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It's always nice to know new developers, especially if they come from Poland ( The Witcher docet) as in the case of intoxicate Studios team formed a few years ago and decided to have his say with a post-apocalyptic RPG flavor in the wake of Fallout . Of that project (codenamed Burgeoisie: Pearl Of The Wasteland) is not then nothing came of it having regard to the complexity and economic resources needed to carry it out, but thanks to the support the production of NEG Polish study was nevertheless able to continue its changing and churning out such activities after two years of hard work this Afterfall: Insanity.

Available via digital download at GamersGate , dubbed and subtitled in English only the debut on the international market intoxicate Studios is a survival-horror film that draws a clear benchmark for the genre like Dead Space , although the folds of the game we have noticed references to Silent Hill , Condemned: Criminal Origins , Martian Gothic (who remembers the most?), Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason , BioShock and even Mass Effect for the initial setting and look of some characters. Tutelary names of a certain weight to which the Polish team came up with the proper reverence, telling a story from the typical fantasy-horror set in a distant future where a third world war has forced the few survivors to hide in underground bunkers. In one of these "citizens" to hundreds of meters below the Earth's soil, however, something disturbing is happening, what is it mistaken for a mix of syndrome "closed", depression and claustrophobia is actually a kind of virus that is spreading in the lower levels and that the city is turning those infected into bloodthirsty lunatics (and even worse).

In the role of the psychiatrist Albert Tokaj, also plagued by strange nightmares, we are called to investigate the behavior of these "sick", but in the best traditions remain almost immediately on their own survival in the dark, distressing noises, corpses in plain sight and a thick mystery to solve. The beginning of Afterfall: Insanity is very slow and the game takes a little 'to get going, because the rhythm is not the most exciting and tension latita least for the first hour of play, in which the initial exploration of the station, dialogues with the characters and the lack of interactivity gives the impression of a particularly poor game environment. In fact, this feeling will remain constant until the final, but if nothing else, after the first battles and explore the increasingly dark and horror of the base, things start to get interesting, although they remain always very derivative and a factor originality latita dangerously.

This is seen clearly in the riddles and puzzles to solve, almost always characterized by turning valves and small mini-game hacking (some time) at all innovative, as well as the QTE sections included some 'random without much conviction. If nothing else, at first marked by the classically claustrophobic ambience high-tech functional but not very original to each other, it follows a second (shorter) set out that not only vary a little 'everything, pushing the 'accelerator of gameplay on combat at a distance, making the game almost a third-person shooter. In the role of Albert in fact we can use both firearms (and a few publicly known), and numerous blunt objects (hammers, maces, axes, wrench) for close combat. However, if the surf shooter work quite well (the Left Trigger to zoom in and the right to fire), the melee combat often appear clumsy, inaccurate and a system of collisions with a little 'at random, especially when the enemies to face are more than two. Considering the lack of information on the damage of melee weapons (frankly seemed to us almost identical to each other), the lack of variety of enemies and the predictability of the attacks, Afterfall: Insanity does not come out in the best way.

Yet some ideas like the "fear factor" borrowed from Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem and Amnesia: The Dark Descent , driving a toy car remote ( Rage , Duke Nukem Forever ), and tactics to defeat the three bosses, and the interface bare-bones game show the good will of the Polish team in creating a survival horror game the most complete and robust as possible, especially considering the content of the entire project and the discrete manufacturing longevity (at normal level we finished in about eight hours). The same sector graph shows off the typical strengths and weaknesses of this type of production. With a version of "custom" Unreal Engine 3, the Polish team has recreated a detailed game world and not without charm, with beautiful lighting effects (the inevitable flashlight), a discrete particle effects and volumetric impact and 'Optimization enough, although the opening of doors and other predicaments occur within the frame rate drops quite unjustified. In contrast, however, the animations (including facial ones) leave much to be desired, the cut-scenes are poorly maintained and some outdoor textures are well below the sufficiency. Not bad but the work on the music (some really left) and the sound effects, but the English dubbing could certainly be more polished and less anonymous.