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[Ceadeus]

Release date : December 9th, 2021
Developed by :

Playable on : Steam , Meta Quest 2, Playstation VR

PCVR System Requirements : https://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=20532&game=After The Fall

Game Overview​

From the creators of Arizona Sunshine® comes an epic VR action FPS with intense
co-op gameplay at its core that pits up to 4 players against a post-apocalyptic VR
world filled with ferocious undead, mutated and twisted by the relentless cold.

Set in the ice-covered ruins of Los Angeles, nearly 20 years after the apocalypse,
After the Fall® combines an evolving VR world shared with players on all platforms
with action-packed co-op gameplay, built from the ground up for VR.

Venture out into the remains of post-apocalyptic LA, wield deadly weapons and
devastating powers with real-life movements as you develop your combat style,
and join forces with players worldwide as you go head to head with hordes and
towering bosses in a bid to leave the city a better place than your predecessors.



Frontrunner Season Details Revealed


Launch is just the beginning: available free of charge for all players as part of the After The Fall - Launch
Edition, the Frontrunner Season will include four new maps including ''The Hollywood Boulevard'' Harvest
Run and the ''Warehouse'' PvP arena, new game modes, new weapons and devices, player features and
more.

Media

 

[Ceadeus]

Has anyone been playing the game today? how do you like it? What platform are you playing it on?

 

[EekTheKat]

PC here via Quest 1 + Virtual Desktop. Performance is rather..poor(?) on the two machines (3060 and a 2080)I tested it on. Dips to 30-40fps quite frequently resulting in some stomach churning not so pleasant areas.

Though granted, part of it is probably the virtual desktop overhead. There are still notable moments of low performance in the game.

So far it seems like shadows/soft shadows option is a huge performance sink. Turning that off makes it somewhat more playable. I can probably do a bit more tuning to get it a bit more stable.

Of note - a form of "full manual reload" exists in this game in the menu. Hit the mag release, manually load a clip, and pull back the slide as expected. There's an arcade like chest loading mechanic easy mode as an option as well.

As for the gameplay/progression -

The pacing is like an arcade shooter - virtua cop, house of the dead and the likes - on survivor/lowest difficulty with a minor exploration element. Ammo/pickups looks like an arcade powerup with a fairly large pick up radius.

It was a bit more fun once I stopped playing it like a sim shooter and just go a bit nuts with the dual wielding. Though both methods are valid as headshots do offer satisfactory feedback as does a dual wield mag dump in a swarm.

 

[Ceadeus]

PC here via Quest 1 + Virtual Desktop. Performance is rather..poor(?) on the two machines (3060 and a 2080)I tested it on. Dips to 30-40fps quite frequently resulting in some stomach churning not so pleasant areas.

Though granted, part of it is probably the virtual desktop overhead. There are still notable moments of low performance in the game.

So far it seems like shadows/soft shadows option is a huge performance sink. Turning that off makes it somewhat more playable. I can probably do a bit more tuning to get it a bit more stable.

Of note - a form of "full manual reload" exists in this game in the menu. Hit the mag release, manually load a clip, and pull back the slide as expected. There's an arcade like chest loading mechanic easy mode as an option as well.

As for the gameplay/progression -

The pacing is like an arcade shooter - virtua cop, house of the dead and the likes - on survivor/lowest difficulty with a minor exploration element. Ammo/pickups looks like an arcade powerup with a fairly large pick up radius.

It was a bit more fun once I stopped playing it like a sim shooter and just go a bit nuts with the dual wielding. Though both methods are valid as headshots do offer satisfactory feedback as does a dual wield mag dump in a swarm.

That's unfortunate that you can't get better performance using this configuration. There has to be a bottleneck or otherwise the game might not be optimized just yet...

I'm playing on quest 2, the framerate is steady (playing on veteran) but it has some stuttering due to level streaming maybe? But most of the time it plays really well.

And yeah, the game is more arcade than sim for sure. I think the gameplay loop is pretty fun and it's good to know there will be content updates as well.

Something bugs me though is that the guns are rare to find , I've yet to come across an automatic weapon. People seem to know where they are so they rush to pick it up and leaves me nothing..

 

[R6Rider]

I'm hearing really bad things about the current controls for PSVR for both move controllers and AIM. Should be able to patch them, but just a heads up.

 

[Alexios]

I wonder how After the Fall's sales are going. The game is not my thing/mood atm but it seems a bit better than I expected from Vertigo Games (I was never a fan of Arizona Sunshine either, I'd pan it more if it wasn't somewhat excused by its age), plus it seems to have a solid plan for its GAAS shenanigans to keep it relevant over time, assuming of course they make enough money to keep supporting it. Although it's probably selling slower than the studio hoped in general, on Steam it has around 460 user reviews (at the time of writing) and on the Oculus Store on Quest about 520 (and some double digit number on the Rift side, nobody buys games on the Oculus Store on PC, duh) so it seems to be among the titles that are able to keep up on PC. It has had decent coverage overall, people who care about VR know it exists, it's likened to great PC games like Left 4 Dead and so on (yet it also hasn't been pimped so much and served to every user by Facebook itself to make it some runaway hit on their platform, not yet at least). So far it seems that we have 3 tiers for comparisons, games like Beat Saber, Alyx and Boneworks that got super hyped and matched or surpassed the sales of the top sellers on Quest (including Beat Saber there), games with lower hype than that like Pistol Whip which sell less than on Quest but still a very good chunk of 1/2nd or 1/3rd meaning that version is more than valuable to the developers still and then finally the chaos with next to no sales on PC and only the Quest as a potential profitable platform, assuming you're lucky enough for Facebook to approve your game of course, it's still a closed ecosystem unlike PC where any indie can release and try their luck. To me it seems to be a matter of the current dodgy VR media not really covering PC VR at all, only what Facebook serves on a silver platter or a big production gets any mention at all, PC VR as a platform is panned left and right, the cable issue is way overblown (and yet the same places make sure Virtual Desktop has been a best seller on Quest, like er, what do you access with it if not PC VR) and the actual mainstream gaming media once again don't really cover VR yet to counter act that. So basically it's a matter of visibility that means even enthusiasts if they aren't obsessed like me here don't know what's up and what's good and of course the actual competition with flat games, since to get into VR something has to be more special than usual to beat playing the very best flat games you have access to on the platform, when a casual Quest user only gets that by default. The constant PC VR is dead narration doesn't help, leading to a self fulfilling prophecy cycle of PC VR not getting promoted, then speaking of its lower sales (ignoring examples showing different), ad nauseam. I think that once VR goes mainstream for real, as accepted as non VR games, not how Facebook is trying to brute force it, PC VR will be in the same situation as PC flat gaming, getting every game by default as a platform almost required for success. The users are there to convince as some of the games mentioned already prove, people didn't throw their Indexes (and Quests, you can't beat the price and it does connect to PC) away.

 

[EekTheKat]

Okay I finally got the game in a playable state somewhat through tweaking. The big difference maker was an OpenVR FSR mod - that allowed me to keep the shadows and lights on to some degree and that generated some pretty good literal jump scares.

YMMV of course, DLL replacement is frowned upon by many ToS/AntiCheats, but it does wonders in keeping some eye candy on while playing with a better framerate.

IMHO there's a pretty significant difference in jump scare factor with lights/shadows turned on. It nails that "you shine your flashlight in a dark corner of the room only to see parts of a horde partially lit up" sort of scare that's pretty intense. That's not including the moments entering a room and having a snowbreed pop up right next to you in your face.

I think the Arcade like nature of this game makes it a pretty easy pick up and play every once in a while.

I mostly solo, but tried the MP once with a few players out of Japan on a farming run. Got some good stuff out of it at the cost of a bug zeroing out my Harvest and causing my primary weapon to disappear.

Of note - in an MP gameI went out of my way to not pick up any disks, and at the end I seemingly got credit for 2 drops for them so it does seem to be properly shared between all players.

Fortunately farming isn't hard, especially with a bonus for playing with manual reload.

Fun game though - I can see myself just firing it up to practice even though I'm not much of a gun person. It does feel amazing once muscle memory kicks in on reloads and you're able to mag dump with a pistol at a comparable pace with carbines.

There are issues with matchmaking, gear/juice(upgrade currency in game) disappearing right now. Though the matchmaking is more severe at the moment as two players have the entire matchmaking system locked up due to issues with "AFK leaders" not starting missions.

 

[Ceadeus]

You guys made some massive reply I didn't see!

Are you still playing?

 

[Romulus]

I'm playing on quest 2, the framerate is steady (playing on veteran) but it has some stuttering due to level streaming maybe? But most of the time it plays really well.

How is it visually on standalone?

 

[Ceadeus]

How is it visually on standalone?

It looks surprisingly good on the quest 2! no frame drop what so ever, clear image also. Super fluid. I really believe Vertigo worked hard to make this happen.

If you're used to PCVR setting you might find that textures are low but other wise, it's really one of the most polished game on the quest 2 right now!

 

[IbizaPocholo]

The Boulevard update for After the Fall brings the new map called Boulevard Harvest Run, a new Snowbreed enemy called the Skimmer, a new LMG weapon, and player skins. Check out the trailer for a look at what to expect with the Boulevard update, available now.