LGR - Afterlife - PC Game Review

Ever want to find out how you'd do running heaven and hell? Only in Afterlife, a LucasArts city-builder and management sim in the vein of SimCity 2000!
● Please consider supporting LGR on Patreon!
/ lazygamereviews
● Twitter and Facebook:
/ lazygamereviews
/ lazygamereviews
● Get the game on GOG!
www.gog.com/gam...

[@jm0lesky]

I remember there was a cheat to get extra cash. However, if you cheated three times then a dialog box popped up saying "I sense a disturbance in the force." Then a Deathstar would show up and start destroying your buildings.

[@DonnieDoodles]

Actually five times. The code is "$@!" BTW. ;P

[@doomslayer163]

Whoa, seriously? Lol 😆..If this is true, Imma have to check it out!!

[@wilsonhiggbury4713]

😆

[@alexkubrat3868]

This will happen to you, if you don't join the dark side.

[@ThePinkUnicornWithShoes]

There was also a workaround to get unlimited cash: you place a bank in hell and ask for a maximum loan, before it expires you place another bank and you ask for another maximum loan, theoretically you can carry on like this until you have tiles in hell but if you miss the deadline for a loan it is definitely game over

[@LGR]

Afterlife is now available on GOG! Get it here: www.gog.com/game/afterlife

[@SpicyChickenGodAJ]

Finally!

[@Elliandr]

I've bought games on GOG before and they are usually pretty bad. The last game I bought from them was "Creatures" and they had completely disabled all cobs and add-ons from being functional in their port meaning the only way I could actually play it was to create a virtual machine of Windows 9x, and although they had a refund policy, they refuse to provide refunds if the game is "functional" despite missing core features, but they never actually tell you what they changed when porting it.

[@Internetshadow0000]

Awesome!

[@thebeggs4]

The trick was to focus on one plane and ignore the other completely, until the first was stable and generating sufficient income. Heaven tended to be easier (appropriate enough, I suppose), so a good strategy was to start there, get it all running efficiently and in the green, then build and open the gates to Hell. At that point, your SOUL rate plus the number of SOULs waiting to get into Hell would be high enough offset the costs and catch up to Heaven relatively quickly. It still got kind of tough once you were managing both planes, but the early game was a little easier at least.

[@DonnieDoodles]

I'll have to try that... I thought that if you didn't expand heaven and hell together, you would lose the game. I mean, the .1/Soul rate in the beginning means you'll lose money for quite a while.

[@QJ89]

I suppose Heaven alone wouldn't be as fun...!

[@lauratiso]

This game was fully translated in Brazilian Portuguese and I enjoyed it when I was kid. It came with a magazine called "Revista do CD-ROM" (in English: CD-ROM's Magazine). In fact, a good way to get complete games at a reasonable price in Brazil was in these magazines. It's so much nostalgia for me!

[@McN4styFilth]

So that's what this enigma of a game was called. I saw my brother playing it when I was much younger and had extremely vague memories of a sim city game that wasn't sim city but really was and this is it! Thanks LGR.

[@enes1324]

A former Lucas arts member? And a present Telltale member? Made a Sim game,with complicated religion structures,and a ridiculous amount of complexity and variety? GOOD GOD,This game is great!

[@Tremere]

Makalor Poots Being associated with TellTale is more of an insult than an indication of quality

[@TheGoreforce]

this game needs to be a remake. ASAP

[@Obscure462]

ive thought about that for years

[@bluephoenix663]

TheGoreforce yep...

[@Elliandr]

You know, literally anyone can remake a game like this if they wanted to. Case in point, "Dungeon Keeper" was finally remade as "Dungeons" with it's own extras, but not by the company who owned the rights to the first. This is because of how copyright law actually works in regards to games though. If someone did remake it though, I'd want it to be easier to see, and I'd want the afterlife to be more of a reflection on what people believe in. If, for example, no one believes in hell, it would gradually fade away, though what to do about those souls? And what if people don't believe in either, but some alternate state? By having the very nature of the afterlife re-written with a multitude of possibly states, whose size corresponds to the ratio of belief, that would keep the game from being as monotonous. Maybe a major disaster would be good for a population boost, but increase the perception of punishment. Just an example.

[@jacobmichalak7321]

Lucas has a lot of remakes. So maybe likely

[@Raven1024]

I mean, you can set what your EMBO's believe. This can allow you to play a heaven-only or hell-only game. That's where all the game belief systems come in. NAAAists: No Afterlife At All AAAAists: Absolutely Always An Afterlife HAHAists: Heaven AND Hell Await HOHOists: Heaven Or Hell Only OCRAists: Only Cloud Realms Await OPRAists: Only Pit Realms Await SUMAists: Souls Undergo Multiple Afterlives SUSAists: SOULs Undergo Singular Afterlives. ALFists: Afterlife Lasts Forever RALFists: Reincarnation Always Loops Fate. Using those you can make your game play differently by spreading those values on the planet.

[@GryffDavid]

This video sent me down a rabbit hole trying to remember a game from my childhood that looked extremely similar to this and was also about managing Heaven and Hell. After about 40 minutes I came back here only to realise it was this exact game all along. I'm such a knob.

[@BenRangel]

So many witty concepts in this game. I imagine how much fun the developers must have had at the design meetings planning features like the Limbo Bars and Disco Inferno :) Reminds me a bit of the comedy in Theme Hospotial.Like many of these comedic 90's games though, I think I have a better time hearing the puns on review videos than actually playing the games. It does look quite tedious.

[@Heffy_Boi]

It feels special watching a review of not only a game I've never heard of before but also a game that isn't readily available through digital distribution means. It's almost as if it was forgotten in time until now.

[@MrNakki]

holy fucking shit. I used to play this game so much as a kid, and for the past 5 years it's bothered me because as a 7-year-old non-English speaker, it didn't really occur to me to take a note of the name. I enjoyed it so much, me and my sister would make so many worlds, and being good Christian daughters of a minister, of course it was our mission to get as many people to hell as possible. I also had nightmares with that angel being the antagonist. Her face was really damn scary. Ever since I found your channel I was hoping I'd find you talking about this gem.... and here it is. Oh damn hell, I need to find this game, now.

[@EastsideShowSCP]

I actually heard a tip for the hell portion to make your hellscape as ineffectual as possible. long windy roads that lead to the punishments, because the roads are part of the punishment, not sure if that actually works though.

[@Gojiro7]

I just looked into it, the doctor in the intro is indeed Steve Blum doing his Spike Speiegel voice which predates Cowboy bebop by a few years, thats neat :3

[@RageUnchained]

Huh, thought he sounded familiar. Neat.

[@fudgeyourpants9413]

LGR is still my favorite you tube channel. Maybe even my favorite thing to watch in general. Good job man. Thanks for the hard work and the great content you Provide.

[@DacyAndEric]

If the graphics were less jumbled I'd definitely look out for this. Shame :(

[@LokiCoyote77]

that's what killed it for me, I bought this back in the sc 2000 days as I it seemed like it coulda been really cool... but I couldn't stand looking at it lol, it's also confusing as fuck.

[@amanoj318]

Right? Rewatching older LGR vids lately and came across this one again. Remembered it instantly from the look of the colorful vomit on screen when the area was full of buildings. XD This is not my genre at all anyway, but absolutely would not be able to stand that kind of crazy graphical clutter.

[@Chris-cf1hs]

@@amanoj318 simcity is definitely easier to digest

[@weirdbeard2244]

I like the graphics, but the two big problems were that: you couldn't see what you were doing unless you turned them off; and the thing about hell not liking diversity meant that you'd get large patches with the same buildings.

[@AnitaCalmonRibeiro1980]

It"s my pleasure to inform you that Afterlife is available again, they made a DLC that you can buy at Steam.

[@Laurabeck329]

I didn't expect that Men Without Hats reference.

[@Wormetti]

Weird game. I understood the words you were saying but most of the gameplay description went over my head.

[@lavaskater4715]

"Cause your friends don't quit and if they don't quit well they're no friends of mine"

[@ImpossibleCakePro]

If I had a nickel for every time a Lucasarts game treated a mass plague as a boon to the economy of the afterlife, I'd have two nickels.

[@k-leb4671]

What's the other game?

[@ImpossibleCakePro]

@@k-leb4671 Grim Fandango

[@TheRealFold]

I'm glad you covered this game. I bought this when it first came out and it's still sat on my shelf, I've not played it in years. Maybe it's time to dust it off.

[@baronvonlimbourgh1716]

Lol, i don't think he works at tell tale any longer....

[@QJ89]

They lived fast and hard, meaning they died too soon. *Sigh*

[@Featherogue]

Lmao I thought the same thing I was like, "whomp whomp"

[@jpaulc441]

Salvia trip: The game

[@imaginaryboy2000]

The Four Demon Surfers of Apocalypso. Damnit I need this game now.

[@Moonbeam143]

The Devil and Angel in this game reminds me of Good and Evil in "Black and White".

[@henrikhyrup3995]

Yep, except this came like 5 years before B&W.

[@Featherogue]

SAME!! The box art too!!

[@TheOpponent]

I got a demo of this game during the time I was really into SimCity 2000 and Christianity and thought it was so fascinating. I don't recall how I got it or a lot of the media features here being in it, but it had a time limit and when it ran out, the Four Surfers scrub the map clean unconditionally. I thought the increased complexity of it was the coolest thing but I didn't know how or where to buy it, so I just challenged myself to build up as much as possible before time ran out.

[@SuperDanny1212]

***** dumbass

[@PointsofData]

+Bradolf Shitler really?

[@0NLINExGAM3R]

I just got another copy of SC2000 at goodwill yesterday, and all 3 of my copies have different boxes/CD's yet theyre all special edition

[@AlexKrasnyPrime]

How do you get so in-depth? There is no way you have enough time to actually play all of these is there?

[@LGR]

Well this is my full-time job, so I make the time :)

[@AlexKrasnyPrime]

Man that's awesome...

[@danxj9]

Lazy Game Reviews check out conkers bad fur day 4 n64 or xbox

[@warrenjohnson1972]

Alex Krasny No seriously though

[@RazgulTheKind]

#Jealous

[@olympicjbrag5913]

Spent many hours playing this on my brother's laptop....and it's on Steam right now...

[@Ghost_Of_SAS]

Ah, I remember reading about this game in PC Gamer back in 1996. I always found the devil dude humorous. For some reason I thought he was voiced by Tim Curry.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

That's what they're going for, I did too!

[@StephanS]

I remember playing the demo back then around 1996. I never saw the game in stores or heard about it somewhere, but i didnt forget the name. Thanks for that nostalgic review. Your videos are awesome as always!!

[@zerfsun]

HAHA: 31% HOHO: 61%

[@BREADATAR]

This is one of those games I really wanted to play when it was new but didn't have the chance, so happy you reviewed it! haha

[@salucin]

Arya Goodhalo be givin off major Roger from American Dad vibes fr

[@TheJesterGuy_]

This was the very first video I've ever saw of LGR. But only now (2018) I've got hooked to his channel after watching some of his other videos.

[@indeimaus]

You rock LGR!

[@Vednier]

Four surfers of the Apocalypso? BRILLIANT!

[@cobainfat]

Far out man, I love your videos. I'm a console gamer but you are really bringing me back to the good old days of pc gaming. It just sucks that everything is so expensive now days. So many of your videos bring me back to a time when games were actually fun and innovative. "KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK BROTHER"

[@Matrilwood]

Says the Collingwood Supporter...

[@Matrilwood]

Chris Deeble Change your icon. Literally everyone hates Collingwood, and for a good reason.

[@cobainfat]

Matrilwood Hahaha, wow. Coming from a guy that has my little pony music on his profile!! Static kitty? Wolfyemo?? WTF! When trying to pay someone out, please add some balls to your profile

[@cobainfat]

Matrilwood ohh, and another thing. Everyone hates Collingwood? If that's the case, why are we the biggest club in the afl? Biggest club in Australian sporting history?

[@cobainfat]

***** just hate being so hated 😢

[@MasterJay1985]

Wow, I just heard about this game and the concept is just brilliant! Thanks a lot LGR for letting me know!

[@HikaCheshire]

I was wondering when you would review this game, and I'm really happy to see it here now :3! Great review, thanks a lot!! My cousin had this game and we used to play it a lot when we were kids! We were pretty bad at it and our games always ended up with the Four Surfers destroying everything XP, but we used to have lots of fun with Afterlife, it's a great game and I miss playing it nowadays.

[@ThatStarkKid]

I see that XCOM on that shelf! would love your opinion and review on it. Love your show and your humor is subtle and dry, aka awesome. Great job!

[@aiadreamloss]

What I really like about this channel is how Clint tries to reply to nearly every comment, despite 200K being a fairly large number.

[@LGR]

Thanks for appreciating, I do my very best!

[@aiadreamloss]

Lazy Game Reviews Yup.

[@meetalhoomeez]

sigh,it seems to me like big title game makers were way more creative with their concepts and ideas back then. I don't know I might be mistaken but everything nowadays just seems way more safe and by the numbers except for very few exceptions.

[@ZeroStrife1396]

It saddens me too, but back then games didn't take a couple years and a few millions of dollars to make... if they flop, the entire company could go bankrupt, so it makes sense that they go for safer things. I guess we have the indie scene for more "risky" stuff and even big names like Ubisoft make a child of light or stick of truth every now and then.

[@Cenot4ph]

It's because the game industry has transformed from the 90s as more of an artistic product to nowadays where it's a serious business. This transformation makes that companies are looking to maximize profits and are less concerned with artistic freedom and creativity.

[@hind__]

Kenan . Massar there are many indie gems nowadays! triple A stuff isn't too worth looking at (there are some diamonds in the rough)... it's nice, a lot of these gems take cues from ms-dos sim games and point and click (my favorites). many respectful homages, but also new innovations.

[@amanoj318]

It's true. I've been playing games since the NES first came out, and agree with the OP here, but also with you, hind. I find myself playing far more indie titles than big budget games these days, because that is where you can find variety and innovation. Big budget titles are generally going to be sequels, reboots, and clones of things that are known to be successful already. Funny how closely this mirrors the film industry.

[@100billionsubscriberswithn4]

0:45 press F to pay respects.

[@doomyboi]

Added to Steam's store page for 6 bucks in 2018, it's no longer as obscure and difficult to find. Good news for anyone like me who ran across this video and instantly had to try it out.

[@MammaApa]

Also gog.

[@MightierMouse]

Great review - just as I remember it. Thanks for the walk down memory lane!

[@MultiMoveman]

Watching this now right at the end of 2020 feels ironic and philosophical at the same time, clint good sir, i believe you are timeless.

[@angelomassaro4487]

2:22 this is why I love this channel just a random refrence to the safety dance by men without hats

[@EastsideShowSCP]

wow this brings me back. This game was pretty interesting.

[@markbarnhart3886]

Loved your review of this game. Just picked it up on gog.com and I'm enjoying it immensely. I had never heard of this game in the 90's, but I'm glad I watched your video on it.

[@phobos2k2]

I had this game back in the day. I never could get things balanced but I had a lot of fun just looking at all the fate structures. I also loved the vibe, very relaxing.

[@Jarethenator]

You know, with today's graphics and simulation improvements, I believe an Afterlife 2 could be pretty good today...

[@spiderjerusalem100]

Love your videos and your easy going attitude.

[@Kestrelis]

I miss this game. Except that it's a PITA to turn a profit when you're starting out, but once you do, you're good forever.

[@Sarioya]

I like to think that the doctor in the intro is actually Spike Spiegel before he joins the syndicate.

[@The12Fly]

They should make a Sims Expansion Pack called Afterlife. Where you get kind of a mix of the motifs of Sims Makin Magic, Utopia and Dystopia from Into the Future. Where you control the dead sims and get to actually interact with the Grim Reaper, have two subneighborhoods: Elysium and Tartarus. Sims who fulfilled their lifetime wishes and had good lives would end up in Elysium while not-so-better-off sims would go to Tartarus. Sims in Elysium have no use for money, have good balanced weather for all seasons, indulge in the careers they enjoyed in life, Angel and Valkyrie NPC's as butlers, maids, etc., having an item that lets you watch over your descendants, rabbit holes that let you "explore the cosmos" "visit loved ones" "talk to Creator", all interactions always give good moodlets, different moodlet reward objects that make sims' lives beautiful, and beautiful neighborhood. Tartarus would be like a very capitalistic society that heavily uses money via any means, extreme weather conditions for all seasons, need to work the worst jobs to obtain money, demonic NPC's that ruin things around you and are mean, items that allow you to haunt your descendants, hours of the week that a sim is required to "be punished for laziness in life", only a very few objects give good moodlets, negative moodlet rewards that make other dead sims' lives worse, "talking to Hades", etc, a dystopian landscape full of frozen, burning, thorny, sandy, gritty, and uncomfortable lots. Both realms have a piece of the Yggdrasil to interact with. Opportunities for reincarnation and ascending/descending into Angels/Valkyries or Demons, have weekly park events (like festivals in Seasons) that hold banquets or feasts for Elysium and torture-fest for Tartarus. But then I feel as if it would be TOO controversial for many people!

[@MultiJuanderful]

That KKND box. Love that RTS.

[@PCGamer77]

Oh wow, I just remembered that we were reading Dante's Inferno in my Honors Humanities II class when this game was previewed in PC Gamer. No wonder it made a lasting impression on me!

[@TheMoviePlanet]

Nice! I'd never heard of this game despite it being right up my alley. Thanks LGR!

[@AdventuringMind]

Man, I remember playing this game many moons ago and your review on it was spot on. Gah, I remember having to balance out the zones one by one and boy was that tedious. At least game gave you the auto balance, but you had to pay pennies for it and if your afterlife was big it was super expensive.

[@Waluigi666]

Haha giant coincidence I just reinstalled this gem the other day. I got it way back in my childhood in the LucasArts Archives

[@obsidianconspiracy]

This is one of my favorite games, i haven't watched the video yet but liked it already, keep up the good work.

[@obsidianconspiracy]

And I'm not disappointed, please don't stop doing what you do.

[@talonsaurn5764]

Glad to see other folks remember this game, Was one of my all time favorites when it came out, just so much fun warped humor(Reminded me something of a darker Bullfrog) still have the CD around which I can't say for many games I played at the time.. Ones I got to the end game plopable buildings(Omnioblogs?) it pretty much felt that you were at the end.

[@frankdirt777]

ahh sneaky "men without hats" drop :) !

[@AgnusCavichioliPereira]

"The Paradise Pair-of-dice" Fucking Genius.

[@MijmerMopper]

This is one of those games I was always annoyed that I could not get my hands on. I had completely forgetten about it, going to check it out on GOG now.

[@doomslayer163]

The "Disco Inferno" thing is absolutely hilarious..lol..I miss games being like this!!

[@briilikewii]

As a graphic design major, the box makes me excited!

[@Delzak1]

Thanks for the annotation, probably wouldn't have bought and enjoyed otherwise!

[@ChakkyCharizard]

"Subscribe for pleasure & pain" *Ohhh myyyy*

[@Musicifye]

...they HAVE to remake this game! The system was so complex, & the game had that appeal that no sim game ever matched.

[@TsakuraWataame]

Great Review. I'll have to find this one now to try out. Thanks.

[@warrenjohnson1972]

Your collection is incredible sir. I'm jealous my god

[@HeboEstel]

so much nostalgia... i remember playing this when i was very young with my brother. i thought it was so fun even though i didn't really understand it.

[@Doomsdayman]

Thanks LGR bought the game complete with the box a few days ago on ebay.

[@LDRGameplay]

Defiantly looks interesting. I might go and pick it up some time down the road, but I have so many other ones I'm past due on playing.

[@maxblazek]

I feel bad for making my parents buy this for me. I had no idea how to play it. That was a great era of PC gaming though.

[@hovl]

Me too!

[@LokiCoyote77]

it was sooo confusing lol... and you couldn't exactly just google up a strategy guide back then.

[@gabrielesimionato1210]

It was a total mess. But I loved it after a while.

[@weirdbeard2244]

The worst thing (which they addressed in a FAQ) is that at the start, you WILL spend more than you make until around 1000 years in. Great concept, art and music, but often terrible implementation (I've read speculation that the annoying [and expensive] balance mechanic was introduced as a way to "encourage" players to look at the artwork in the Micro Manager).

[@DonnaDoveWinters]

The voice-acting for the demon advisor is top notch

[@T0ghar]

Thank god for GOG!

[@autumnarcheology]

Saw KKND in the background.. Bought the Big Box that came with a Game manual back in the 90's. Awesome RTS. Please review it to show the world..

[@nil-8026]

Loved this when I was young. Would love a reboot.

[@FaithTheSlayer]

I still have that game, brings back memories

[@nathanmarineau3993]

What the actual heck? This game looks crazy.

[@GazettiSF]

I've got that same shirt... comfortable, looks good, cheap. I give it a 8 out of 10. Damn you target and your great deals... now everyone has the same shirt!

[@inditsnotdenon922]

I would like this game to be redone. The concept is really cool.

[@KramuWu]

such good memories with this game. thx for the vid

[@halyomorpha]

That was my problem with games like SimCity, the graphics of the town would always blur together for me and I wouldn't be able to tell what was what. This looks really fun though. Thanks for the review, I'm going to look this up.

[@GenericInternetter]

i bought this game when it came out, and i did not regret it. remember, games back then were all more or less to this standard.

[@MiloTheMightyDude]

"Cigars are evil, you won't miss 'em"

[@weirdproq]

Could you review "P.J.'s Reading Adventures" sometime? I just found out what it was called after so long of not knowing. I mainly remember playing the Paul Bunyan interactive story as a kid at my local library. Good times.

[@tzeneth]

Addendum for the video: It is available on GoG.com and has been for a while. I'm not sure when it was first posted to GoG but I know it's been there for a few years (then again, this video was made more than a few years ago as well)

[@ftuT]

I feel this was very an underrated gem with unexploited potential for better sequels and even a remake (if not a remaster).

[@therealseanw.stewart2071]

This game looks...AWESOME! AND it was made by LucasArts!?! How have I never heard of this gem!? I think I'll go buy it. Thanks God--I mean, GOG!! XD

[@toxicmaguire]

It's certainly an interesting concept for a game. I'll have to keep an eye out for a copy, if only for curiousity's sake.

[@4thcoming]

Loved Simcity and Afterlife.

[@potatoe3675]

Damn, I love your reviews.

[@jackfrazer576]

Hells yeah a new vid

[@sagewolf8528]

great now I have The Safety Dance going off In My Head

[@swim_ad]

We can dance if you want to.

[@alexriesenbeck]

Awesome jam at the end!

[@hardrockalexxx]

2021 still fascinated