The Final Station

Within a world that has seen war and mass devastation, surely things can’t get worse. Well it seems as though it can. The Final Station is a 2D pixel-style survival horror, where you take the role of a lonesome train driver exploring a world ravaged by war and zombies. As the driver of the only working train on the tracks, it’s up to you to travel across the land with vital cargo for the military and passengers trying to make it away from hot spots of death. As the journey progresses, you notice not all is well within the world, apart from the zombies you learn the deeper, more trouble worries what people are really like.

The Final Station is an interesting concept that breaks the game into two segments, driving the train and exploring different locations whether they be safe zones or infested with brain dead zombies. In order to obtain supplies and rescue other survivors, it’s your job to stop at each station and gather what you can, fighting off the hordes of undead that lurk in the shadows. While manning the train, you have to keep an eye on various mechanisms, such as maintaining safety levels, electrical outputs and feeding and caring for passengers. The successful survival rate of passengers depends heavily on your exploits while the train is docked. So taking you time to explore finding food and aid is very important if you desire income and other rewards. But this also means having to explore more dangerous segments of levels once you dock. If you don’t find enough during your time at different hotspots, then you’ll face a difficult time, choosing who gets what aid and losing a few survivors along the way.

It reflects the elements of resource management and intense sim like gameplay. As the game progresses the size of the train and number of passengers expands, making the experience a little more frantic and engaging. But the time on the train also acts to further the narrative through various dialogue exchanges between passengers and visual aids with altering backgrounds. These beautiful or otherwise horrifying landscapes help set the mood of either dread or calm rather nicely. But they also make the world feel more alive where players can be immersed alone by the wonderfully designed backdrops. The soundtrack is minimal throughout most of the game yet when it kicks in is pretty damn good and does well to add intensity to the atmosphere.

The game does well to add a strong sense of mystery with little touches in the gameplay and narrative. Such as blacking out areas you’ve not yet explored, making exploration an intense encounter every time you open a new door. To some genuinely creepy visual cues which expand the plot and built the tension nicely. Even the various locations hold a lot of gravitas and intrigue as you learn more about them by exploring or reading particular texts left in the world. The game does loose some of the impact of fear when you can just one charged hit kill most zombies. It’s a small thing but there were plenty of times it felt rather trivial climbing a ladder up and down, charging my punches and killing off a small group of zombies with no problem. It just took the thrill away from a potentially intense situation.

Yet the game does well to set up moments that are out of your control and a fire fight and brutal combat are needed. But you can at times take different paths to gain an advantage over the situation and reserve ammo and health, by shooting an explosive barrel or picking up a barrage of toilet bases to fight off incoming zombies.

The main issue with The Final Station is just that it felt quite repetitive and it’s down to again a small problem. It harbours the same objective over and over again at each station making the whole thing feel as though the game is on repeat. It would have been nice to see different objectives apart from finding the code to the blockade in each stage. How about finding fuel? Or spare parts to repair the train? How about side optional objectives to rescue people? It just made the game feel a little repetitive until the end when the format does change.

With the exploration aspect being strong, how does the train segments hold up? Sadly for the aspect of gameplay, the time you’re on the train is kind of dull. Not much really happens on the train, it often becomes a little tedious just fixing usually one arising issue that can be fixed easily. It’s just about going around making repairs, feed the passengers or just wait it out and pray the next station is coming up soon. While on board you can also craft med kits and ammo to prep up for the next station. I would have liked to see more time on the train, including something involving combat possibly or just some time to talk to passengers properly? But there is an interesting dynamic of being able to choose who gets feed and who received medical attention while on the train. It can depend on how much of a reward they’ll bring once you deliver them safely and this does make you question your own humanity. Tough choices really.

The narrative to say the least is an interesting one that progress over the course of the game with some truly bizarre developments. It comes and goes and there are small clues as to what’s happening, yet it’s the end will divide people. Its verge and even after days of completing the game and thinking of it, I still don’t fully understand it. The ending takes you one route and then flips you on another, making it seem like a mix between No Country for Old men meets Carriers. It throws in some elements which I never knew about and felt a little complicate on what it was trying to do. As though the developers didn’t know how to end it, so they decided to spring a twist which feels completely out of place or really has no logical substance.

But for the most part it did add a strong sense of re-playability and at this moment I am going back through it. I know of certain choices you can make and I hope these choices produce different outcomes as to be honest, the ending I got seemed thin in execution.
The Final Station is a solid game that could clearly expand in a sequel. While the train segments seem a little slow and tedious the exploration at different stations is for the most part great. The narrative is interesting if it does go completely off the rails at the end and the pacing for gameplay is good. It’s definitely worth checking out and although it may miss some points it does well to keep you engaged and invested.

+ Engaging survival gameplay and action
+ Great atmosphere and intensity
+ Dynamic survival elements on and off the train

- Some elements lessen the drama and tension
- Train segments can be a little tedious
- Repetitive objectives

A Steam Key of The Final Station was provided by Tiny Build for the purpose of this review