to shake up the action or simply offering more than competitors do are perhaps the two most replicable options. Afterimage, developed by Aurogon Shanghai and published by Modus Games, takes the latter approach. Players set forth to tackle an expansive world teeming with unique enemies, locations, and art, making use of a substantial helping of RPG elements along the way.
The breadth of Afterimage is enticing, but it isn’t without its minor downsides. A slow drip of mechanical improvements means that players will spend the opening hours of Afterimage playing a version that doesn’t showcase much of the game’s ultimate fluidity and freedom. Early platforming and combat are fairly basic, initially relying on a jump and backward dash that limit player mobility and exploration. Once the game hits its stride, the movement opens up into an art form, with abilities that litter both the world and the skill tree encouraging players to conduct a good amount of their business midair.
Combat is bolstered by a vast array of weapons, with various offerings from serrated daggers to an anchor-shaped scythe proving as fun to use as they are to behold. Equally imaginative enemies employ unique attack patterns to keep players on their toes, incentivizing the use of upgraded equipment and the titular afterimages, a similar system to Hollow Knight’s Hallownest charms. Bosses double down appropriately, consistently boasting smart design that makes mastery rewarding throughout most of the game. Late-game stats and abilities can make some fights a bit too breezy, a balance quirk made more obvious when players aiming for a good ending enter a climactic showdown that aggressively spikes the difficulty.
The story of Afterimage takes a similar approach to Dark Souls or Hollow Knight, dispersing clues to the narrative throughout the corners of the world. A quest system provides a structure for various characters to handle some of the telling, while other bits are relayed by everything from books to bosses. The success of the plot is about as scattershot as its appearances. A heavy dose of proper nouns makes it hard for some of the world-building to stick, and repetitive hints about the identity of an annoying sidekick take up too much space. The best moments, however, manage to breathe life into mythology with vivid imagery.
Images are, fittingly, a strong point of Afterimage. The world of the game offers a wide variety of aesthetic pleasures, most particularly in the form of beautiful backgrounds with sophisticated parallax scrolling. The sheer breadth of art necessary to make the game is striking and helps to elevate the experience above competing games. Details of strange technology and overgrown ruins bring the enticing melancholy of a crumbling world to life, bolstered by a soundtrack that captures the tone with equal precision. Enemies match their environments well, curating an overall cohesion that helps each individual area stand out.
Afterimage is a game that requires some level of patience, taking a bit of time to embrace its potential and relying later on players’ willingness to backtrack and sniff out secrets. For those willing to invest, the high points provide ample rewards in fluid, engaging combat and a gorgeous world. Afterimage may not do anything particularly new, but it does many things quite well. If players are looking to play a new Metroidvania while waiting for Hollow Knight: Silksong, Afterimage captures some of the best elements that the genre has to offer.
Source: Modus Games/YouTube
Afterimage will release in on April 25, 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Screen Rant was provided with a PC download code for the purpose of this review.
