Afterplace Review: A Pixel Art Action Adventure on Switch
Afterplace is a massive open-world action-adventure that dumps you into a sprawling forest and simply tells you to go play. It’s a 3D world viewed from a top-down perspective, filled with secrets, loot, and towns full of colourful characters. There are no waypoints here; you’re just meant to switch off, roam around, and stumble into your own self-contained experience at your own pace.
Game Quick Data
- Developer: Evan Kice
- Publisher: indie.io
- Genre: Open-World Action Adventure
- Release Date: February 26, 2026
- Website: afterplacegame.com
- UK Store: Nintendo eShop Link
Quick Nav:
Specs & HUD |
Gameplay Review |
Performance |
Settings & Controls
Afterplace Nintendo Switch Review: Specs & HUD
- Download size is a tiny 236MB, so it won’t bloat your SD card.
- The HUD features a healthbar system where you can see exactly when you need to buy food to heal up.
- HUD scale and text scaling options are available to get the UI looking exactly how you want on the Switch screen.
- Top-down view in a 3D world, and the screens are huge, giving you a great look at the massive world.
- Menu navigation is a bit different as you use the shoulder buttons to go through them, which felt a bit off to me.
Gameplay Review & Mechanics Breakdown
The whole idea of the game is to do what you want and play how you want. You discover your own adventure by finding enemies to fight, treasures to loot, and the world is massive. You can find towns and interact with the many colourful people of the town, though I had a few instances where characters you talk to will talk for ages and have no skip button. It’s a simple hack-and-slash combat system where you can roll around to dodge, and you’ll find and buy new items like weapons and gear for armour. Coins drop from enemies and can be used in shops and at vendors you find, and there are treasure chests hidden all over.
There are two game worlds to discover, and each has many secrets and alternate routes around the world. Tutorial signs pop up as you play to keep things moving, but largely, this is a game that you just switch off and roam around and have a self-contained experience. I don’t mind the game for being a bit different in the genre. However, with no real sense of progression, you can feel aimless and kind of bored over time. It’s definitely a game about the journey rather than a checklist of tasks.
Afterplace Nintendo Switch Review: Performance & Fidelity
- Features charming pixel art graphics that look great on the Switch.
- Haptic feedback support is included and can be toggled on and off in the menus.
- Visual settings include camera shake amount adjustments to suit your preference.
- Includes a “disable colour alternation” and “disable screen flash” option for those who find certain effects distracting.
- The performance is solid, though the combat can be a bit too chaotic with horrible knock-backs that disrupt the flow.
Settings, Customisation & Control Details
- You can remap the controls to fit your playstyle perfectly.
- Invincibility mode is available, and it doesn’t affect the story or anything, so it’s very accessible.
- Accessibility focus: options to replace small text with Grey text to help with readability.
- Simple controls: mainly focused on hack and slash attacks and a roll/dodge mechanic.
- Shoulder buttons are the primary way to cycle through the different menu screens.
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Afterplace
Summary
THRILLS & HIGHLIGHTS:
The pixel art graphics look great, and at only a 236MB download size, it’s a total steal for your storage. The whole idea is you discover your own adventure in a massive world with two game worlds to find, full of secrets and alternate routes. It’s a proper self-contained experience where you can just switch off and roam, finding enemies to fight and treasures to loot. The accessibility is top-notch, too, with invincibility mode that doesn’t mess with the story, plus you can remap the controls and mess with the HUD and text scaling. Finding towns and chatting to the colourful people makes the world feel alive while you hunt for new gear and weapons.
KEY NEGATIVES:
The combat can be a bit too chaotic with horrible knock-backs that just get annoying after a while. With no real sense of progression, you can feel aimless and kind of bored over time if you need a proper goal. The menus are different in that you use the shoulder buttons to go through them, and it’s just a bit off to me. Also, you get characters you talk to who will talk for ages, and there’s no skip button, so you’re just stuck there waiting for them to shut up so you can get back to the action.
OVERALL VERDICT:
I don’t mind the game for being a bit different in the genre, and it really captures that “go anywhere” vibe. It’s a massive world that lets you play how you want and do what you want, which is rare these days. While the combat knockbacks and the chatty NPCs without a skip button can grind your gears, and that aimless feeling might creep in, it’s still a cracking little pixel art world to get lost in. If you want a game where you can just roam around and find your own fun without being shoved down a path, this is a solid shout.
