Afterfall: InSanity

Afterfall: InSanity
Developer(s)	Intoxicate Studios
Publisher(s)	Nicolas Entertainment Group
Composer(s)	Marcin Przybyłowicz, Pedro Macedo Camacho
Engine	Unreal Engine 3
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows Cloud (OnLive) Xbox 360
Release date(s)	Microsoft Windows WW November 25, 2011 Steam December 3, 2012 Cloud (OnLive) December 19, 2011 Xbox 360 TBA
Genre(s)	Survival horror, third-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player
Media/distribution	DVD-ROM Digital distribution Cloud computing

Afterfall: InSanity (previously known as Bourgeoisie: Pearl of the Wastelands, Rascal or just Afterfall) is a survival horror video game developed by Intoxicate Studios and published by Nicolas Entertainment Group, and was released on November 25, 2011 for Windows.

Synopsis

Setting

In the Afterfall universe the World War II had ended differently.In the final moments of the war, Hitler managed to create his Wunderwaffe – a team of Nazi physicists finished the German atom bomb project. In January 1945, a V-2 rocket armed with a nuclear warhead fell on the Soviet army that was preparing to cross the Polish – German border. Military activities were stopped, and truce talks began. During these talks, first USA and then the USSR developed their own nuclear weapons. The atmosphere became tense. The border between Germany and Vistula wasn't ultimately set and Armia Krajowa or AK announced the creation of New Poland. In the aftermath of the treaties between Germany, USA and the USSR, New Poland became a buffer zone with US military bases spread around its territory.Thus begun the global Cold War. The US invested heavily in the development of Poland, especially its military industrial complex. Poland east of the Vistula and San – Socialist Republic of Eastern Poland - was under Russian influence and Warsaw, as its capital, was surrounded with the Warsaw Wall. In 1960, the rebellious Soviet general Kaiser fired a nuclear missile aimed at one of the USSR’s military bases in the former Eastern Poland. Kaiser announced that if USSR wouldn’t fulfill his demands, then had sixteen more of those missiles to fire. During the next seventeen days the USSR withdrew from the occupied part of Poland and Western Ukraine. Kaiser was proclaimed the Head of State and the era of Totalitarian Poland begun. The USA officially withdrew its army from Polish territories, but secret negotiations continued. They culminated with an unofficial agreement concerning further financial support and technological exchange. In 2011 Germany completed the development of a new bomb. Its real power was a mystery even to the bomb’s creators. One year later, the bomb called Entropy exploded over the English Channel. Whether by accident or part of an intentional action remains a mystery. As a result all of the rockets throughout the Cold War theater locked onto their targets and were fired at the same time. The Third World War became a fact; no one had time to ponder over the nature of that first explosion. Some of the people managed to hide in underground shelters which were a part of vast military complexes. Decades had passed before the first tentative expeditions were sent to the surface.

The year is 2035. About 20 years ago the citizens of The Republic had to search for a shelter from the hell of the Third World War. Yet, only few were fortunate enough to have a place waiting for them in the prepared shelters. With the passage of time the fear of death on the surface has become only an unpleasant memory, however, the seemingly safe hideout has turned out to be a curse which cannot be escaped. It was only a matter of time before somebody would snap, and thus the dream of safety becomes a nightmare prison.

Plot

The protagonist of Afterfall: InSanity is Albert Tokaj, a member of medical team which takes care of the mental and physical well-being of citizens living in the shelter "Glory". He specializes in the mental disorder called confinement syndrome caused by being locked-up for too long, yet he himself is not free of its symptoms. When all hell begins to break loose Albert has to find the answers to many questions, the where and the why, who is a real enemy and who a trusted friend. He will have to face the dangers lurking in the darkness of the shelter and in Albert’s own mind, battling with his own weaknesses and fears.

Development

System requirements
Requirements Microsoft Windows Operating system Windows XP SP2,Windows Vista or Windows 7 CPU Intel Core 2 Duo 2Ghz, AMD Athlon 64 x2 2Ghz or better Memory 2 GB for Windows XP and 3 GB for Windows Vista or Windows 7 Hard drive space 7 GB free HDD space Graphics hardware 256 MB, DirectX 9.0c i Shader 3.0 (GeForce 8600GT / ATI equivalent or better) Sound hardware DirectX compatible sound card

Afterfall was originally conceived as a post-apocalyptic role-playing game in the vein of the Fallout and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchises, but was later turned into a survival horror title. It started development as a project by Polish fans of games like Fallout and S.T.A.L.K.E.R., but was professionalized under Nicolas Games Entertainment in mid-2008. It uses the Unreal engine, making it compatible with both Windows and Linux.

Additional Content

A DLC tiltled Dirty Arena was released exclusively for the Steam version of the game on February 22, 2013 as a free update. Dirty Arena is similar to the survival modes found in many games in which the player character has to survive seemingly endless waves of enemies. Also there are periodic mini-boss and boss fights.

Marketing

On October 9, 2011 Nicolas Games announced that the game would be available with bonus soundtrack for only one dollar if the game reached a total of 10 million pre-orders, with 10% of money collected going to charity. If they fell short of that goal, they would donate all the money to a charity group. Since they failed to reach their goal by November 25, all the collected money wasn't donated so far to any charity organisation but the game was given at half price along with soundtrack to those who had pre-ordered it. The move was cited by the developer to be to expand the scope of indie videogames, and not as a market strategy.

Release

The game was released on November 25, 2011 worldwide via digital distribution for PC while a boxed version and a Collector's Edition was released exclusively in Poland. The collector's edition contains an Afterfall themed backpack, soundtrack of the game on a CD, 2 CDs with music inspired by the game, a 140 page encyclopedia about the Afterfall universe, a T-shirt with the logo of the game and a calendar for 2012 containing various screenshots of the game. Initially, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions were announced but only the Xbox 360 version seems to be still in development. An extended version of the game was released for Windows on August 10, 2012 and will also be released on Xbox 360 . The extended edition of the game was released on Steam on December 3, 2012 after being greenlit by the community.

Extended Edition

Due to the moderate success of the game the Nicolas Entertainment Group released an extended edition of the game called "Afterfall:Insanity 2.0" for PC on 10 August 2012. It will be released for Xbox 360 in last half of 2012. This is the first time this game is being released on a console.

The edition symbolically called "2.0" according to the developers contains a lot of improvements to the basic version of the game. The PC version was distributed in a form of a free patch for those who already bought Afterfall: InSanity. A DVD version was also released for the PC. The Xbox 360 version will include all of the improvements. One of the most important changes will be more dynamic and intuitive fight system. The protagonist of the game – Albert Tokaj – is much more deft now, both as far as his movements and attacks are concerned. Animations also underwent some changes – both in gameplay and in cutscenes. The original tutorial system has been replaced with a new one. Many new weapons have been added. Also the game is being optimized for the Xbox 360.

Sequel

On 19 October 2012, Nicolas Games revealed that a sequel of the game will be developed through the creation of a Facebook page "Pearl of the Wasteland". The game called Afterfall: Pearl of the Wasteland and is set 63 years after the events of the World War III. The page regularly posts the fictional chronicles of the survivors of the wasteland in the Afterfall universe. The game will be episodic.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	50%
Review scores
Publication	Score
GameSpot	6/10
IGN	4.5/10

The reviews for Afterfall: InSanity have been mostly mediocre. The game holds a 50/100 Metascore on aggregating website Metacritic.

GameSpot gave it 6.0/10 praising the game for its environment details, storyline, puzzles and quick-time events while also criticising the game for its boring melee combat, boring introduction and stilted voice acting.IGN gave it 4.5 out of 10 saying "Insanity is boring." It praised the game for its graphics but criticised its gameplay and sound.

The enhanced edition of the game, called Afterfall: InSanity 2.0, got more positive reviews than the original one: it was given a score of 8/10 by gaming review websites BootHammer.Com and Leviathyn.

External links

• Official website