The Next World

The Next World, developed by Illuminated Games and published by AAD Productions, is a hybrid between a visual novel and a resource management survival strategy game that explores the fragility of human civilization on a hostile alien world. The game casts you as the commander of a crashed colony ship, stranded with a group of survivors after a failed interstellar expedition. From the very first moments, it establishes a grim yet compelling tone—one where every decision carries moral weight, and every misstep can lead to starvation, mutiny, or extinction. It’s a story not about conquest or heroism, but endurance, leadership, and compromise in the face of impossible odds. The narrative takes center stage as you guide your survivors through a series of crises. Your responsibilities extend beyond building and scavenging—you must also maintain morale, resolve disputes, and make political choices that shape the future of your fragile colony. The writing is somber and mature, highlighting the isolation and moral strain of life on a planet that doesn’t want you there. The story unfolds through a series of branching events, dialogue options, and random occurrences that test your leadership…

Quite a nice game. Definitely worth a play.

Like a Choose Your Own Adventure book with some resource management. I played this straight through. Good story.

Ok, i like the idea of this game and the characters but i found a glitch where i get no new vehicles after scavaging them, the audio fails sometimes and of course the achivments are not working. Although i enjoyed my playthrough in normal can't recomend such a mess of a game.

I do not recommend "The Next World" at all. It suffers from three huge flaws: 1) Trope-iness, 2) Tastelessness, 3) Brokenness. Spoiler-free summary: 1) The story is predictable, the conflict is forced, and the premise is compromised by blowing the stakes so out of proportion the figurative human element is lost. 2) The human element is also literally lost - lives are used as a kind of game currency. 3) Whatever math is supposed to be running in the background to track the numbers stopped functioning in the second to last chapter and never recovered. I will elaborate these below, but there are SPOILERS AHEAD, so stop here if that would upset you. Trope-iness The villain doesn't bluff? Neither do I. I knew the choice would cause a catastrophic game over and I welcomed it. When it happened, I smiled. I did not view it as a failure nor tragedy. Instead, it confirmed everything I'd been thinking about how dreadfully predictable and inane the writing was. Of course the arch villain would have to have his "I'm invincible so I will explain what's really going on" moment with your clueless protagonist. I mean ... you literally are told to "choose your protagonist" just after the confusi…

[h1]Be [i]very[/i] careful about spoilers if you're going through the user reviews to see if this game is worth picking up.[/h1] The Next World is short and laser focused on it's story. Getting spoiled on any plot events in this game will have a drastic impact on your enjoyment of it. As such, this review is going to be as spoiler free as possible. ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************** I had no idea what to expect from this game beyond it's description on the store page. The premise sounded interesting, if not terribly original, so on a whim I decided to pick it up in the sale. I ended up being pleasantly surprised by it, though there are a few caveats I definitely want to address after I describe what I like about it. [b]The Good[/b] The story is good overall. There's a major twist that happens pretty early on which is executed competently and effectively. It genuinely took me by surprise and got me hooked. When it happens the colony's entire situation suddenly takes on much more meaning. It raises the stakes in a very interesting way, and it's safe…