The Great War is over - the fight continues. Command a legion of soldiers, desperately trying to make their way home amidst the chaos of civil war. Lead them through the unforgiving wilderness onboard an armored train. Manage your crew and resources and try to survive.
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A solid attempt at survival mechanics mixed with real time strategy set at the end of the Great War. There are multiple layers of mechanics here, but they don't always work as well as you would hope which probably restricts the appeal to diehard fans of this type of game.
There are two separate aspects that one should talk about in this game.
Its gameplay is very decent for the genre. The eco is quite balanced, battles are diverse and become increasingly interesting as the game progresses (although stealth combat becomes a bit repetitive once you figure out the npc behavior). In other words -- a very solid and fun gameplay, little-to-no complaints there.
Set in some fantasy universe with orcs and whatnot, or post-apocalyptic setting (a-la Wasteland) -- this game would have my full love, support and 4.5/5. But it's not; it attempts to tell a very complex story of a very complicated time-frame in both Czechoslovak and Russian history. And this is where it completely falls apart, as it's not just oversimplifying the history, but actively turning it upside down at its core, which makes people who know at least a miniscule fraction of history of that time suffer in cringe.
To put it simply: it's not just propaganda; this is really next level bullshitting, and they're not even trying. And, look, you can criticize and even demonize the military communism in Russia of that time, highlight the atrocities they did, etc. -- I get it. There are different views on the same events in history, and taking one perspective and amplifying it, however unjust, is what dramatic oversimplification is, and one could make a solid story out of this subjectivity.
But what the game does takes that to the next level; to the modern-Russia level of propaganda and borderline xenophobia. Just to highlight how bad the scriptwriting is, and how low the propaganda in this game works. The Czech Legion visits a village, where locals complain how their men have been recruited into Red Army. The Legion then proceeds to kill the locally stationed Reds with the local recruits, after which they are met as heroes by the women of the village saying that their stupid husbands paid for their decision for joining the evil Red Army.
This is so low, and so obviously fake and complete bullshit. Like I wrote, they're not even trying. One can probably justify not mentioning how in actuality the Legions had no trouble going back to Vladivostok, until they started having shootouts with the Hungarian being transported to the west for repatriation, after which they disobeyed their own gov't and refused to disarm, started helping the Whites in a Civil War, and even occupied chunks of the Trans-Siberian railroad. Sure... you want to focus on one perspective -- be my guest. But having such a blatant propaganda threading the entire storyline is just... too much. I wish they hadn't gone this far with this absolutely bullshit propaganda. It could have been a great game.
Its gameplay is very decent for the genre. The eco is quite balanced, battles are diverse and become increasingly interesting as the game progresses (although stealth combat becomes a bit repetitive once you figure out the npc behavior). In other words -- a very solid and fun gameplay, little-to-no complaints there.
Set in some fantasy universe with orcs and whatnot, or post-apocalyptic setting (a-la Wasteland) -- this game would have my full love, support and 4.5/5. But it's not; it attempts to tell a very complex story of a very complicated time-frame in both Czechoslovak and Russian history. And this is where it completely falls apart, as it's not just oversimplifying the history, but actively turning it upside down at its core, which makes people who know at least a miniscule fraction of history of that time suffer in cringe.
To put it simply: it's not just propaganda; this is really next level bullshitting, and they're not even trying. And, look, you can criticize and even demonize the military communism in Russia of that time, highlight the atrocities they did, etc. -- I get it. There are different views on the same events in history, and taking one perspective and amplifying it, however unjust, is what dramatic oversimplification is, and one could make a solid story out of this subjectivity.
But what the game does takes that to the next level; to the modern-Russia level of propaganda and borderline xenophobia. Just to highlight how bad the scriptwriting is, and how low the propaganda in this game works. The Czech Legion visits a village, where locals complain how their men have been recruited into Red Army. The Legion then proceeds to kill the locally stationed Reds with the local recruits, after which they are met as heroes by the women of the village saying that their stupid husbands paid for their decision for joining the evil Red Army.
This is so low, and so obviously fake and complete bullshit. Like I wrote, they're not even trying. One can probably justify not mentioning how in actuality the Legions had no trouble going back to Vladivostok, until they started having shootouts with the Hungarian being transported to the west for repatriation, after which they disobeyed their own gov't and refused to disarm, started helping the Whites in a Civil War, and even occupied chunks of the Trans-Siberian railroad. Sure... you want to focus on one perspective -- be my guest. But having such a blatant propaganda threading the entire storyline is just... too much. I wish they hadn't gone this far with this absolutely bullshit propaganda. It could have been a great game.
A wonderful, if imperfect, pairing of resource management with RTS battles. A fascinating setting for a story, often ignored, and told with respect. Repetitive by the end by I enjoyed it enough to overlook that.
Overall a pretty solid game. Got very repetitive towards the end.
Quick video review: https://youtu.be/9XcWHDRiUIk
Last Train Home is a lot of things. It’s a real time tactics game, but also a survival management game. It’s an RTS, but with a full fledged historical narrative in a setting we don’t often see. Some of these it does well, some it doesn’t.
Gameplay
The game basically has two sides to it: the real time tactics of its individual missions and the larger RTS, survival resource management side of things. The former is fairly straightforward. You deploy a squad of soldiers to a given mission and complete a number of objectives to win.
It’s nothing too complicated, but it’s definitely not bad. The game gives you a variety of unit-dependent skills to use, a cover system that basically decides the victor in drawn-out battles, several different weapon types, intuitive field of view tools, and an entire slate of hotkeys to manage your gameplay. That’s all great to have, but it is also unfortunately coupled with some shoddy AI and combat that can come across as stiff. A lot of the time, you can simply rush in and wipe out enemies by having the sheer numerical advantage and if you don’t want to go that route, you can simply wait behind cover and let the AI wander towards you and just die without fighting back.
It’s a bit weird overall. The missions sometimes work and are fun, but sometimes have little issues like this that make it hard to take seriously. Still, I would say it leans more towards the fun side of things.
Similar things can be said about the RTS gameplay. You basically have this train serving as your home base and need to send squads out to gather supplies, disembark at stations to trade with local merchants, and tackle side objectives along the way to your next big destination. It’s a pretty cool system to have on top of the regular mission stuff and I quite liked being able to customize and upgrade my train, manage my units with all the different class types and abilities, and the random events that popped up occasionally were cool too.
However, this also comes with its issues. The actual act of making and sending out squads is probably my biggest problem. It’s just so unintuitive. You can’t filter by specific traits, so a lot of the time you’re stuck manually sorting through units to assign to squads and these units cannot be placed on more than one. You can’t rename squads, you can’t auto-assign at all, it’s really just a bunch of micro-managing and really brings down this aspect of the gameplay.
Story
The narrative here is genuinely interesting and a great driving force for the game. It is a bit janky in some areas - like the lack of pause between most dialogue lines - but the setting is super unique, it’s all voice acted in the original languages spoken by each country, and it's fairly fast-paced without feeling rushed, making for a pretty engaging overall experience.
Performance
The game looks great at 4k, max settings on my 3080 Ti and manages to run incredibly smooth on top of that. Over 100 fps without many dips, stutters, or other such technical issues. Maybe I am just used to games from this genre performing poorly, but I was impressed by the polish here.
Overall
So I would say Last Train Home is deserving of a light recommendation. It may have its issues, particularly with its AI and reliance on tedious micro management, but the gameplay is fun, the RTS train management side of things is super cool, and it's all tied together by an engaging narrative. All while running smoothly with great graphics on top of that. With some quality of life upgrades, I can really see this one being a great recommendation for the genre. Even in its current state though, it’s worth a look on sale at least.
Last Train Home is a lot of things. It’s a real time tactics game, but also a survival management game. It’s an RTS, but with a full fledged historical narrative in a setting we don’t often see. Some of these it does well, some it doesn’t.
Gameplay
The game basically has two sides to it: the real time tactics of its individual missions and the larger RTS, survival resource management side of things. The former is fairly straightforward. You deploy a squad of soldiers to a given mission and complete a number of objectives to win.
It’s nothing too complicated, but it’s definitely not bad. The game gives you a variety of unit-dependent skills to use, a cover system that basically decides the victor in drawn-out battles, several different weapon types, intuitive field of view tools, and an entire slate of hotkeys to manage your gameplay. That’s all great to have, but it is also unfortunately coupled with some shoddy AI and combat that can come across as stiff. A lot of the time, you can simply rush in and wipe out enemies by having the sheer numerical advantage and if you don’t want to go that route, you can simply wait behind cover and let the AI wander towards you and just die without fighting back.
It’s a bit weird overall. The missions sometimes work and are fun, but sometimes have little issues like this that make it hard to take seriously. Still, I would say it leans more towards the fun side of things.
Similar things can be said about the RTS gameplay. You basically have this train serving as your home base and need to send squads out to gather supplies, disembark at stations to trade with local merchants, and tackle side objectives along the way to your next big destination. It’s a pretty cool system to have on top of the regular mission stuff and I quite liked being able to customize and upgrade my train, manage my units with all the different class types and abilities, and the random events that popped up occasionally were cool too.
However, this also comes with its issues. The actual act of making and sending out squads is probably my biggest problem. It’s just so unintuitive. You can’t filter by specific traits, so a lot of the time you’re stuck manually sorting through units to assign to squads and these units cannot be placed on more than one. You can’t rename squads, you can’t auto-assign at all, it’s really just a bunch of micro-managing and really brings down this aspect of the gameplay.
Story
The narrative here is genuinely interesting and a great driving force for the game. It is a bit janky in some areas - like the lack of pause between most dialogue lines - but the setting is super unique, it’s all voice acted in the original languages spoken by each country, and it's fairly fast-paced without feeling rushed, making for a pretty engaging overall experience.
Performance
The game looks great at 4k, max settings on my 3080 Ti and manages to run incredibly smooth on top of that. Over 100 fps without many dips, stutters, or other such technical issues. Maybe I am just used to games from this genre performing poorly, but I was impressed by the polish here.
Overall
So I would say Last Train Home is deserving of a light recommendation. It may have its issues, particularly with its AI and reliance on tedious micro management, but the gameplay is fun, the RTS train management side of things is super cool, and it's all tied together by an engaging narrative. All while running smoothly with great graphics on top of that. With some quality of life upgrades, I can really see this one being a great recommendation for the genre. Even in its current state though, it’s worth a look on sale at least.
A game with an interesting setting that tries to be too much at once and ultimately only pays lip-service to many of it's ideas. If you are interested in history or trains, you might be willing to forgive many of the game's flaws (some of which should be patchable and will hopefully be adressed by the devs). But if you are expecting a Frostpunk on rails, which is the vibe the trailers gave off to many, you will be disappointed.
Full german review: https://youtu.be/0slnQ_7hRss
Full german review: https://youtu.be/0slnQ_7hRss