At Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026, Paradox Interactive announced a brand-new IP: Afterworld. This will be Paradox Development Studio’s first new non-historical IP since Stellaris back in 2016. Afterworld is a brand-new post-apocalyptic grand strategy game that lets players reshape a fallen North American wasteland.
We got a chance to go hands-on with Afterworld at Gamescom 2026. We saw some of what to expect from the new upcoming grand strategy game. In Afterworld, players start in a randomly generated North American wasteland, where they control and guide a small band of survivors, known as a “band,” as they secure food, water, shelter, or rediscover lost technology. Players can define their laws, culture, societal values, and many other factors.
Afterworld is aiming to make this grand strategy game more accessible for players. The Afterworld developers talked about how UI, especially in Paradox games, can be quite overwhelming for players. This was one of their focuses, in that the game starts with a bare-bones UI and will then expand as players unlock and discover items and mechanics within the game.
This allows players to learn things as they become available. Paradox explained during our appointment that one of the biggest things they’ve learned over the years across their other IPs (like Crusader Kings, Victoria, Europa Universalis) is that loading into a game with tens to hundreds of things happening at once can really be a turn-off for players.
Afterworld allows its players to discover possibilities slice by slice instead of being overwhelmed by them.
Afterworld’s approachability is especially evident in its dynamic skill trees. While there are many skill trees for players to explore, they only see them as they discover them, helping players feel. So starting out, players will only see one or two skill trees and won’t have seen every single option, as they are not available. This is also true for everything else in the game, such as laws or societal values.
These dynamic skill trees were one of my favorite parts of my limited playtime because, while they help players avoid feeling overwhelmed by hundreds of options, they also show how different each game can be. A simple example of this is fishing: your tribe has lost the knowledge of fishing and will only be able to learn this knowledge again if you discover a river or body of water to unlock the “Rivers” skill tree.
If players never encounter water, then that skill tree will never become available. This makes exploration a vital component of Afterworld, as players will want to discover resources, items, and technologies, but also unlock skill trees that let them grow their empire more efficiently.
Starting a game in Afterworld, players will select a couple of traits and values, along with an Origin of their starting band. We were able to play as Shelterborn, meaning our survivors were living in a nuclear bunker and were forced to come to the surface.
There will be other playable Origins to choose from, such as starting already on the nuclear surface. There will be more to choose from than just where your survivors live, but how they live and what they believe in, such as whether they are cannibals or religious zealots, for example.
These Origins and chooseable values come with bonuses and possible penalties that players will need to decide between. Much like the “Rivers” skill trees, these selections can also come with skill trees.
Now, just because these skill trees become available or traits are selected doesn’t mean players need to invest in them. During my playthrough, I started with my survivors having cannibalism, but there was also an option where if I kept ample food supplies, then over time they would move away from cannibalism.
Afterworld embraces the biggest parts of post-apocalyptic dystopian sci-fi.
After getting your survivors’ Origins in order, players then start randomly on a procedurally generated map of North America. The landmarks and geography of the map will be the same each time around; however, resources, points of interest, lost technology, other empires, and bands will be different in each playthrough.
It can be pretty cool to see these maps of North America if you are familiar with North America. I started in South Carolina and used my band to explore the southern United States of America and saw what I would assume to be former Atlanta.
One of the unique things about Afterworld is that settlements, at least as of now, are not permanent, meaning that if players want, they can be traveling nomads, making pit stops to gather resources of an area and then move their settlement to another area. Players can always choose to play a more “traditional” way of just making a settlement, then some outposts as they expand, and then another settlement; they are more than welcome to.
Afterworld really seems to be setting itself up to be a very open sandbox where players can play any way they want. This really adds to the replayability and means there will be plenty of different stories for each playthrough.
Players can try to band together with other tribes and treat their tribes with respect, or they can be a more oppressive empire and conquer anyone they encounter. I experienced both of these in my playthrough: I met another band that chose my empire, and I was also raided by a different tribe, so there is a constant need to stay on your toes, as anyone can be a friend or foe.
All decisions will have some sort of result, whether good, bad, or both, as each new band that joins your empire has its own personalities, traits, and values, so inviting bands that do not align with your tribe can cause internal issues.
While I did not get to fully experience this in my demo time, as I just did not quite get to that stage, players can even align their society into classes where maybe a few elite rule over the many, or an equality society; it is really up to you. It all comes down to what the player decides and how they handle these moving parts.
Even with an eye on approachability, Paradox Interactive doesn’t lose its dynamic skill trees.
Afterworld with these dynamic skill trees, procedurally generated maps, and empire options means that each playthrough can be quite different and unique. I only had a limited playtime with Afterworld, thus only really got to play some of the more early game, but even then there was so much to explore and check out as I was maneuvering my empire into a strong position for the midgame.
Overall, Afterworld is a game I am quite intrigued by and really want to see more of, as the team really seems to be putting the grand into grand strategy. There are so many moving parts and so many different ways of playing that if the team can put it all together, then Afterworld can really fit well into the already robust Paradox portfolio.
I do not want to get too much ahead of myself; as I mentioned, I was only able to play for a short, limited time. However, saying that, there is plenty to get excited about, and I’m always a fan when a studio tries to do something different, especially in a time where everyone seems to just be making remasters, reboots, and sequels.