Afterlife

The Good
The game is very funny, it is amusing to read all the detailed descriptions of the various punishments / rewards. But what makes it an excellent game is that it is more complex than it's obvious model, Sim City 2000. The vibes that the buildings in Hell and Heaven emit need to be taken into consideration - as it is possible to manipulate the living, it is better to let them focus on sins and virtues that don't create problems in either realm. Also, it is important to plan according to the different belief models on the planet - some people reincarnate, some wander through all punishments and rewards, some stay in Heaven forever and so on. It is important to direct the living to ease the work of the Demiurge. The player has two aides, the Demon Jasper and Ariel, who do tutorials and report problems in both realms, at least when they are not tied up into insulting each other.

The Bad
When both realms are at their full strength, the game becomes a little bit unclear and nothing really new happens. All is about maximizing balance, thus efficiency of the buildings, which soon becomes a tedious task. What can be seen as a goal of the game - as far as I remember to reach 1.000.000.000 souls in order to gain the most sophisticated special buildings available - can take a very, very, very long time.

The Bottom Line
A Sim City like game with an esoteric theme where the player has to build up and administrate Hell and Heaven.

The Good
I like pretty much everything about the game. Your demonic and angelic assistants are rife with personality and contribute to the overall humorous tone of the game. The descriptions of the punishments and rewards are a scream, and the game is filled with humorous touches all over the place (such as the "Loading" screen, where you see the bar change from "35% done" to "Microwaving burritos" to "48 bottles of beer on the wall" etc).

The music is great, too.

The Bad
Afterlife has its own versions Sim City 2000's arcologies. They're called "Omnibolges" (for Hell) and Love Domes (for Heaven). Once you hit the stage of the game where you can put down the biggest of the three Omnibolges or Love Domes, the game's pretty much over.

The Bottom Line
A humor-filled, light-hearted look at the afterlife, complete with Disco Demons, the Four Surfers of the Apocalypso, Bats Out of Hell, and more! If you liked Sim City 2000, you're almost certain to like Afterlife.

The Good
Afterlife (1996) clearly demonstrates a tremendous amount of good-old- fashion LucasArts creativity, passion and talent that has generally worked well for them. On paper, the opportunity to control the daily workings of Heaven and Hell, through the creation of various rewards and punishments sounds like a fun simulation. In practice, the game does feature some impressive graphics, music and sound effects and a witty sense of humor.

The Bad
The fundamental flaw in the game lies in the execution. Their are simply too many, highly complicated, real time things (i.e. virtues, vices, infrastructure, etc.) that you have to constantly watch out for and develop in both heaven and hell or else its game over. Making the execution worse, the game's instruction manual failed to offer an in-depth explanation of the controls, mechanics and rules. This forced the player to go through a frustrating period of trial and error or buy an official LucasArts strategy guide. While the graphics are good most of the time, close-ups of objects look terrible.

The Bottom Line
Afterlife (1996) is a Simcity-style clone that attempts to put you in control of an alien population's heaven and hell. The execution is critical in simulation games such as this, and this is where the game's flaws show up. A tremendous amount of trial and error, or access to a good, in-depth strategy guide will be required to really comprehend how to do much in the game. The game's graphics are best seen from a distance. Perhaps the best feature of this game is its amazingly witty and satirical sense of humor. Die hard fans of LucasArts humor and "Simcity" simulation games will probably get the most out of this game.