After Hours is an artistic look at depression and sexual assault, diving into the story of a young woman who’s just trying to talk to her love via text message.
CONTENT WARNING: Sexual Abuse, Child Abuse
Often, I come across games I consider powerful. At AdventureX, when I sat down with After Hours, I didn’t expect to be playing a very emotional game. Taking on the role of a young woman who had been sexually abused as a child, you are put through her thoughts in this seemingly-normal day.
The game has very realistic visuals, much like Her Story, but made almost cartoon- or diary-like with scribbles and lines written over the videos, showing various moods or feelings. After Hours tells a story, but often gives you options that you are unable to actually select, as despite them being a good response, you don’t seem to have the energy to go along with them.
After a long conversation with your boyfriend, you can start getting ready for the day, leaving the nest you have made on the floor. Your character goes through moods of feeling overly confident to feeling low and worthless at the flip of a dime. This is interesting to watch, and shows the long term affect her previous traumas have had on her, as well as the grief she is living with.
After getting some more traumatic news, you can decide to end the game, play more of the game, or read through a diary to hear more about what’s been happening over the course of a longer amount of time. After Hours is a really interesting look into someone’s existence – someone who’s currently struggling and working through a lot in their own lives.
After Hours was previously made available through Humble Bundle, but doesn’t currently have a release date for other platforms. In the meantime, you Bahiyya Khan, the developer, on Twitter.
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