The Final Station

This is an indie story-based run'n'gun with puzzles. These puzzle are presented in the form of enemies and are very-well designed.You can often choose to solve some more than necessary. You will be rewarded with items, but most of the time with story beads. How surprising for a story-driven game ;-) Gamepad and Keyboard worked eitherway. The gunplay is usually not annoying and can therefore considered very-well. It creates single spots of loudness in an overall quiet apocalypse, intesifying its eerie atmosphere. (VERY WELL DESIGNED GUYS!!) Which leads me directly to the soundscape. Its marverlous. It gives me shivers in creepy places and a nostalgic feeling in the urban areas. Humming, mumbling, blasting, crunching, -huh!- these Guys are just very good with sound. The graphics looks good and resembles the hand-made look and feel of the levels. All thought it is not perfect, it is rich enought in variety (for the game's length). Telling a story is not as easy as you think, but HELL YEAH does this game captures the event of an unfolding apocalypse. Well paced, seriously told, yet gentle and "thought provoking" (thanks FloridaBoy). Of all the apocalypses I played and watched: One of my favorites, maybe the best. IMO even better than Resident Evil 2 and the first season of The Walking Dead (tv-series). Always enjoy to grab this on sale!

It's only 5 hours long, but it's not the sort of game that I really want to last hours and hours, so that's fine. It also has a story that's vastly more interesting than I expected. I ended up looking up more lore, thinking about it, and then hunting down the DLC to experience more. It's all done in beautiful and subtle graphics too. There are two gameplay loops: an exploration/combat loop, which is quite decent and appropriately nerve-wracking and horrifying. There's also a resource management system involving taking care of passengers on a train that is less satisfying. You only really get a handle on it by the end of the game, and the dumb decisions you made early in the game come back to haunt you, which makes it very unforgiving. And it distracts from the beautiful backgrounds, the dialogue and feels more like busy work, like a hassle, than a good gameplay loop. That said, I found it well worth the price tag, and it's a steal if you can get it on a discount. Don't sleep on it, it's better than you think.

So, my review comes after my second playthrough ( finished it in one single day... today) and my first one was exactly when this game came out The final station is , without a doubt, an obscure gem which I previously though giving a 5 star rating, but with after some thought I've settled for a 4 star Thing is, the game is, gameplay wise, simple However, simple does not mean ''it's not fun'' but actually is a positive factor, which turns the game into a enjoyable and straight on point experience Although, at the same time, simplicity condemns the game to be a little monotonous in its enemies' variety and level design ( although it does not overstay its welcome) Although, again, thinking about the levels you'll encounter, there may be a deep (term extremely on point) reason why the layout of the map and missions are set in this particular way And that's because you'll always found different connected or stand-alone stories in the various areas you'll visit, and ( without any major spoiler )if the first part of the map shows the appearances, the second half, which allows to return to the train, will reveal the truth ( to some extend) of the various stories you'll encounter. And that's the whole reason to play this game: story Or better yet, how the game presents it to player, which absolutely does NOT hold your hand, leaving the player with pieces and hints of the plot, which in turn you'll have to piece it together. That's why the protagonist is a simple conductor, trying to survive and help people do the same, while cut off from the any line of communication ( I can't reveal too much because, you know, spoiler... but, oh boy, trust me when I say the plot is GOOD). Same thing goes for the soundtrack: sometimes calm or eerie, sometimes just silent but every single time is spot on. So, it's weird since, at least for me, the game doesn't reach the 5 star rating, but I'm unable to find words to explain why. Still,it is worth it? YES, all on board the apocalypse train!

Played through this game and was left underwhelmed. Not only is the game short but its barely a game. There is very little content either in terms of actual gameplay, story or mechanics. Those pieces that are there seems to suffer the Eastern European concept of just throwing things at the player and expecting them to work it out, be it the new puzzle mechanics for the train that never have a tutorial, the purpose of the protagonist – much of the game sees you going places with little purpose at all, what is going on in the world around you, or anything else. The stages/acts that the game is set up around have no reason to exist as again, there is nothing separating them from what came before. The sections when you are off the train are dull and repetitive, walk around in a loop of the stage until you find the code and walk back to train, repeat for the entire game until it randomly and without warning ends. The worst part is the ending, which is only made worse by the fact that you have no idea what’s going on or why you are doing anything. There is no purpose and so you just hold right in the hopes the game finally lets slip why it exists in the 1st place. This is also compounded by the sheer lack of translation that brings another layer of confusion to an already poor game. If you really – really need this game, wait until a sale or otherwise avoid.

PROS: Gorgeous retro graphics and gameplay. Just enough story to set the mood, to draw you in, and to keep you guessing what's going to happen next. (Very much in the vein of some of the Russian science fiction from the 1970s I read in high school.) Easy enough to master while challenging you to balance your resources (ammo, food, and med-kits) to keep yourself and your passengers alive. CONS: Enigmatic and ultimately unsatisfying ending. Short (about four hours). Could use some polishing (especially the dialogue). Very linear, with little replay value (mainly just to see if I could keep all of my passengers alive, which I did). CONCLUSSION: Neat little game to fill a few hours that had the potential to be part of something bigger, but not worth full price -- wait 'til it's on sale if you really want to play this.