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This eco-conscious action adventure carries itself with the earnest solemnity of the last episode of a BBC nature programme, in which David Attenborough outlines the dire threat faced by Earth and its animal inhabitants. Dragged out to eight hours, however, and shorn of the passion and charisma of the beloved naturalist, the result is crushingly dull. Inviting you to guide life spirit Gaia through a series of dismal postapocalyptic environments – impressive more in scale than imagination – Piccolo Studio might have sought to avoid preachiness, yet After Us nevertheless amounts to a wordless reproof. Offering nary a hint at how we might avoid this dreadful mess, it simply offers up these grim tableaux depicting the devastating effects humanity’s myriad failings have had on our planet, gesturing emptily as if to say: well, this is terrible, isn’t it?

Still, there is a (literal) beacon of hope in the form of our luminescent lead, asked by Mother Earth to release the life force held in the last animals to become extinct, so that the world might be restored. Reaching the heart of a sprawling suburban area, our protagonist – who’s silent but reacts with sorrow and then righteous fury at the sight of an emaciated dog – is surrounded by waste: plastic buckets, tin cans, bottles, bulging refuse sacks (as with most of its environments, Piccolo leans on familiar images of destruction and decay). The ‘burst of life’ she releases in her anger liberates a canine spirit, which goes on to occupy a sylvan Ark, a roamable hub where you can greet and pet other animals you’ve rescued, or fast-travel to a previously visited region. Charged with the left trigger, this ability temporarily coats an area around Gaia in thick grass, while elsewhere turning electrical wires into grindable vines strung between buildings and transforming oil derricks into verdant fast-travel points.