Paradox says Afterworld draws more from the Bronze Age collapse than Fallout

Paradox has pushed back against a direct Fallout comparison for Afterworld, outlining the influences behind its post-apocalyptic grand strategy game set in North America.

In a new developer diary, content designer and “elder lore keeper” Luke Bean said the setting draws heavily on the study of the Bronze Age collapse, rather than on Fallout’s mythology.

America as an ancient empire

Bean said the people of Afterworld are not Americans in the usual sense. They remember Americans as members of an ancient civilisation, in much the same way modern people view the Roman Empire.

The world retains the memory of a period defined by powerful and mysterious science. However, Bean said the continent’s divergent tribes are far more separated from and mystified by the “ancients” than the communities depicted in Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic role-playing games.

The mystery of the ancients’ death

The setting’s central question concerns why a civilisation believed capable of doing anything with science ultimately disappeared. Bean said the people of this world conclude that the ancients must have wanted to die.

Afterworld remains a grand strategy game about divided tribes in North America, but its developer describes the cultural framework as drawing not only on post-apocalyptic fiction, but also on the history of ancient civilisations falling apart.