After Us: the Monkey descends from Man

Hey, but it's the opposite, it seems to me: isn't it Man who descended from the ape? Darwin 101? No ! We are talking here about what will happen "after us", when humanity will have completed its inevitable cycle of self-destruction, and will have left behind only a vague (and bad) memory, two or three friends. not biodegradable and rusty monuments already covered in moss... Be careful not to confuse them with The Last of Us : here, no angry teenage girl, no nice Pedro Pascal to love, no brain-eating mushrooms... l Humanity is OVER, the last human is gone, and good riddance. Make way for the chuper chinzes !

After Us is a deckbuilding and card combo game designed by Florian Sirieix and illustrated by Vincent Dutrait. It projects us into a really-not-so-distant future (the year 2083!) where humanity has disappeared and nature is quietly regaining its rights. And in this new world (and much more peaceful, it seems), the monkey is the new dominant species, ready to develop, to progress, to invent capitalism and to shamelessly exploit the most vulnerable... This is the stooooooory of liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiife! But who knows, maybe these friendly monkeys will be wise enough and avoid repeating humanity's mistakes, like the development of fossil fuels and the invention of sour cream and onion chips. We wish them with all our hearts.

How it works ?

In this Planet of the Apes 2.0, players embody different clans of primates who try to develop and evolve. From a small basic clan made up of eight Tamarins, they will be able to harvest the resources necessary to attract new monkeys to their clan in order to try to stand out from the other clans. The objective of the game is to be the first clan to reach (or exceed) the threshold of 80 victory points.

As in any good deckbuilder , all players start with the same basic cards. As the game progresses, they will be able to acquire new (and better) cards depending on the strategy they are trying to implement. Will they target the cards earning the most points? Will they try to liquidate their basic cards (the poor tamarins!) to have a more efficient deck? Will they mix different types of cards to allow for more flexible and interesting combos? In After us , all this is possible (and more) thanks to the joyful puzzle generated by the design of the cards.

This is undoubtedly the strength and originality of this game compared to other deckbuilders : each card presents a certain number of symbols (resources , victory points, etc.) arranged in “boxes” (officially, we call that cartridges) open or closed. Only closed squares can be activated during the turn. By placing our cards side-by-side, we try to close as many boxes as possible, while looking for the most interesting or juicy associations!

After Us is a game where everyone plays simultaneously. Each turn, players first draw four cards from their deck to form an “Assembly of Monkeys” which they try to arrange as advantageously as possible, depending on the resources or effects sought. When all players have finished assembling their cards, they can then activate them.

Closed boxes activate from left to right and top to bottom. The first row of boxes generally provides resources, while the second and third row allow you to spend these resources to obtain other resources or even precious victory points.

Once all valid boxes have been activated and resolved, we move on to the recruitment phase. Each player secretly chooses one of the four MONKEY tokens and places it in front of them. This token, in addition to earning him an immediate bonus, indicates the type of monkey he can recruit this turn. You can only buy one new card each turn, and depending on its power level, it costs 3 or 6 resources of the same type.

Resources (and monkeys) for all tastes

I think it would be relevant to take a few moments to present the resources and their link with the species of monkeys that we can recruit (and the strategies that they allow us to deploy):

FLOWERS (blue resources) can attract Mandrills. Intelligent, Mandrills generate more victory points than other species;

FRUITS (orange resources) allow you to recruit Orangutans. Ingenious, Orangutans produce Energy used to use human objects with advantageous effects (I will talk about this later);

NUTS (black resources) attract Gorillas. Powerful, Gorillas generate Rage, which we can use to destroy cards and reduce the size of our draw pile (and therefore increase its effectiveness, since good cards will come back more often);

Finally, Chimpanzees can be attracted by any type of resources (they are not choosy!) Good imitators, Chimpanzees allow us to reactivate boxes in our card table several times.

When we find new life for the “serpuàriens”

Humanity may have disappeared, but it left behind a quantity of gadgets that are still functional, for the apes smart enough to know how to use them! In each game, we randomly draw three objects which will be usable once per turn by all players, for an Energy cost (remember, it is the orangutans which allow you to accumulate them). Objects have more or less advantageous effects depending on the context and their cost of use: they can, for example, allow us to replace cards in our assembly, to play one more card, to exchange resources, to recruit new players. new cards for free or to score victory points directly. Having the energy to use these items at the right time will definitely help bring you closer to victory!

 

You don't show an old monkey how to make victory points...

What is striking after a few games of After us are the multiple strategic paths that open up to us. Although at first we instinctively think that we should recruit Mandrills in order to generate victory points more quickly, we quickly realize that they cannot do all the work on their own. It is generally best to try to combine them with at least one other species, so as to create an interesting synergy. For example, a few Chimpanzees will allow the Mandrill squares to be reactivated several times, generating victory points, while the Gorillas, by reducing the size of the draw pile, will allow the Mandrills to return more often (and therefore produce points more quickly). . Or, a few Orangutans will enable you to activate the Computer each turn, earning 5 victory points, in order to stay well ahead of the points race...

The more the game progresses, the more players hold good cards which create profitable combinations... and the points accumulate more and more quickly!

So… what do we think?

After Us is positioned in a very specific box in the big picture of board games. It is first of all a “competitive” deckbuilder which is distinguished from other games of the genre by the total absence of belligerence (and interaction!) between players. While a Star Realms , a Clank! or a Dominion encourage players to attack or harm each other to varying degrees, what is striking in After Us is the total pacifism of these friendly apes (they undoubtedly understood something that eludes us still ours, poor humans!) Morally, it's good! However, on a strictly playful level, it is an experience that might not appeal to those most fond of interactions. If you like games like Terraforming Mars and Wingspan , for example (games where everyone does their own thing, happily in their own corner), then After Us should also please you.

As there is little interaction, the number of players does not influence our strategies much. However, I think it is a more dynamic and pleasant game with two or three players than with five or six, where there is a greater risk of having to wait than the slowest (or most indecisive) players! ) end their turn (personally, I found that with five players, I often waited after the others!)

That being said, After Us offers a rewarding gaming experience. The card buying and assembly mechanics are an enjoyable puzzle that rarely leaves us wanting more: from one turn to the next, we really feel like we're progressing and becoming more and more efficient. . At the end of the game, when our draw pile is well stocked with good cards, the game allows us to generate extraordinary card combos that provide intense satisfaction. We feel intelligent. It's really good. Especially for a monkey.

On the hardware side, it's a fun game to watch and play. Vincent Dutrait's illustrations are pretty and colorful, and aesthetically lie somewhere between a comic book and National Geographic photos . It’s original and I really liked it! Only downside: I find that there could have been a little more variety on the cards (all cards of the same level and of the same species have the same illustration). In terms of iconography, it is simple, clear and quite intuitive, except perhaps for certain objects for which it may be necessary to refer to the rulebook. However, this is not a major fault, especially since the booklet is well written and well designed: it is easy to navigate.

In short, After Us is a deckbuilder that manages to distinguish itself from its competitors with its original and well-crafted mechanics. If we accept from the start that it is a more solitary game (even in a group), then we have a great time playing with all these puzzle pieces that are the different monkey cards, their effects, and the thousand and a way to put them together. The simplicity of the concept and the satisfaction it provides, combined with a very indirect competition between players, makes it in my opinion an excellent introductory game to the mechanics of pickaxe development, but which will also appeal to veterans of the genre.

WE love…

-The very cool concept of assembling cards and the super combos that result;

-The aesthetics of the game;

-The dynamism and fluidity of the turns (all players play at the same time);

We like less…

-The absence of interactions between players. I think the game would have benefited from at least offering a variant allowing more direct competition.

-The turns which stretch a little when playing with five or six;

After Us

1-6 players

45 minutes per game

14 years and over

 

- Matt

 

To get this game, click here: https://www.asdesjeux.com/en/products/after-us-multi