The Final Station Review – Derailed

<p>Zombies aren&&num;8217&semi;t scary&comma; at least&comma; not anymore&period; A few years ago&comma; when pop culture was at its zombiest&comma; they were on every TV&comma; movie&comma; book&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;plants-vs-zombies-2-the-only-salad-ill-eat&sol;">cell phone<&sol;a> and bumper sticker&period; You couldn&&num;8217&semi;t throw a zombie cat without accidentally killing 6 six shambling brain biters&period; Today&comma; even your mother knows you need to shoot them in the head&period; So how do you make bored&comma; ex-zombie exterminators pick up their shotguns again&quest; Try training them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Created by Russian duo Oleg Sergeev and Andrey Rumak&comma; <em>The Final Station<&sol;em> is a single-player&comma; retro-stylized&comma; 2D action game in which you&comma; an average train conductor&comma; must deliver top-secret cargo amid the chaos and uncertainty surrounding a mysterious catastrophe&period; Lacking any formal explanation&comma; <em>The Final Station<&sol;em>’s strange&comma; multi-themed narrative is told through found notes and conversations between disgruntled NPCs&period; While this is a nice alternative to spamming players with lore&comma; many of these notes and conversations are too easy to miss&comma; making it practically impossible for interested players to figure out what terms like &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The First Visitation&comma;” &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Guardian” and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Council” actually mean&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;112264" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-112264" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-112264 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;01125445&sol;The-Final-Station&lowbar;20160830113203-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Final Station 1" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-112264" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>The Final Station<&sol;em>&comma; tinyBuild Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Although railroad sounds like a relatively safe means of conveyance across a zombie-infested countryside&comma; each train station you encounter has a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;blocker&comma;” which lives up to its subtle namesake and blocks your train&period; To &&num;8220&semi;unblock&&num;8221&semi; each one&comma; you must venture on foot in search of the 4-digit key code&period; During your search&comma; you scrounge for cash&comma; food&comma; ammo&comma; medkits and crafting materials&period; You’ll also happen across various survivors who often hitch a ride on your train to the nearest safe station&comma; where supplies can also be purchased&period; While riding the rails between stations&comma; you must juggle various simple systems to keep the train running&comma; as well as provide your passengers with food and medical supplies&period; If they survive&comma; you’re rewarded with cash and various supplies when they disembark&period; Strangely enough&comma; while you share your own medkits with the survivors&comma; you yourself never actually have to eat&period; Apparently&comma; train conductors know the importance of having a big meal before an apocalypse&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;112266" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-112266" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-112266 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;01125625&sol;The-Final-Station&lowbar;20160830201300-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Final Station 2" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-112266" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>The Final Station<&sol;em>&comma; tinyBuild Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>The Final Station<&sol;em> is less <em>Left for Dead<&sol;em>&comma; and more PS1 era <em>Resident Evil<&sol;em>&period; Health and ammo must be conserved and opening doors is perpetually unnerving&period; The scarcity of supplies ensures that taking down enemies must be done with a bit of strategic planning&comma; forcing you to isolate individual baddies&comma; use your melee attack and throw environmental objects whenever you can&period; These tense scavenging expeditions in various locales&comma; separated by train &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;management” sequences&comma; keep the game from ever feeling repetitive throughout its 5-6 hour campaign&period; The same goes for the prevalent&comma; gorgeously pixelated&comma; Soviet brutalist architecture and pleasantly varied environments&period; Intensifying the atmosphere is <em>The Final Station<&sol;em>’s almost complete lack of musical score&comma; allowing the isolated ambiance and lonely footsteps to to be your only companions as you nervously head into the unknown&period; Unfortunately&comma; as the game only has a handful of different&comma; &lpar;yet very similar&rpar; enemy types&comma; the unknown becomes known quite quickly&period; Furthermore&comma; there are also only three different weapons&comma; which wouldn’t be that much of a problem if you could upgrade them using found materials&period; Sadly&comma; crafting is limited to medkits and only two ammo types&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;112269" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-112269" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-112269 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;01125859&sol;The-Final-Station&lowbar;20160829214031-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Final Station 3" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-112269" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>The Final Station<&sol;em>&comma; tinyBuild Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In striking contrast with the first few train stations&comma; where you’re taught how to move about and interact with the world&comma; <em>The Final Station<&sol;em>’s learning curve promptly pulls into nowheresville early on&period; When the game really gets going&comma; you begin to encounter warning indicators and various play mechanics that you must figure out on your own&comma; with no explanation&period; This may have been intentionally included to heighten urgency and induce panic&comma; but like bad tank-controls in horror games&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s more frustrating than scary&period; The developers’ refusal to allow you to use the D-pad ranges from mild nuisance when typing on a keypad&comma; to infuriating when the left joystick&&num;8217&semi;s inconsistency causes you to accidentally climb or descend a ladder into a crowd of hungry zombies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Despite all the baddies and scary environments&comma; the only horrifying thing about <em>The Final Station<&sol;em> is the UI&period; While probably not an issue when playing with a mouse and keyboard&comma; the cursor indicator is all but invisible&comma; making crafting a pain&period; Because of this same issue&comma; on more than one occasion I accidentally restarted from a checkpoint instead of just continuing from the pause menu and I nearly erased my save data multiple times when I accidentally highlighted &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;new game” in the main menu&comma; instead of &&num;8220&semi;continue&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><iframe src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;embed&sol;k1gmBupfIZg" width&equals;"560" height&equals;"315" frameborder&equals;"0" allowfullscreen&equals;"allowfullscreen"><&sol;iframe><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The concept&comma; look and setting of <em>The Final Station<&sol;em> is exceptionally interesting&period; However&comma; the game fails to convey nearly enough narrative information&comma; leaving all the strangely compelling themes &lpar;dystopian government conspiracies&comma; aliens&comma; zombies&comma; giant robots&rpar; tripping over each other at the door and thus ultimately ignored right up to the abrupt and unsatisfying end&period; While abundant in theme&comma; the game offers few enemies&comma; scant weaponry&comma; and little replay value&period; A little more polish and more gameplay options would put <em>The Final Station<&sol;em> on track to greatness&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Final Station<&sol;em> is now available digitally on <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;playstation&period;com&sol;&num;&excl;&sol;en-us&sol;games&sol;the-final-station&sol;cid&equals;UP0097-CUSA06151&lowbar;00-THEFINALSTATION0">PS4<&sol;a> and <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;steampowered&period;com&sol;app&sol;435530&sol;">Steam<&sol;a> for PC &lpar;with a Mac version coming soon&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PS4 Review Code of <em>The Final Station<&sol;em> was provided by tinyBuild Games for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;