Platform: Switch
Publisher: tinyBuild Games
Developer: Do My Best
Genre: Action, Platform, RPG
Players: 1
Release Date: February 23, 2018
The Final Station The apocalypse is a beloved setting for tons of fictional series. Some of the gaming world’s biggest franchises take advantage of an apocalyptic setting, just look at Fallout, Left 4 Dead, and Advance Wars. Even Splatoon of all series is post-apocalyptic. Yet most of these series make light of the idea. Fallout and Left 4 Dead feature dumb jokes about garden gnomes and silly clothing, whereas Advance Wars and Splatoon hide their apocalyptic nature with upbeat cheery colors and stories. Few games treat these apocalyptic situations as dire and tense as The Final Station treats them.
An Omen in the Night
The Final Station starts you in media res, placing you in a dark hallway without any explanation. Walk through a few doors, and you’ll be met by a similarly unexplained cult-like group of people, gathered around a glowing mural. With no one to talk to, further exploration can lead to a glimpse of the world outside, revealing that you’re in some kind of bunker, and an encounter with a mysterious shadow figure. Eventually, the only way to go will be down, and after you climb down a long ladder, you’re jumped suddenly by a massive crowd of shadowy figures. Cut to black.
And then cut to a calm morning, as your alarm is going off. You’re not in a bunker, not dead from shadow slaps, and don’t even have a weapon. What a weird dream that was. As you head off to work for the morning, you can chat with some locals on your way, who make with the usual small talk. Eventually, you get to your job and discover that you’re a train conductor. Your job today? A quick ride to the next town over. Sounds simple enough, right? As you’ll soon find out, you’re about to hold the record for longest overtime in history.
Multi-Track Minigames
As you’ve guessed, you’re not just going to that one station. Turns out, almost every other train has been destroyed or rendered inoperable, meaning it comes down to you to cover every possible train related job there is. And the first of these is delivering a pallet of military goods almost 10 stations away. Strap in, it’s gonna be a long day.
The Final Station divides it’s gameplay up into two sections: on and off the train. On the train, you’re tasked with playing a series of minigames in between stops, preventing your train and passengers from falling apart. Passengers have two stats you’ll need to keep track of: health and hunger, both rather straightforward. If the hunger bar runs out, the passenger’s health begins to drop. If that runs out… well, take a guess. Dispensers for food and medkits are at the front of your train to keep these bars topped up, but be cautious, you only have so many of each.
Along with passengers, you also have your train’s facilities to keep ahold of. Around the train are numerous different things that can go wrong, from the suspension to the electricity levels, to the stability of the explosive guardian core you’re carrying around. Let any of these get out of hand, and you and your passengers will suffer for it. The whole time you’re doing this, your passengers are conversing with you and each other. This allows for interesting expository dialogue and a look at just what kind of people exist in this game’s universe. Be careful not to spend too many of your medkits on the passengers though. You’ll need them for the other side of the game.
Scavenging amongst the Shadows
The vast majority of the game takes place off the train in the exploration sections. Each area the train arrives at forces it to stop until a passcode is entered to allow it to progress. Unfortunately, these passcodes are never easy to collect, often far from the station itself. People are being turned into shadows, after all. Oh yeah, those shadows you saw in your dream? Very real, it turns out. These guys have infested many of the suburbs around the train’s stops, making every newly opened door dangerous. As you go to further and further stops, you’ll start encountering new varieties of shadows that’ll require new tactics to combat.
Throughout these off-train segments, you have the chance to scavenge for supplies and information. Interactable objects, like fridges and boxes, are given a white glow when near them. A quick button press loots them, adding the cash and supplies inside to your inventory. Medkits and food are also possible to find, but are especially few and far between, so don’t make it a habit to use them willy-nilly. Ammo packs for your two weapons, a pistol and a shotgun, are also invaluable. You have a melee attack in your repertoire as well – handy for when your guns are emptied. Though fists will work on the regular, slow-moving shadows, you’ll need your firearms for many of the other enemy varieties.
Items aren’t all you’ll find at these stations. Survivors of all shapes and sizes will need you to come to their aid. Clear out the surrounding area of shadows and talk to them, and they’ll head over to the train for evac. Keep in mind though, that they’ll need food and that the injured will need medkits. If you’re low, you might not end up being able to save everyone. Survival isn’t always fair.
Taking the Good with the Bad
The Final Station does one thing exceptionally right – it nails the feeling of an apocalypse. A silent protagonist, quietly exploring through ruins of the modern world, set to ambient music with minimal SFX. The game truly puts you on edge and makes you feel tense. Doors can burst open suddenly and have shadows pour out. Any room you enter could have either a survivor or a horde of shadows. Incidental pieces of readable lore, like notes on walls or left up logs on messaging clients, make each part of the world feel like something that was lived in, not just a setpiece. The game’s low-res graphics add to the feeling, rather than detract from it. The lack of depth, and often of explanation, ends up leaving the details up to the player’s imaginations. It’s an oft-heard term, but few titles deserve the term “atmospheric” like The Final Station does.
Unfortunately, while The Final Station hits its highs in the right places, that doesn’t mean there aren’t moments where it stumbles in the dark. Difficulty spikes hit hard and often come at random times, forcing a lot of resets. Clarity is probably the game’s biggest issue, on a number of fronts. The train minigames, like everything else in the game, are presented without a tutorial. They’re simple in actuality, but it’s not indicated well whether or not you’re doing things right. Similarly, what is and isn’t raid-able is basically random. Not every fridge is something you can search, nor is every toolbox or desk, but some of them are. This normally wouldn’t be an issue, but in a game where a handful of collected bullets can mean the difference between life and death, risking your bacon to get to a locker and finding you can’t open it really sucks.
Now Arriving at The Final Station
The Final Station is a great example of just how far a great aesthetic can push a game. The game’s mechanics aren’t that in-depth but placed in this setting and these circumstances, simplicity shines. You know your capabilities and you have to survive using them. You can’t rely on power-ups or special abilities or even by jumping. Just your fists, your guns, and your wits. The Final Station uses its minimalistic art style to truly capture the feeling of being an Average Joe caught up at the end of the world. It has its bumps and bruises, but you bet it’s gonna push it’s way through.
The Final Station is available now for $19.99 on the Nintendo Switch eShop.
Review Copy Provided by tinyBuild Games
