Another game I got in the Tiny Build bundle that I bought solely because the trailer looked cool, and another game that really didn't disappoint. It's a weird thematic story combined with a weird mish-mash of gameplay mechanics, but it's fun and it just all kinda works. It took me about 4 hours, and I got just about all the achievements.

So the theme/story to me felt a bit like Evangelion but if it were about zombies from space, but even that is REALLY inaccurate to the actual plot. Apparently it's based off of the work of a famous pair of Russian brothers (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky), given that there's a statue honoring them in one side-area of the game and it's by two Russian devs, but having never heard of them before that realization meant nothing to me Xp . Regardless, the narrative is interesting and engaging, even if at the end of the day it's all a bit too vague for any really obvious message about the human condition to be discussed around it. The main thing that hurts the story is the game's pretty bad translation. MANY places in the game, in both side and main dialogue, characters will confuse "has" for "had" and also drop articles and identifiers ("a" and "the") for words and it makes the dialogue read confusingly. It's not EVERYWHERE, but it's often enough that it's jarring when it happens. Given that no localization element is credited in the credits, I can only assume they did it themselves.

The gameplay is like a 2D action/adventure survival horror game intermixed with a train maintenance sim, which sounds insane as well but I can explain. The game is mostly the former, intermixed with the latter. You're a train driver (perhaps not the best, but you ARE the last) going from stop to stop in a zombie-ish (it's very complicated) apocalypse. You go from stop to stop going out to collect the code to allow you to progress the train, and to do this you need to shoot and punch enemies you encounter as you try to find cash, materials, ammo, medkits, food, and survivors. The aiming is done with the mouse, but the game is on Xbox as well apparently, so you can also use a controller (although I used a mouse). There are basically 4 types of enemies, with two of them having stronger versions you eventually meet, but the environments are varied enough that fighting them never really gets boring with how relatively short the game is.

You collect all that stuff to use during the other part of when you drive the train. Now the driving of the train is automated, but the maintenance isn't. As you drive, at one of 2-4 systems in the train will need you to do a very simple mini-game (like holding down the mouse, or timing mouse clicks correctly) to keep the train from super-dying. Your survivors you've collected don't take care of themselves either, as they'll need food and medkits accordingly when their bars run out. They'll have pretty interesting text conversations to one another during the train ride, but their conversations all happen in real-time. If you're doing something like working on maintaining the front of the train or getting a medkit so the one with the head injury doesn't bleed out on the floor, you won't "hear" what they're saying because you aren't in the passenger compartment. There's more than just achievements at stake for saving them too, as each one gives you a cash reward as well as possibly some more ammo, materials, or even a weapon upgrade at the time they reach their destination. It's a really neat mechanic, and even though when you really look at it the train bit is not that brilliant as far as gameplay, it really works well to even out the pacing of the more tense action sequences (as the game itself really isn't THAT hard, as even I didn't need to use a single medkit while playing).

The game actually does a really good job of building a tense and mysterious sci-fi atmosphere between the two gameplay types. Talking to people in the town segments (the non-train bits with no combat in), overhearing survivors on the train, reading notes as you explore for access codes and supplies. Rough localization aside, They all add up to create a pretty tense feeling and slowly reveal to you (or not) what may or may not be actually happening in the world to cause all this madness.

Verdict: Highly Recommended. If you enjoyed a modern take on indie survival horror like Lone Survivor, you will probably have a lot to enjoy about The Final Station. It's not quite as polished as that game, but it's also not as derivative. I'd hesitate to call it an indie Resident Evil, but I also don't think that's too off the mark. Where Party Hard made me kinda question the original MSRP of $15, I think The Final Station is unique enough and engaging enough to quite fairly justify that price tag, and if you can get it for $3 on sale like I did then it's an absolute no-brainer if you like 2D action games with survival horror elements

One of my favorite games ever in terms of pure atmosphere. The whole game is accompanied by a feeling of dread, as you drive your train through the apocalypse, and attempt to piece the story together through the tidpits you find, with nice and fitting soundtrack, as well as mesmerizing background visuals.

Sadly, it gets dragged down in its gameplay which, while mostly servicable, could have used a lot more work (although a lot of the issues were addressed in its amazing DLC). The train maintenance is fine, but the way its set up effectively prevents you from learning more of the story as the dialogue between passengers continues regardless whether you're able to read it or not (I get the idea but it's just annoying).

Overall a fine experience for its atmosphere, and relatively short runtime of around 6-7 hours.