War Never Changes, Unless It Did
Afterworld is Paradox’s new grand strategy game set in North America after civilization was wiped out by war. They aren’t just going for nuclear war either, expect wastelands created by biological, chemical and even nanotech weapons as well as your bog standard nuke craters. The thing is that unlike Europa Universalis which benefits from Venice being where Venice is supposed to be at the start of the game or the randomly generated maps of Stellaris, knowing where everything is and what survived the war in Afterworld would really ruin it’s replayability.
Instead, every new game takes place in a mostly uniquely destroyed North America. The example given Rock, Paper, Scissors was Los Vegas, a favourite for many post-apocalyptic gamers for some reason. It would suck to see Vegas as smoking crater in most games – everyone disliked that – but at the same time it shouldn’t always be a resource rich area ripe for the taking. Instead, while there is still a small chance of finding a smoking radioactive crater, you might also find it run by mutants, empty and ready for taking or something totally different.
They also spilled the beans on a a knightly order which will only be found in New England, since that’s where the castles are. If you are wondering about leftover doomsday devices you might trigger unintentionally or even take control of to make your neighbour’s lives more interesting; they don’t exist yet, but they will be in the final game.
No release date yet on Afterworld,, but certainly one worth keeping an eye out for if you are a fan of this type of game.
