I play a lot of games; some would even say an unhealthy amount. If there were any truth at all behind screens giving you square eyes, I would have to find myself a new pair of glasses. I’ve never really found myself drawn to just one particular genre of game that I prefer over another through my years of gaming. I’ve sunk just as many hours into Stardew Valley as I have League of Legends, Need for Speed or Guild Wars 2. I really love playing games and the experiences that gaming affords you.
I love being drawn into different worlds and feeling like I’m a part of that world’s story. While there’s something to be said for mindless action, sometimes all I want is to curl up in my gaming chair and experience a really good story, and a good story is exactly what Last Stop brings to the table. From the team behind the underrated title, Virginia, comes a game that, at its core, is a Sci-fi adventure about what happens when the ordinary suddenly comes into contact with the extraordinary.
Last Stop is great for when you don’t have much time to dedicate to sitting down and playing a game. It’s broken up into three separate stories of six chapters each, with a bonus final chapter to join the three stories together. The entire game will take roughly 6 hours to complete, and each chapter should take no longer than 20 minutes, making it a great “on-the-go” experience.
You can think of Last Stop as an anthology because that’s basically what it is. Last Stop is broken up into three separate character-driven stories, each with its own driving force, unique cast, and tone, which contrasts the game until the final chapter when these three seemingly self-contained stories collide.
My favourite story of the three, Stranger Danger, lets you follow a young teenager Donna and her two best friends. After witnessing something they probably shouldn’t have, they find themselves in a situation where they have a strange man tied up in an abandoned building. You’re never quite sure what their plan is with the man, but you are aware that he only talks to Donna. Slowly but surely, Donna ends up developing a somewhat problematic relationship with this stranger, and the result is far more troubling than you could imagine.
The second story, Domestic Affairs, lets you take control of Meena. Meena is an ex-soldier who is currently trying to score herself a promotion at her company which supplies robots to the military. Meena is a tough, egotistical, cold, takes-no-nonsense character – something that we don’t often see in video games, but her story has very little to do with her professional life. Instead, it focuses on her struggles to prioritise her child and family while putting her work first and managing an affair after hours. Compared to Stranger Danger, this is a very adult story, and the contrast can be felt through each chapter.
The final story in Last Stop is also the most “out there” one, Paper Dolls. It’s basically a new take on Freaky Friday. After an encounter with a mysterious stranger at the train station, a middle-aged single dad named John finds himself trapped in the body of his hip, 20 something neighbour, Jake. Together Jake and John need to find out how to navigate life while being trapped in each other’s bodies while also trying to figure out how to get themselves swapped back. It’s a fun concept that translates well into a video game.
All three stories are set in London, and even though they couldn’t be more different from each other, they felt like puzzle pieces waiting to be clicked into place because of their shared location. The stories can, at times, be infuriatingly linear, with your choices meaning very little to the outcome, and you also can’t binge through any of these stories back to back because, at the end of each chapter, the game forces you to pick another story to continue with. This is a good way to make sure that every story gets played, but it also left me rushing through some chapters just so that I could get back to the story I was invested in.
As much as I enjoyed the story of Last Stop while I was experiencing it, it was undeniably disappointing from a gameplay aspect. By that, I mean there isn’t really any gameplay involved. In Last Stop, the most interaction you have is deciding what characters should say in conversation, pushing the correct buttons when cued to make your character sprint, or guiding them as they walk along a predestined path. It’s also worth mentioning that it also rarely makes a difference whether you nail the quick time events or not. Because the story is on a set path, there isn’t a fail state, and the game will go on, as intended, regardless of your actions – or lack thereof.
If you’re looking for a narrative experience that you can sit back and enjoy while passively pushing buttons to move the game forward, then Last Stop has a lot to offer. Last Stop is a simple “slice of life” game that tells stories that feel natural and engaging. However, if you’re looking for something interactive, along the lines of a Telltale title or even Life is Strange, in that case, you’re better off giving Last Stop a skip.
If you want to pick up Last Stop for yourself, it’s currently available on Steam, Xbox Game Store, Nintendo eShop and Playstation Store.