Last Stop Review (Switch eShop)

As a storyteller, games have various personalities. Sometimes we go story-game-story-game with cut-scene ‘movies’, we either choose branched prose with interspersed decisions, or we read comic book narratives interrupted by puzzle jumps. Sometimes the action it is the story, like the millions of private Breath of the Wild adventures that emerge from its systems, but that was paid for with a loose narrative that divided opinion. Therefore, it can be open and emergent but lose authorship, or tell a tight story but weaken the interaction that makes games games. Last Stop is a story game that does the ultimate; In this supernatural story of the London Underground, you are duped.

After a short retro-science fiction prologue, we see three passengers sitting along a bench in the subway. Each one has a story to play, their paths and destinations intersect in an urban fantasy adventure. London is well done, not in detailed models of famous landmarks, but in silent day-to-day observations. You’ll skip your homework and hang around the property, have an affair behind your husband’s back, and fall short as an overworked parent with a failed boss. The settings feel real and convey something of the spirit of London. These are little vignettes of the mundane against which fantastic plot points can shine. Intriguing, funny, moving – good stories, well told.

But as a game, Last Stop founds. With the force of the story and the artistic presentation, all the mechanics really need to do is get out of the way. Unfortunately, all too often they do the opposite.

Despite sitting directly on the railing end of the storytelling spectrum, you are asked to bring a reasonably-sized game vocabulary, including running characters through 3D environments that move between still cameras, motion, and first person look and timing. based power meters. However, the game cannot correspond in the fluidity of its execution. Efforts to get him into the story include sticky obstacles, meticulous aiming, and obviously misleading dialogue choices. The icy coldness of a good-natured secret agent can be somewhat undermined when she bows mindlessly five times, then bumps into a handrail without flinching before attempting to exit through the entrance turnstile and finally past her own home. . It’s hard to overstate how much Last Stop would benefit from removing shaky controls or just cutting or greatly simplifying those interactive elements.

However, what cannot be undone with these rough edges is the strength of the writing, the substance of the characters, the insightful animations, the well-directed visual design that does a lot with little, and the riveting musical score. Last Stop is aiming too high, but isn’t it more interesting to have a faulty execution of something brilliant than a good execution of a good idea? As expected from the editor Annapurna Interactive (Florence, Kentucky Route Zero, Donut County, Gone Home…), Last Stop has something special there to share during his approximately six hours. It’s worth keeping it on the wish list until the timing and price is right for you.