Do My Best's very first game is now boarding on Nintendo Switch with The Final Station. From afar it might look like a mere curious train simulator/zombie shooter hybrid presented in a retro pixelated wrapper. However, once you board this train you will quickly realise you are quite unable to stop this journey through the end of the world until the final stop.
The game casts you as an anonymous train conductor who wakes up and heads off to their daily shift. Little do they know that instead of another relaxed point A to B voyage, they're actually working during the last day of civilisation. The prologue gently nudges you into realiaing that something is seriously wrong, dropping hints that not all is well by way of character dialogues, messages left on computers and other subtle yet brilliant ways the pixel world conveys an increasingly palpable sense of dread.
Despite making a few regular service stops, the military will commandeer your train and task you to deliver very sensible cargo to the frontlines. But the frontlines… to what? By gathering tidbits of information you eventually realise you are in the middle of ‘The Second Visitation’, a cataclysmic event that is turning the entire population into mindless, savage monsters, and the fight is not favouring your side. Far more than ferrying passengers from station to station, you train is now carrying the last, desperate hope for survival of your entire race. No pressure.
You will spend your journey through the apocalypse in two distinct phases: the exploration phase will see you rummaging through whatever horrors await on your current stop, and the train itself while moving between stations. There are over 30 of these and each will need to be ‘solved’; every time you train stops in a place, it will be under lockdown. Your first priority is to discover the four digit code that will enable you to release the blocking mechanism so you can continue on your journey. Some are as simple as walking to a still normal human being and asking for the code, while further devastated zones will task you with finding the battery that will need to be manually carried back to the train besides the four digit code to unlock the whole thing.
These exploration parts are very well designed, making sure there is always something new for you to stumble across for the entirety of the journey. The secondary objective of these sections is scavenging for ammo, supplies and human survivors whom you take in the safety of your train until you find a safe haven to drop them out of your care. These safe havens - zones still controlled by the military and with human populations - also enable you to buy new weapons and supplies if you can pay for them. Most of the early game will be spent with your mighty fist and a peashooter pistol - these are adequate for a little while, but not exactly crowd control material compared to the trusty pump-action shotgun. Bullets are scarce so make sure they count: one headshot will save you time and ammunition, but having the discipline to aim while being rushed by a dozen walking nightmares is another subject altogether.
The second slice of gameplay will be spent doing your actual job: conducting the train. It was in this section we were surprised with some incredibly complex choices making us realise that far beyond a train conductor, you are a god and the train is your holy kingdom. You are in control of the life and death of every survivor you collect along your journey. Every one of them will require both medicine and/or food, two commodities you have limited amounts to dispense between stations, something directly linked to how much you can scavenge in the exploration bits. If left without care, their health will deplete and they will become a corpse in your passenger carriage.
Basic human decency means your instinct will be to take care of them all, yet limited supplies will eventually lead to very harsh decisions. Will you give the last of your medicine to the nice old lady who will reward you with $10 if she makes it alive to the station, or use it on the corporate douche bag that constantly reminds everyone that he is a priority because he is paying you more to make it out alive? The way these survivors express these distinct personalities is another example of the brilliant way Do My Best delivers narrative elements using very simple tools. You could simply ignore these people, let the passenger’s carriage fill up with toxic gases due to negligent maintenance and then loot their corpses for money to ensure your own survival. But what does that say about you as a player and a human being? Surely by the end of the day, even gods must have a conscience.
The minimalist graphic style strangely suites the whole package very well. Every desolate and eerie landscape you travel between tells the whole story without words regarding the downfall of your world. The soundscape is minimalist as well, enabling you to get further and further enthralled by the plot, aided by small but very well implemented touches such as being able to instant message other employees from the train company while on your train engine, effectively perpetuating the illusion of events happening beyond your current location.
The controls are a little awkward at first, with the right analog stick used to aim in arcs but it soon becomes second nature and you will be spending most of the time playing with both sticks and the LZ and RZ buttons to grab items and fire weapons respectively, switching it up with R (or B) for your melee attack. Everything is tight and pixel perfect as it should be, so accidental deaths will always be due to poor player choices rather than clumsy controls. Respawns will send you back to your last important action, so in case you were wondering frustration never gets a chance to settle in, unlike the desire to see what is ahead. A true triumph of the old ‘less is more’ mantra of video game design.
Conclusion
The Final Station is a unique journey among the current Switch library you will not want to skip on, especially if you managed to stay away from the original PC release up to this point. World building and plot is brilliantly delivered by numerous little details of which we have rarely seen developers explore with such efficiency to deliver so much tension and sense of urgency from the player. Despite linearity, when you do reach the end game you can immediately jump into the ‘The Only Traitor’ DLC included in the Switch version, which will enable you to experience the same events under a new character. Make sure you don’t miss out this train ride.
Comments 32
I was hoping this was good! I saw the trailer and it reminded me of Elevator Action. Well. On to the wish list it goes.
Tempted, but I don’t want to buy anything until March when we start getting more gold coins
Happy to see this solid review score. This one looked intriguing to me but I wasn't sure if I'd take the plunge. After reading this, I will.
Very intriguing! This did not review particularly well when it initially released elsewhere, but perhaps the Switch version is an improvement. Even if the praise is down to particular interests of reviewers, I'm happy to see the game offering different strokes for different folks, so to speak.
I'm gonna be honest I didn't read the review yet, but that 3rd screenshot just sold me on this game.
@GrailUK it's a great game with a fantastic estranging atmosphere. You can't go wrong with this one!
@RetroGamerAndrew SOLD!
And its another 8/16 bit game ,, seriously these indies need to put in more effort, we have a portable ps3.5 and all they can come up with is another side scrolling game ,
I think what you're trying to say, Kishimi8, is that this is another 8/16 bit game. Am I understanding you on that?
It's weird that kishimi8 mentions that because I was thinking we have another 8/16 bit game that needs more effort.
I've had my eye on this game but didn't want to buy it until I knew it was at least okay. Sounds like a pick up for me but I'll wait until tomorrow as I'm finishing forma.8 and want to get more coins for my purchase.
I'll never get why people moan about pixel art games - I just wonder if these people can walk through an art gallery without shouting 'OH MY GOD ANOTHER PAINTING! WE HAVE THE TOOLS TO MAKE SCULPTURES THESE DAYS!'.
Anywho - I loved this game on PC but due to losing my saved file gave up halfway in, I think this is definitely a game I'm gonna double dip on - such an amazing sense of atmosphere and dread and truly captures the feeling of 'oh crap, no ammo and I don't know what's through that door' Would recommend if you don't get it on Switch, get it somewhere because it's a really worthwhile game y'know...if Pixel Art doesn't offend you
Great game. Glad to see it portable.
Great review Shiryu. I've had my eye on this ever since it appeared on the Eshop. I won't be buying it just yet, too many other games I've bought I need to get through first but it's high on my wishlist. Knowing how weak I am at resisting buying games that appeal to me though means I'll likely buy it in the next few days
@OorWullie It is money well spent.
@Shiryu nice detailed review by the way. Really well done!
The game's ending is quite an unexpected one. It simply left me speachless. I mean... Why, why did it have to end that way...
Enjoyable review. I like the sound of this a lot.
@RetroGamerAndrew Indeed, I had to restrain myself from giving any sort of spoilers in the review, but that ending just... wow, really.
You see the review is from Goncalo Lopes, you know you'll enjoy reading
This sounds really interesting. I am intrigued. I just might pick this up.
I bought this on a gamble when it released because of the art style, but was blown away by the world and tension in every location. The limited amount of ammo and resources makes me think and sweat more than I did in the last few Resident Evils and survivor games I've played.
I'll need to look into this, I love trains
I gotta admit, at first I thought, another one? Then I read the review and I`m sold. I`ll either buy it if its cheap or wait for a sale, but I will be gettin this game at some point.
Great review! Sounds like my sort of game
Really nice review, looking forward to checking this one out.
@kishimi8 "These indies need to put in more effort"
The game would likely not exist if the team had to make it in 3D and realistic graphics. You are blaming people who made a tradeoff that allowed them to create an unusual and interesting combination of game mechanics that is frankly strikingly beautiful at times.
There is room in the world for all sorts of games, but if the baseline is that a game has to look like the multimillion dollar budgeted games, we'd be lacking the amazing variety that comes out of quicker development times and the agility of smaller teams to iterate on ideas that are less tried-and-true.
If you want to blame someone, blame the 3rd parties who are slow to respond to the success of the Switch or are unwilling to target its performance trade off. Even then, though, it was hard to predict and the games you seem to want take years to produce because of the graphical requirements.
Seems like someone took the Train to Busan story and characters (South Korean movie that became popular worldwide) and made a cool game out of it. Smells a bit of copyright infringement because from the review it sounds like a rip-off of the movie script, what with the corporate douche and all Either way, glad to hear it's good, might purchase.
@molkom Nah, The Train to Busan is clearly about zombies, but this one is not. It takes bit from Snowpiercer and Evangelion but I can't tell you more because I would be spoiling the whole thing.
@Shiryu Well, your opening did mention this looks like a zombie shooter hybrid so yeah, that made me think there were zombies in here But let me rephrase: except for there being zombie-like people (insert anything that would have similar traits: alien-infested people, sick people who want to kill in a frenzy, AI robot dolls, satanists...) in Train to Busan the whole plot including character descriptions in your review matches the movie quite closely: The train station stops with danger at each stop, on the way to a final stop, military safe zones, the corporate douche thinking his life is worth more etc etc. Seems to me to be a Train to Busan game with pieces of story and gameplay interactions inspired by Snowpiercer and possibly Evangelion to make it more original. Well, I'll have to play it for myself to see how similar it is so let's do that instead of writing here Recommend you to see the movie Last Train to Busan. Not the best, but crazy and frantic.
@molkom Don't worry, I've seen it. ^_^
Played this one most of the weekend. I found it to be a great game, and for me it was well worth the full asking price.
Just installed the newest Switch firmware update, closed the game while it was running to do so. I think I was on the train at this point. Now the game will not load to the menu screen at all, it just goes to a blank screen. I tried redownloading and I tried playing as a different user (in case it was a corrupted save file). Still no luck. I'd rather not delete my save file as I was pretty far through the game, but I was really enjoying it so I will replay if I have to, but I cant get the game to boot up at this point. Anyone else have any problems since the firmware update????
@ouroborous just ran into on a clean install with a new, updated switch. You ever find a fix?
Tap here to load 32 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...