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This fashion brand are showing off their new looks with a cyberpunk-y video gameEveryone is dressed like a futuristic art student
Everyone is dressed like a futuristic art student
Fashion brand Balenciaga have released a video game to showcase their new autumn collection and, as a lot of things will be this week, it’s very cyberpunk. With an edgy name like Afterworld: The Age Of Tomorrow, I expected nothing less, really. The free browser game drops you into an industrial complex in the year 2031, where neon yellow trainers are sold on every street corner (seriously,why so many ugly trainers?), and a suspicious number of people seem to be wearing suits of armour under their jeans.
It’s basically a walking simulator where your goal is to wander through five different zones, each slightly more trippy than the last.
Here’s a video with some of the highlights of my playthrough (quick warning that it was quite jittery in parts, but I’ve chopped those out as best I can).
Watch on YouTube
Watch on YouTube
Zone 1 is a large industrial market kinda thing, where clothes are displayed on railings and shelves, and NPCs (models?) are standing around looking cooler than you. A few of them dress scarily similar to my sister, who I now assume has the ability to time travel.
I really dig this look, tbf. Knight legs anall.Zone 4 is a forest. There are more people dressed in cool outfits here. They look very out of place. I follow a rabbit through to a clearing. The rabbit is not dressed in designer clothes. Now I’m at a rave in the middle of a forest and I’m struggling to understand what this has to do with showcasing clothes, but it looks cool at least.
I really dig this look, tbf. Knight legs anall.
Shortly after I get ushered into a cave, Zone 5, and it feels a little bit as though I’ve been initiated into a cult. The cave opens up and there’s a path up to a sword trapped in a rock. It’s probably meant to be some excalibur thing but this whole area looks a bit like the last level ofDark Souls 3. Pulling the sword from its stone it’s revealed that I’ve been wearing a suit of armour all along. The final screen makes you do breathing exercises, and it all ends with the quote: “Congratulations. You have reached the highest level of digital enlightenment.”
Definitely a cult.
If you want to have a go yourself, you can play it on your phone or on a PC in-browser onBalenciaga’s website. It only takes around 20 minutes to play through, or you can just have a flick throughthe lookbook, if you’re more interested in the fashion itself.
Some warnings if you do play it: it’s pretty jittery, with frames dropping and cutscenes lagging a bit, and it’s frustrating that you can’t explore some of the other cool areas you can see. There are restaurants and more forest clearings that would be great to mosey around in, alas you have to follow a pretty strict path.
