TL;DR - Surviving the Aftermath is a city-builder simulation game set in the apocalypse. Despite a few resource bottlenecks that can cause headaches, the game's satisfying progression and clever intermingling of the gameplay and atmosphere make for an enjoyable and engaging journey as you rebuild civilization amidst disaster.

Review:

Surviving the Aftermath took me by surprise. I've never played a city-building resource management style game before, but none of the games I've been working through were hitting the spot for me. So, I found myself scrolling through my library in the mood for something relaxed but engaging enough to stimulate my brain. Thankfully, Surviving the Aftermath turned out to be an excellent representative of its genre and an accessible introduction for newcomers, and it completely consumed my attention for several days and just under 30 hours of playtime.

The core of Surviving the Aftermath's gameplay loop entails building a colony by sending your colonists out into the world to gather the resources necessary to construct new buildings. On a more fundamental level, this is a game about making the numbers go up. As your resources increase, you can support a larger population which, in turn, allows you to harvest even more resources. The features that set this game apart from its peers are the disasters and catastrophes that frequently hinder your progress and require quick thinking and adaptation to endure without losing a large chunk of your population. Nuclear fallout, ice storms, heat waves, and pandemics are a few of the obstacles you can expect to see. In addition, certain colonists (known as specialists) can be sent to an overworld map to scavenge locations for resources, build outposts for permanent resource boosts, and discover new settlements to trade with. As your colony grows, you can spend Research Points to invest in new buildings and technology to improve your colonist's happiness and optimize your resource generation. The game handles its tutorialization well - I never felt overwhelmed or confused with how to interact with its systems or menus. The progression systems in place are so satisfying, to the point that I'd tell myself to stay up for "just 10 more minutes" to unlock the upgrade that would push my colony to the next level.

The story of Surviving the Aftermath didn't really do anything for me. Told primarily through still screens with a bit of art, a text block, and a solid voice performance, the story, unfortunately, wasn't interesting enough to keep me engaged, and I skipped through most of it. The art direction is simple but evocative of other post-apocalyptic settings. The music does a good job of establishing tone but doesn't do anything special to stand out. Ultimately, all those little details that make or break a gaming experience do just enough in this game to support the gameplay and systems. They are simply good enough, and I think that's okay.

I only have two complaints about my playing experience. The first has to do with the way the game notifies you that a colonist is sick or afflicted in some way. Anytime a colonist catches a disease, becomes irradiated, or is injured, an alert sounds, and a small banner appears in the corner of the screen. While your population is low, this isn't a problem. However, as I entered the later stages of the campaign and the colony's numbers entered the triple digits, this alert sounded nearly every second. I built enough hospitals to comfortably care for my sick colonists, but there wasn't a way to completely prevent the illnesses from occurring as far as I could tell. Instead, I was forced to listen to the same annoying alarm for hours. It was unbearable, and I couldn't locate a setting to turn off the alert, so I resorted to playing without sound.

My other complaint has to do with some frustrating resource bottlenecking that occurs in the latter stages of the game. The limited availability of some of the rarer resources combined with the slow crafting time to create new components slowed my progress down to a halt and, at one point, caused the death of over 50% of my colony because I wasn't able to build enough structures to support my ballooning population. I'll also add that the advanced resource-gathering technology I unlocked didn't feel any faster or more efficient than just sending out my colonists to gather instead. Instead of continuing to upgrade and improve my colony, I had to sit back and wait, which isn't exactly the definition of fun gameplay. Thankfully, this isn't the case for most of the game, and once I overcame this bottleneck, my experience became as enjoyable as it had been at the beginning.

Surviving the Aftermath does a lot right. It's taken full advantage of its setting to create diverse and dynamic challenges that make it unique in the genre. Its progression systems are accessible, well-paced, and impactful to the experience. It isn't perfect, but the imperfections weren't significant enough to peel me away from an otherwise addicting loop. Surviving the Aftermath has opened me up to a new genre of video games, and I'm excited to explore more of what the genre has to offer.

TL;DR - Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a solid 2D action platformer with some fun ideas and a heartfelt story. Combat is fun and I appreciate the streamlined map, but the lack of polish and overall depth in the gameplay end up being sources of frustration.

Review:
Something I appreciate most about art is that, occasionally, it allows us to explore difficult experiences and emotions. The right game at the right time can be a cathartic experience and provides a medium through which we can process unresolved feelings. Not every game can or should act as an emotional conduit; many games are just supposed to be a fun time. But it does feel like a breath of fresh air when a game comes along that has the emotional weight to tug at your heartstrings, and in that regard, Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a resounding success.

Tales of Kenzera starts in the futuristic African city of Amani. The main character, Zuberi, is grieving following his father's untimely death. He's angry, heartbroken, and confused. As Zuberi struggles to navigate his loss, his mother offers him a book his father wrote in his final days. This book is where the game happens. It tells a similar story to the one we're introduced to with Zuberi. A young shaman named Zau has recently lost his father and, as a result, he has summoned the god of death, Kalunga, to assist him in bringing his father back. Kalunga agrees on the condition that Zau helps bring peace to three great spirits that have cheated death. As Zau works to fulfill his quest, he learns valuable lessons that help him have a better grasp on his grief and help him navigate the loss of a loved one.

This story is full of heart and touching moments. Inspired by studio founder Abubakar Salim's own experiences dealing with grief, the story of Tales of Kenzera is told in a mature and timeless way that people of any age can understand and relate to. Abubakar is also the voice actor behind Zau and Zuberi, and he, along with the rest of the excellent voice cast, have put their whole hearts into this game. The performances are powerful and artistic, helping to elevate this game's presentation above others in the genre. There seems to be heavy influence taken from Marvel's Black Panther and the nation of Wakanda, both in art style and gameplay, and the game revels in its bright colors, beautiful environments, diverse soundtrack, and unique character and enemy designs.

Tales of Kenzera calls itself a Metroidvania in its promotional material, and I think that may be a slight mischaracterization. This is a fairly linear, straightforward 2D action game with minimal branching paths and only a handful of collectibles and hidden secrets to uncover. The movement feels fun, fluid, and responsive; probably my favorite aspect of the gameplay. There are new abilities to unlock that open up previously unreachable paths and make platforming more engaging, though I rarely found myself needing to double back very far to find the continuation of the main path. In fact, I didn't once have to remind myself of a particular blocked doorway that led to a new zone, and the times I did make the effort to re-explore old areas mostly yielded a bit of experience, a platforming challenge, or a memory shard collectible that serves as an audio recording. I appreciated the streamlined map. It helped save me the headache of remembering the exact location of the specific doorway I needed to get through to move the plot forward. At the same time, it almost felt too simple to navigate and I stumbled into nearly all the hidden locations without much effort.

Most of the game consists of combat and some minor puzzle-solving. Zau engages with enemies by interchanging two masks that represent the sun and the moon. The sun mask is used for close-range damage while the moon mask is more useful for dealing with enemies at range. These masks can be changed at any time and, with practice, make for an engaging and fun combat loop. There are small upgrade trees for each of the masks, and they offer a few nice improvements but largely lack the kinds of boosts that feel impactful to the way you play. Combat is mostly contained within small arenas, which I wouldn't have a problem with if there was more enemy variety. Thankfully, the boss fights are quite fun and offer new challenges that make them the highlight of the combat system.

On the other hand, the puzzles that you are required to solve feel underbaked. Most of them boil down to finding a big block to push onto a plate that opens the door, or some variation on the same idea. With all of the new abilities Zau can acquire throughout the game, it's disappointing that they aren't utilized more in the puzzle sections. Along that same thread, there are only one or two sections in the game that require you to take full advantage of Zau's movement abilities, and the platforming tends to feel a little one-note, placing heavy emphasis on the new skill you acquire in each zone to navigate its biome. Some branches off the main path feature fun platforming challenges but, I'd argue that most of them aren't challenging enough and still don't take full advantage of the suite of tools available to Zau.

In all, Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a valiant first attempt from a newly formed studio. It features good writing, excellent performances, and a touching story of overcoming loss. The overall platforming and combat experience is good but lacks the depth and polish of other contemporaries in the space. I hope we get more from Surgent Studios as they hone their craft because they have a lot of potential to improve the presentation and production level of these smaller, more intimate games.