Gamevil’s third-person multiplayer shooter Afterpulse (Free) launched worldwide last October following a short soft-launch period. It offered great visuals, but more importantly it streamlined the shooter experience to create something that felt satisfying but still highly playable on mobile touchscreen devices. We enjoyed it a lot in our original review, and although I was a bit late to the party, I also got hooked on Afterpulse late last year and it’s become one of my very favorite games. The shooting is fun, the matchmaking works great, and the RPG-ish character and weapon leveling keeps me coming back time and time again.
Today a huge update landed for Afterpulse which adds several great new features. One is the new “Back to Back" game mode which sees you team up with one other person against 3 other teams of 2 in a deathmatch where you’ve got to work well with your partner to watch each other’s backs. Another big addition is the new Razed Fort map which features various levels of elevation and quite a few nooks and crannies to explore. Here’s a video overview of the Razed Fort map that gives you a full tour of what the map has to offer.
A new map and new mode are pretty big additions, but perhaps the most exciting part of this latest Afterpulse update is the ability to create custom matches. Now you can set up your own matches with custom parameters and even generate a password for the match so you can keep things private and only invite people that you want to play with. Of course you can also leave it open so anyone can join, or you can even fill out a custom match lobby with bots. Finally, there are a few new weapons in this update. Two new SMGs, the IZU-G and LSM-7; a long-range secondary shotgun called the Hydra 860, and a new handgun called the MFX 9.
If you enjoy shooters but haven’t yet checked out Afterpulse, well, what are you waiting for? It’s free with a friendly free to play system that never limits how much you can play but does limit your rate of progression. In fact, both in terms of how it plays and its monetization Afterpulse really reminds me of the classic Eliminate. This new update sweetens the deal and with an Android version still in the works and coming soon there should be no shortage of people playing Afterpulse well into the future.
