Party like hell? No pressure.
Afterparty is a 2019 supernatural indie game by Night School Studio, available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC through the Epic Games Store. It was released on Steam on October 22, 2020.
You control Milo and Lola. They've been the best of friends for their whole lives.
...And now they're dead. Like, dead dead.
While that's already pretty bad, it gets worse. Namely, they're looking at spending an eternity in Hell.
But wait! There's a glimmer of hope in all this! If they can outdrink Satan (you know, the big guy of Hell), he will let them return to Earth. No pressure, right?
...Right?
Now has a character page.
Not to be confused with a similarly named 2022 crime comedy series.
Tropes:
- Affably Evil: Most demons come off as being Deadpan Snarkers with a professional side at worst.
- Alien Geometries: Hell indulges in some of this, particularly when Milo and Lola first meet Satan and follow him up a wall and into a private room that can only be accessed by walking on the ceiling.
- All Myths Are True: Besides confirming most of the elements of Christian belief — God exists, Lucifer warred with him, Adam was the first man and so forth — the game suggests that aspects of other religions are also real. For instance, Lucifer is mentioned to have made a wager with Osiris, and the processor makes a reference to Aztec judges who may misinterpret piercings as a bribe.
- Chernobog, a god from Slavic mythology, is also presented as a minor NPC.
- The owner of the Feisty's sports bar in Bobolyne Park is named Rhadamanthus, who hails from Greek mythology and is commonly depicted as a judge of the dead.
- Anti-Climax: Finding out how Lola and Milo died is a big mystery... a mystery with the conclusion of it just being your average "run over by a drunk" situation.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: It's established early and repeatedly that you can end up in Hell for everything from being a mass murderer to repeatedly misusing the express lane at the grocery store.
- Asian and Nerdy: Downplayed. Milo — real name Sang Bong — apparently coasted through college and is as timid as they come, but isn't shown to be particularly book smart, at least not in comparison to Lola.
- Bittersweet Ending: Both endings are this. The Enabler ending does see Milo and Lola returned to Earth alive, but Lucifer is still stuck with his alcohol addiction. However, the Intervention ending falls a little bit more on the sweet side, as Lucifer realizes his drinking habit is destroying him, and while Milo and Lola are stuck in Hell, a time skip shows that Lola became Hell's first non-demon lawyer and is helping Apollyon take the first steps towards making Hell less of a terrible place. And then for a final bit of sweetness Sam crashes into the room to tell the duo she found a new way for them to leave Hell.
- Central Theme: Alcohol and the effects it has on people, from what kind of a drunk someone can be to struggling with the fact that a loved one is addicted to it.
- Chess with Death: The main goal of the game. Beat Satan in a drinking contest to come back to life.
- Closest Thing We Got: If lacking people willing to be on their team for the big drinking party finale, Lola and Milo are forced to grab a drunken idiot demon from the start of the game.
- Dead to Begin With: Milo and Lola are already dead. Who's responsible? You'll have to ask collections.
- It turns out no one's responsible — per Apollyon, Lola and Milo died in a Surprise Car Crash on the way to the graduation party from the opening.
- Deal with the Devil: Outdrink Satan to get back to Earth.
- You can do other, more minor deals with other demons, such as
- Throw a case against an innocent person to get a seal from Apollyon.
- Depending on whether you got Beth to come to Skoll with you, win or deliberately lose the dance competition against Asmodeus to get a seal from him.
- Find a replacement band for Onoskelis and win a dance-off against Valac to free Lynda Landon for the evening.
- Eat Lutzelfrau's 'candy' to gain her coat needed for a disguise.
- You can do other, more minor deals with other demons, such as
- The Devil Is a Loser: It quickly comes out that the Devil is an alcoholic mess himself, hence why he agreed to Milo's bet.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Some humans get sent to Hell for some of the most ridiculous things, like intentionally misusing the express lanes in grocery stores and giving checks to drive-through cashiers.
- Establishing Character Moment: When we first see Lola, she's sitting with Milo on a couch at the college party, not participating at all and wanting to leave as soon as possible, establishing her role as The Snark Knight.Lola: Alright, Milo. We came. We saw. If we get out now, we can still hit the doughnut shop before it closes.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Throwing the drinking contest means Milo and Lola are stuck in Hell, but doing so gets Satan to realize his drinking has become a big issue.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: The demons are stated to be punch clock villains who don't always enjoy their jobs torturing humans. Which is why they drink outside of work. And why Satan made Hellcohol free in Hell.
- You can get an achievement by having Milo and Lola slip Hellcohol at least 400 times in one playthrough.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Wormhorn the Personal Demon, who's supposed to shadow Milo and Lola around to Break Them by Talking... except A) she's new, and B) she can't keep character to save her life, coming off as a Genki Girl who really wants to impress her two new friends-er, victims.
- In Vino Veritas: The gameplay is centered around this trope. Not only can the main characters get drunk pretty quickly due to Hell's alcohol being stronger than Earth's, but each drink can bring different effects, which in turn can make for some interesting dialogue choices.
- Meaningful Name: The title "Afterparty" can refer to "a party held after an event, especially a concert or another party", or as a combination of "afterlife" and "party", since much of the game is set in Hell during Milo and Lola's afterlives.
- Noodle Incident: A possible conversation during the opening sequence has Milo walking up to a pair of unnamed "movie guys" and bringing up that they had apparently taken the same Advanced Frisbee class. Movie Guy 1 then remembers him as "the guy who had his wisdom teeth removed and threw up all over the admissions director." Funny enough, if you talk to the intellectuals first, they have a slightly different story — according to them, Milo gave blood and then threw up all over the admissions director. So what actually caused Milo to throw up is a Riddle for the Ages.
- Only Known By His Nickname: Downplayed. Milo's given name Sang Bong is brought up a few times in game, and Wormhorn even taunts him for the other Western nicknames he gave himself before he settled on Milo.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: The Totem Pole Trench used to infiltrate the Stuck Knot doesn't fool Apollyon for an instant.
- Pet the Dog: Quite literally. Satan's hound, Baphomet, can be petted. Netting you an achievement aptly called "Pet The Damn Dog".
- Precision F-Strike: During the opening, Lola concludes her pep talk with Milo this way. Cue Proscenium Reveal.Lola: What's gonna be etched on your metallic space crypt will be what you did in the real world. And the real world starts right fucking now!
- Proscenium Reveal: As soon as Lola concludes her pep talk with Milo, lighting strikes, everything goes dark and a couple of demons emerge. After they cheerfully tell them they are both dead and in Hell, all of the "party" house walls are revealed to be cardboard props and fall aside.
- Punch-Clock Villain: As pointed out, demons didn't make the eternal damnation rules, they enforce them. They're pretty polite to the damned otherwise.
- Satan: The king of Hell and the guy Milo challenges for a chance to return to Earth.
- Sequel Hook: In one ending Sam shows up to tell Milo and Lola that she's discovered another way to escape from Hell that will be more visually impressive and have more things to do.
- Short-Lived Organism: Personal Demons like Wormhorn only live for 24 hours before going poof.
- Shout-Out:
- Lola name drops Adventures in Babysitting while trying to come up with an idea to get into Satan's house.Lola: I mean, if four white kids can get inside a jazz club...
- A group of break dancing witches found at Satan's party mention that they "learned everything they know from Marie Laveau
and Mother Suspiriorum." - One random Bicker post you can see in the world reads "is leave possible? hell is sucks".
- One of the tracks in the soundtrack is titled "Your Own, Personal Demon".
- In some idle chatter, Milo references Batman: The Animated Series. Specifically his opinions on the episode "Beware the Gray Ghost"; Batman shouldn't bother a celebrity just for not living up to a character!
- Satan's office has a painting of the golden fiddle from "The Devil Went Down to Georgia".
- Lola name drops Adventures in Babysitting while trying to come up with an idea to get into Satan's house.
- Sir Swearsalot: You can get an achievement by getting Milo and Lola to intentionally swear at least twenty times.
- Staging an Intervention: Turns out Satan has one Hell of a drinking problem. The big final drinking contest turns into his fellow fallen siblings trying to make him realize this.
- Take That!:
- When Milo and Lola are talking to some No Celebrities Were Harmed musicians that are forced to be part of the decor at the Hurdy Durdy Gurdy as part of their Deal with the Devil with Onoskelis:Lola: ...Well, I'll be sure to look you guys up whenever I renew my streaming subscription.
Musician: Yeah, thanks for the nickel. - Beth, the CEO of Bicker (the Hell equivalent of Twitter), notes that humans on Earth are coming up with ways to make their social media more painful quicker than they are.
- One random Bicker post has someone realizing that the reason they're in Hell is because they had the gall to include a dog in the video game they made and not let you pet it. (For the record, you can pet Satan's dog in this game, and you get an achievement for doing so.)
- Hanging in Satan's office is a #76 Hardy football jersey.
- CEOs of Walmart are given instant access to demon only clubs.
- Courts in Hell are sponsored in part by "cupidity, racial fanaticism", and "an unquenchable hunger for political power".
- When Milo and Lola are talking to some No Celebrities Were Harmed musicians that are forced to be part of the decor at the Hurdy Durdy Gurdy as part of their Deal with the Devil with Onoskelis:
- Totem Pole Trench: How Milo and Lola sneak into a demon only club.
- Video Game Caring Potential: Just because Milo and Lola are in Hell doesn't mean they can't go out of the way to do nice things. Optional acts of kindness include:
- Helping prove Roberto Spaghetti innocent in a court case and get him to Heaven, even if it risks incurring the wrath of Apollyon.
- Returning a pitch pipe to a Georgian chorister who is locked in a pillory.
- Befriending Wormhorn at the last act after she was humiliated by Satan.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Wormhorn spends all game trying (and failing) to get inside Milo and Lola's heads. She finally succeeds near the game's end... and is promptly kicked out of the party by Satan for A) being a lesser demon and B) nearing the end of her life-cycle.
