The Final Station by tinyBuild GAMES is a 2-D shooter game set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. In it, you play as a train conductor tasked with delivering parts to shelters/bases and rescuing any stragglers left outside the walls of the shelters/bases.
The game is split into two sections: travel on the train and combat zones. Combat in the game is typical of a 2-D shooter. You use the right stick to aim, you constantly face the direction you’re aiming, regardless if you’re moving towards or away from that direction, and you’re stuck moving in two dimensions. You are unable to jump in this game, although you can occasionally fall from ledges.
Additionally, the combat zones have a form of map fog. You are unable to see into a room until you open the door or break a window peering into it. This would often lead to ambushes from enemies, so I quickly developed a habit of backing up as soon as I opened a door so as to keep from being overwhelmed.
While you are in combat zones, you can pick up items. These include ammo for your weapons, crafting materials, random junk that is immediately sold for money upon collecting it, and money itself. You also get rewarded based on how many civilians you manage to bring alive to a shelter/base. You can use this money to buy ammo and supplies in the shelters/bases.
While onboard the train, you need to care for your passengers and upkeep the train. Your passengers have a health meter and a hunger meter. While the health meter remains constant (unless the passenger is bleeding) the hunger meter slowly ticks downwards. If either of these meters hit 0, the passenger will die. This can be remedied by bringing the passenger a food kit or a med kit. You have a limited supply of these kits, but can find more in combat zones and (occasionally) buy them in shelters/bases.
Maintenance of the train consists of various mini-games. One will have you press the A button multiple times while another will have you balance out various meters. You will also sometimes be given cargo to transport from one base/shelter to another. These also require maintenance with mini-games of their own. If you ignore a part/cargo for too long, then oxygen will be cut off to the passenger section of the train.
The train itself only seems to go in one direction. I found what looked like something that could change the direction of the train, but I never tested it as the game gave me no incentive to do so.
As for glitches, the game worked mostly the way it was supposed to. The exception to this was a shelter/base called Metropole. There, the hit boxes were off. I found myself having to position myself weirdly to interact with the buses there as well as the glass double doors to the headquarters.
There is also an add-on game which consists of you scavenging supplies from combat zones and driving a car towards a shelter/base. You can also find people to take with you, although you can only have one passenger with you in your car. Each of these people has 3 bars: crafting, healing, and sociability. While I was unsure what sociability entailed, crafting affected your ability to craft in-between combat zones and healing contributed to how much health you would regain between combat zones.
Aside from the glitches in Metropole, I had fun with this game. I think a fair rating for it would be 8/10.
Check Out The Final Station Launch Trailer:
The Final Station is available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam.
Nintendo Switch Review
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Overall Score - 8/108/10
I am a recent Computer Science/Game Development Programming Chapman University Graduate. I am a life long enthusiast of computer/video gaming and my favorite game genres are adventure, choice-driven stories, fighting, and racing. My favorite game/movie series include but aren't limited to 'Legend of Zelda'; 'Dragon Age'; 'Persona'; 'Sonic the Hedgehog'; 'Mario'; 'Metroid' ;'Megaman'; 'Naruto'; 'Batman'; 'Spiderman'; 'Star Wars'; and 'Star Trek.'
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