After The War

STORY / GAMEPLAY
The story takes place in a destroyed city, after a nuclear war. You are a commando and try to reach an airdrop platform called XV-238 in order to survive! The game is split into two different parts. On the first part you are wandering around the city's streets and defend yourself from every attacking enemy by using your martial arts techniques. But you must be careful because there are some enemies hiding inside buildings and throw hand grenades at you! Towards the end of the first part, you find a big boss, a man that's a few feet taller than you and will prevent you from ending the part. Of note: The game's hero looks much like the great 80s action movies actor, DOLPH LUNDGREN! On the second part, you roam in the railway station of the city's underground transport but this time you have the extra advantage to use a weapon that looks like some kind of a Sci-Fi machine gun and will surely make your life much easier. Actually, no! This time the enemies are not humans! You'll have to combat against robots, flying machines and computer controlled machine guns! After The War is a great action game, although it's frustratingly difficult to play!

GRAPHICS / SOUND
On the Amstrad CPC version, the sprites and backgrounds are colorful and nicely detailed, although the gameplay area is rather small. The sprites are large and move relatively well, although the background scrolling suffers. Technically, the game plays a bit better on the Commodore 8bit systems as it runs smoother when compared to the CPC and ZX versions. Also, there's nothing special about the game's sound as it features a few typical sound effects when you hit objects (or smash faces!). Fortunately the introductory tune is cool!