Shadows of the Afterland - Switch Review

Shadows of the Afterland is a point-and-click adventure from Aruma Studios, who are probably best known for developing the narrative adventure Intruder in Antiquonia in 2022. Having been released on PC a few months ago, fans have been clamouring for a Switch release, and here we are! It was well received by point-and-click fans when first released, and you can see why!

The Good

I’m a relative newcomer to the point-and-click genre, which perhaps makes me approach these games with slightly less rose-tinted glasses than others. I always flirted with the idea of playing the Broken Sword games as a kid (mainly because of how awesome the box art looked in shops and rental stores), but I just never got round to it. I always (wrongly) assumed they would be boring. Then a couple of years ago I reviewed Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged and fell in love with George Stobbart and the genre in general. Shadows of the Afterland plays very similarly to the Broken Sword games in how the puzzles, user interface and world progression work. It also generally looks and feels like the 90s classics (not just Broken Sword but Monkey Island as well) with that slightly wacky humour and rich storytelling translating across, especially with full voice-over, which was a pleasant surprise.

The point-and-click genre does strike me to be a very difficult one to be innovative in because the genre has hardly evolved at all over more than 30 years, but Shadows of the Afterland certainly has a good crack at it. The main talking point in Shadows of the Afterland comes from its story; you play as Carolina, who is effectively a ghost in the afterlife. She finds herself in a kind of community centre where souls are processed and is surrounded by other ghosts who have died. Carolina, however, has no recollection of how she died or why she’s dressed in maid’s clothing (she was a police officer in her previous life); what unfolds is a heartwarming but melancholic story of investigation and familial tragedy. Along the way Carolina gains the ability to return back to the ‘alive world’ and possess humans, which adds a whole new layer of complexity and enjoyment to the puzzle-solving mechanics.

As is the case with point-and-click games, you are often hopping from location to location so as to return to previously met characters and/or trying to find ways to unlock doors or items. With that in mind, I’m pleased to say that Shadows of the Afterland runs pretty seamlessly with almost zero load times, which makes the constant back-and-forth considerably more bearable.

TL;DR

• Faithful to its forefathers, and full VO enhances experience
• The possession mechanic is original, if a little underused
• Seamless movement between locations

The Bad

As fun as Shadows of the Afterland was, it did feel a little too brief; as previously stated, I’m by no means a seasoned veteran of point-and-click games, but I was able to move forward at a relatively steady pace without getting stuck for more than five minutes or so at a time. Of course no one wants to be stuck in a video game, but certainly with adventure games you want to have a level of investigation and mental arithmetic because that’s the whole point. Shadows of the Afterland certainly wasn’t easy, but it was definitely easier than what I expected, in so much as the way to use items was sometimes a little over-telegraphed.

Just on the brevity of Shadows of the Afterland, I think it is probably priced fairly for its length (around four or five hours), but the ending did arrive a bit suddenly, to the point where I felt a bit unsatisfied. The fact I wanted more is a testament to Aruma Studios, but the  pacing steadily and excitedly increased before a denouement which felt a bit like an unfulfilled rug pull. It was such a shame because I was loving my journey through the afterlife!

TL;DR

• Puzzles are not overly challenging
• Abrupt ending felt a bit unfulfilling

Final Score: 8/10

Shadows of the Afterland should be recognised as a top-tier point-and-click adventure on the Nintendo Switch. It was a fun (if at times moribund) experience which looks great and is faithful to its inspiration, but it will only appeal to fans of the genre and not a whole lot more.

Thank you for checking out our Shadows of the Afterland Switch review, thank you to Aruma Studios for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

• Andrew Caluzzi (Inca Studios / Camped Out)
• Bel Cubitt
• Bobby Jack
• Jack Caven
• Nintendo Maniacs
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