Afterlife: Lost Pup (Game Review)

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Ever wanted to feel what a puppy feels when he loses his owner? Want to step into their shoes (or in this case, their paws) to experience what it feels like? 

Heyyo, what do you know? It’s Chris Jet here, with a review of Afterlife: Lost Pup by Red Racoon Art Studios, played on a Lenovo A5000. Let me give you the gist, Afterlife: Lost Pup (ATP) is a free app on the Google Play Store that lets you control a dog, who was brought back from the dead with the sole purpose of reuniting with his long lost owner. Now, doesn’t that just bring you to tears?

The game itself is quite simple as much as the objective is – to walk through earth again to find your owner. On first access, it doesn’t take that long to load, unlike other apps with a similar genre that takes quite a while to load on first start up; ATP goes straight away to the main menu.

As soon as you press start, it would take you to a tutorial phase like most games, but what makes ATP different is that it doesn’t shove instructions at you; it allows you to take a minute to look at your surroundings because the instructions aren’t dumped on you at the start, you have to play it to find out the rest of the instructions. Doing this allows you to get used to the controls as you look at the instructions in the background, making it stand out from the other games.

Another thing that adds a plus for this game is the pause button. Most games place their pause button on the farthest corners of the screen making it difficult for most players to press – especially those with big fingers and a small phone/tablet. Other than the pause button, the other buttons are just amazing for being big enough to be pressed.

The controls are quite simple and self-explanatory as you go through the brief tutorial; D is for ‘Play Dead’, P is for ‘Pause’, and J is for ‘Jump’. This is actually the first time I’ve seen a game where you can play dead and seemed fitting for a revived dog, who wanders around a city. The attack (or defense) allows you to lie on the floor as your enemies examine you with their shovel before they deem you truly dead; well, I think, even I would poke you with a humongous shovel just to know your dead.

You’re a dog with bones sticking out of your body, so why not?

Speaking of enemies, let’s explore them for a bit; they are humans as well as undead. From the tutorial it was briefly mentioned that the puppy can see both living and undead, but can’t tell the difference; must be another to their black and white vision, who knows? These enemies are actually brutal in a sense that they are a one hit kill; any form of contact – be it jumping or running – will cause the game to fail and the ‘Game Over’ screen to appear.

The defense of playing dead allows the dog to trick these people into walking past them, allowing the pup to further progress the game. However, playing dead can only last a short while; the blue bar at the bottom left of the screen indicates how long the dog can stay dead, decreasing until you stop the defense. It drains as quickly as you use it, so use it wisely because it takes twice the time to regenerate even just a bit of it back.

So, where is your owner? I mean, you wouldn’t have gone back from the dead for nothing right? Well, the goal was to reunite with your owner, and the question was how? In the game you are supposed to collect five diary pages per stage that would allow you get closer to where your owner is. An indicator on the bottom left, next to the health bar, will tell you how many pages you have collected. 

Each page randomly appears per stage, but from what I experienced, not all five appears and would leave you stuck on the end of the level, unable to find the others. I have played the game several times – dying and trying to find the pages – and have not gone past the first level; well, I guess this puppy won’t be getting back to his owner any time soon. Shame.

Overall, since the game is still in version one, it’s already a good development and I’m looking forward to version two with all the bugs fixed and more content available. I would recommend it to others who want to enjoy a simple game that doesn’t require the internet or a game that doesn’t drain that much battery; it’s a good game to pass time. I honestly want to return this lost pup back to his owner in this tale from the Afterlife.

Chris Jet, signing out!

[Nico's Note: You can download this game HERE! and did you like Chris Jet's Review? Make sure to Share this and leave some feedback at the NicDroid Community! Also makes sure to follow Chris Jet on Twitter @czykel032 ]