Travel by train through a dying world.

The Final Station is one of those games that doesn't do all that much.
Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not. As with a lot of indie titles I've come across,
it does what it does extremely well. Personally I sometimes find myself
getting bored easily by smaller titles that don't offer much in the sense of variety.
The Final Station however grabs my attention due to a few things I would like to point out.

Firstly

The soundtrack is great, it's not a masterpiece but it fits the moment-to-moment gameplay very well.
This game is a lot about atmosphere and reading the tiny notes that the former citizens
of whatever abbandoned shanty town you're coming across left lying around.
The music in this game helps to set the tone and immerse you into the world beyond just the
quite simple gameplay that The Final Station offers.
Have a listen.

Secondly

The gameplay is simple but it has some variety.
The idea is that you, the conductor,
are tasked with going from location to location for reasons I will not mention.
By going from A to B you will meet people along the way,
who all need your attention in one way or another.
Be it medical or otherwise. For this; you need supplies.
Your goal is to keep the train operational while keeping
your passangers alive and getting to your destination.
Most of the gameplay however will not be spend in a train but in the world you travel through.
Here you kill enemies and scavenge for traces of humanity and the odd medkit or food package.
As I stated above; the gameplay is simple. But that's not by nature a bad thing.
The way you dispatch an enemy can come down to pure run and gunning,
ammu-preserving bashing or just plain running away.
The latter will not always work but sometimes positioning will allow you to line up a nice explosive shot.
This allows for some tactical elements where you can, in certain situations,
get rid of a group of enemies with a single shot if you're patient and smart about it.
The enemy variety however is quite limited.
You'll be facing the same enemies for a large portion of the game.
And most of them do the same and can get rid of in the same way,
leaving you with little to no need to switch up playstyles
if something you're doing is working. I feel like they could've done with some more enemies and enemy types.

Thirdly

The story. The story is by no means the bread and butter of the game.
This doesn't mean that it's necessarily bad, but it's sparse if anything.
You will find some notes lying about if you choose to interact and look for them.
And you get the occassional prompt in your train display when someone messages you.
These messages however are often devoid of any real information
and last for a mere sentence or six.
Personally I felt like the game was more about establishing the atmosphere and
giving you fun moment-to-moment gameplay rather than telling a well thought-out tale.
Don't get me wrong, there is a story. It's just not going to be a Stephen King novel if that's
what you're looking for.

Conclusion

As someone who normally isn't that interested in shorter, less story focused titles;
I must say I am genuinly impressed and satisfied by the experience The Final Station provided.
The game is a lot of fun if you are not requiring a rich story and just want to enjoy yourself
for hour long portions at a time. Due to the limited mechanics the game uses I would not recommend
finishing it in one-sitting because it might get monotonous. However this will depend on your own
predilections. There are a few frustrating moments to be had but the game never feels unfair.
Some more variety in terms of gameplay or enemies
would have served The Final Station well and made it less
repetitive but if you can get into it and enjoy reading the scattered bits of information then you
can get sucked into wanting to explore more and more.
The game doesn't do much, but it does what it does quite well.
I'm sure that the videos, reviews and screenshots will give you an accurate idea
of what to expect going in, and if that looks good to you
then you can't go wrong with picking this title up.

This game was given to me as a gift by a friend and I had no idea it even existed. It was such a neat little game that I want to write a review so that it might show up on someone else's radar and then they will get to play it too.

It is a game in two parts. The first and biggest section of the game is a scavenger hunt through abandoned towns that have been taken over by infected humans, which you have to dispatch with bullets, melee or throwable items you occasionally find like chairs, toilets and boxes.

The second is a kind of downtime as you travel on a train between destinations and have to do a series of minigames to keep your train repaired or to take care of passengers you pick up by feeding them or giving them medical treatment.

The game started out quite tough as ammo is very scarce but once you work out how to melee properly then the difficulty de-escalates and you can focus more on exploration and discovering the story.

_____________________


+ accessible. The crafting of items element is to a minimum. The train management is to a minimum. The combat is to a minimum. Everything is rationed out in the game to a point that nothing becomes tedious and nothing becomes over or underdone. It is really well balanced.

+ mood. The game may seem a little bit cute in points because of its pixel graphics but the story gets very dark in parts and definitely has some bleak moments.

+ music. The soundtrack is quite sparse but when it kicks in it is always at a perfect moment and the silence is broken on purpose, which really makes the music mean something.

-------------


- Things that take 3 bullets to kill can be killed in a single punch too. The game doesn't feel mechanically balanced between ranged and melee combat. Not only can you one punch a single enemy....but if you get 3 enemies walking together, you can one punch all three of them at the same time. I was scared of the enemies at the start but by the end I was charging them with an empty shotgun.

- Story. Mainly the ending. No spoilers here. The story was gritty and I felt like I knew what was happening. But the ending shocked me for all the wrong reasons. It just kind of abruptly is over and the credits roll.

-----------------

The Final Station was a really good game overall. It has a real dystopian, yet functional, vibe like City 17. I am very happy to have played it. I would never have picked this up for myself and it makes me wonder how many other games are out there that I would really enjoy but will most likely never play because I think I don't like the genre or the gameplay.

---{Graphics}---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☑ MS-DOS (it's perfect for me)

---{Gameplay}---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It‘s just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{Audio}---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{Audience}---
☐ Kids
☐ Teens
☐ Adults
☑ All

---{PC Requirements}---
☑ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{Difficulity}---
☐ Just press 'W'
☑ Easy
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{Grind}---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isnt necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You‘ll need a second live for grinding

---{Story}---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It‘ll replace your life

---{Game Time}---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{Price}---
☐ It’s free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{Bugs}---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{?/10}---
☐1
☐2
☐3
☐4
☐5
☐6
☐7
☑8
☐9
☐10
Was this

honestly one of my favorite games of all time.

if that seems weird to you, it definitely is, and the chances of you or anyone else sharing my supreme affection for this game is highly unlikely. however i would be lying if i said this game does not strike a particular chord with me that extraordinarily few other games do.

this game does not have the best gunplay or gameplay loop (although it is pretty decent, and the weapon sound effects are like, undoubtedly the best in any 2d game i have ever played) , it does not have the best artstyle (i say that with one glaring exception), and the localization in english is absolutely abysmal, but, to me at least, the game more than makes up for it but having some of the greatest atmosphere, and one of the most intriguing stories and worldbuilding in any videogame i've ever played. i do not play this game for the gameplay, as i would with something like katana zero, hades, or celeste, i instead play it for the indescribable experience i have every time i pick it up. the music is minimalistic and used very sparingly, which makes for very memorable moments during gameplay, and even thouh the artstyle is, as aforementioned, not the most spectacular, the one glaring exception to this are the incredible backgrounds, which add to the believability of the world unlike anything else.

for some reason, this game truly speaks to me, and because of that i must highly recommend you play it, just to find out if it will touch you in the same way too.

The Final Station is a gloomy zombie apocalypse/alien invasion survival tycoon game with beautiful music, decent level design, good pacing, and a setting that seems heavily inspired by Snowpiercer. You play as a train driver amidst a collapsing society, running errands for the higher ups while trying to save as many people as you can. Your train is the last glimmer of hope in a world overrun by weird dark creatures.

The best thing about The Final Station is its haunting and forlorn mood. While the pixel graphics are modest, the visuals are varied enough, and different locations do feel different. I also very much enjoyed the dishevelled yet semi-futuristic pseudo-Soviet architecture.

The core loop of the game is simple, but feels good. The Final Station is broken into two sections: there is the real-time train-riding that's simple, but feels stressful, and there is the exploration, that gives you room to strategize and throws you into different tactical situations. You have to manage various resources in the process.

The game's systems definitely could have used more thought. For example, first aid kits are the only items shared between the two game modes (you can either heal yourself while exploring or heal survivors on the train), which is a shame. It's also often unclear which items you can use to attack with and which you can't during exploration.

The final overly dramatic arc felt forced and unnecessary to me, but the story was unintrusive enough to not be a bother.

All in all, these gripes are minor. The Final Station has both good presentation and good gameplay, which is honestly more than enough for a smaller indie game.

The Final Station is a side-scrolling adventure game with survival and management elements, set in a post apocalyptic world. After a mysterious event known only as "The First Visitation", which annihilated a large part of humanity, survivors live in fortified cities as nations became increasingly militarist to face the continuous threats. Players impersonate an elite train conductor tasked to deliver vital cargo to a top-secret location, from there things only get darker as the mission becomes harder every passing day.

🔵 Pros

• Engaging story, using an indirect narrative that leaves much to interpretation, while giving the right amount of lore to keep players hooked.
  
• Well made pixel art graphics, capable of surprisingly evocative landscapes and settings despite the minimalist style.
  
• Good gameplay variety that balances action, exploration, management and story very well, with the right pacing.
  
• Very good soundtrack and audio effects, delivering the right pathos when it's needed most.
  
• The gameplay rewards skill and resource conservation, as there is a finite number of every consumable and ammo.

🔴 Cons

• Melee attacks are way too powerful and fast: players will rarely need ammo to defeat foes once they get the hang of how melee works, disrupting game balance.
  
• Enemy variety is limited, with only five different foes in the whole game, mostly using the same attack patterns.

Click here for the complete Rating Chart

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2012313827

Let's start with the good parts. First of all, the thing that will get you hooked the most to The Final Station is the story, no doubts. Set in a somewhat futuristic, post apocalyptic world scorched by a catastrophe nobody really knows anything about, except that it changes people into something else, this game has a great way to gradually present players with more elements to think about, and put the pieces together on their own, forming up an interpretation of the events.

The great story is paired with well made pixel art, that is used in such a way it manages to be spectacular and evocative while keeping it simple and without using overly-fancy effects. The gameplay formula is overall well thought out in all of its components, from train / passenger management, to combat sections, and urban exploration. Especially the pacing is spot on as it gives players the right amounts of every component without any of them being predominant. Soundtrack and effects are used sparingly but at the right times, giving important moment the emphasis they need to shine.

For the bad parts, the worst thing is about the melee system. While your basic fist when using a pistol early on is reasonably balanced as it has fair damage and some cooldown between punches, once you get a hold of a two handed firearm, the melee becomes much more damaging and fast, also staggering enemies with almost no cooldown - this translates into a button mash melee spam that with some backpedaling, can defeat all but the biggest mobs of enemies, for which you'll need firearms instead. This breaks the game balance quite a lot as instead of using ammo as you should, you spam melee 90% of the time. The fact there are only 5 enemy types makes it a bit stale in the long run, also because they act pretty much all the same way.

Overall, and even with a few flaws, The Final Station remains an excellent side scrolling action game that gets story, gameplay and atmosphere absolutely right. It took me 6 hours to complete the game, while exploring every location in full and reading all the lore I could find. Priced at 15€, and offering no replay value but also great quality, after all I can suggest getting this game full price, it's really good.

Liked this review, and want to see more of the same quality? Check out Tamaster's Review Archive to see all my Reviews in a single, convenient location.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2012314962

🎮 Gameplay Analysis
The gameplay of The Final Station is divided into Exploration, Combat and Management.

Exploration
Of levels is done on foot in a side scrolling fashion. There is no jump and no vaulting, but you'll be able to climb ladders of various types and use the occasional elevator or moving platform. Levels are enveloped in a fog of war, revealed in segments as you explore each room, tunnel and hangar of each stage, while also looking for supplies in cabinets, shelves or even corpses, though only some can be interacted with.

Thoroughly exploring a level is very important as not only it will yield more supplies, ammo and medicine, but also survivors to get on the train - and have additional rewards if they get alive to a secure station - secret areas, lore or Easter eggs. While on the train, your path is pre-determined but you can roam all the carriages freely, listen to the passengers interact. While exploring secure cities, you will be able to trade for supplies and upgrades.

Combat
Features 360° degree aiming (up to a certain angle) and melee for when things get more personal. Enemies hurt a lot and a few blows from them are enough to kill you, but since most also use only melee, having a gun is a huge advantage - provided you have enough room to move around. Using guns wisely is recommended, as ammo is limited especially earlier on, and the melee system with charged and normal attacks if used well is more than enough most of the time.

Environment elements such as chairs, TVs or boxes can be carried around one at a time and thrown for an instant enemy kill, especially useful to save ammo or get rid of dangerous enemies, while explosive barrels can be shot at or thrown for massive destruction. Certain enemies have armor and need to be shot in specific points, while others are faster or nimbler, but generally they all will run to attack you on sight. The game rewards saving up medkits as you'll need them for passengers, and your health is auto-refilled between levels.

Management
Is done while the train is going, and consists in feeding and healing passengers with the supplies you have in stock, as they will die without your help. You also have to fix the train parts with a series of minigames to gain extra speed and make it to your destination faster, while also avoid a generator overload - each time the minigame is different and one at a time. Using the train control panel you'll be able to craft extra ammo and medicine, while also have some chat with other train conductors for additional lore.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2012314694

🔩 Technical
PC Specs: RTX2080Ti, Ryzen 3900X, 32GB RAM DDR4
The game has no technical issues or bugs to mention, and runs perfectly in 1440p. Given the game's simple graphics, it should run well even on older or low-end machines without issues.

The Final Station is a very well made adventure game that delivers a gripping story, varied gameplay and an original setting. Even with some flaws, the good parts are the vast majority and this game is definitely worth considering.

Story is interesting and I certainly liked the scenery.
Definitely has a good starting feel to it.
But about 1/4 way through it gets dull.
Train portion of the game is super boring. Thought it would have a lot more of a robust survial sim aspect to it. Not just click buttons and feed your passengers food and medkits.
Combat has very few enemy types and very repetitive setups.
Most areas are very simple paths, very unimaginitive dungeons if you will.
No bosses, challenging parts, or really anything to make the game stand beyond just a story on wheels.

A world is at its end, a single train travels the Earth, and an unknown threat appears out of nowhere. You are the conductor of the train. You are to travel the world. You are the last hope for humanity. Are you up to the challenge? Is it worth it?

The Final Station starts off simple enough: you wake up and head to work through a 2D side scrolling town. On the way you can talk to citizens, pick up items, and read notes. When you finally set out for your next town on the train, you’ll have a passenger that has a life and hunger meter. The train itself has a few things you can interact with, including med kits and food for passengers. You’ll find yourself speaking with people on an IM type of service, fixing the electricity, keeping the train from overheating, and more as you progress.

Each stop you make will require you to explore the area to find the security code to progress. The train gets locked into a barrier and can only be released with the security code. At first it’s a simple task of finding it within a locker or having someone print it out. But it soon becomes a dangerous endeavor as you go up against the unknown silhouettes that are out for blood.

The game is broken into two different types of gameplay: town exploration and train traversal. The majority of the experience will take place in the exploration aspect, where you encouter a lot the story. Each building is blacked out until you open a door, lighting the room it’s connected to. Maybe there are people in it, maybe it’s empty, or maybe you get jumped. There’s only one way to find out. Sadly, when you are low on life and you do get killed from a surprise attack, the checkpoint system will almost always set you back where you were. Not entirely, but it creates an expectation for fights to turn out a certain way. If you use too much ammo you may choose to die so you can optimize the way you survive the battle.

The game holds a decent amount of backstory, whether you find it by reading or simply taking in the scenes you come across in town. The sweeping landscapes while going from town to town also tells a story, as you’ll see war torn battlefields and peaceful lands lit up by fights at night. For being a pretty short experience, it does a great job of building the world around the player.

While fights get harder as you progress with different enemy types changing the way you approach battles, so does the train portion of the game become more intense and stressful. As the conductor it is in your best interest to get all the passengers to their destination as you are paid for each delivery, allowing you to buy better gear, as well as medkits and food to help with keeping the passengers alive to get the money to… you get the idea. As more obstacles are added, the harder it is to keep everything in working order. On top of that, passengers on the train are constantly talking, giving more insight into the world. While managing passengers and the train, you’ll have to decide on what is important, and what is worth doing.

A sweet, succinct experience that gets a bit repetitive near the end, but well worth the travel expenses. The Final Station was something I didn’t expect to like as much as I did. Between the world building and the sporadic train gameplay, this is a train you don’t want leaving you at the station.

You know, I think The Final Station is the kind of game where it's best to go in completely blind. No reviews, no pros and cons, no preconceived notions. Just dive in. The first few moments of the game are immediately gripping, and the introduction to the world you're going to be playing in is perfectly paced and intriguing.

But hey, if you insist on at least SOME information before you buy a game then here you go: The Final Station is a strange mixture of side-scrolling shooter, survival game, and a dash of management game. You're playing as the conductor of a small train during the zombie alien apocalypse, carrying important cargo that could change the tide of the battle plus whatever survivors you find on the way. The gameplay alternates between the shoot-y exploring-y parts where you scrounge for supplies in the outside world, and the parts where you frantically run back and forth in the train trying to keep you bleeding passengers from dying and the various machinery from breaking down.

The clever part of this, and the thing that ties the two gameplay sides together, is that your inventory is common for both. Meaning that the medkit you spend on yourself on the field is one less medkit you can use on your passengers, and vice versa. This leads to the necessity for strategy during exploration; do you spend bullets and health to get to the precious food and crafting supplies behind the enemy monsters? Do you quickly go to your objective and back, hoping the supplies you already have will be enough? Both of these options can leave you screwed if you're not careful.

And it's exactly this caution that puts you in the mindset of a survivor. Because while this is by no means a horror game, there is a certain tension and dread following in your footsteps. I had gotten into the habit of instinctively backing up when opening doors, paranoid about enemies rushing me. I would decide to conserve my dwindling bullets, only to waste them in a panic when surrounded by too many monsters. I would feel disoriented and suspicious whenever I visited safe zones populated by actual normal human beings. The game is very effective in achieving emotional responses from you, and there were even some parts that were surprisingly and delightfully creepy that definitely left an impression on me.

The story itself is left mysterious, with information mostly gained from the rumors and gossiping of your passengers, and from the remnants of various strange past events you encounter during your travels. The world-building is slow but clever, and the moments when the bigger picture starts becoming clearer are particularly memorable. All in all it's the general atmosphere created from its seperate parts that is the game's greatest strength, and it's enhanced by the beautiful pixel art in the backgrounds and level design.

Sadly no game is without flaws, and I'll start with a more personal nitpick: I thought the game just wasn't... well, hard enough. There's some talk in the beginning about how maybe you can't keep all your passengers alive and should prioritize who to save, but honestly if you're a basically decent player and explore often you won't have that much trouble with it. Maybe I'm a masochist but when I play survival games sometimes I want a more hardcore challenge, especially on a second playthrough, and this isn't really an option here as you can't choose a difficulty level. There aren't even enough achievements to make any self-imposed challenges worth it. What you get is the same each time.

I should also mention the playtime, which is a bit short, with the game lasting about 4-5 hours. I actually don't think this is a negative point on its own, since there was enough content for me to feel satisfied, and anything more would probably end up being too repetitive and tiring. The negative aspect is that there is barely any replayability to it. The game can be loosely devided in 3 parts (plus prologue and epilogue) so I expected at the very least a chapter select option when I finished, but nope. You gotta start from the very beginning. And since like I said there are no difficulty levels to choose, you have bascially no incentive to start again.

So yes, this is a game meant to be played only once. However, in the end the strength of the experience you get is more than enough to make it feel worth playing. (I was certainly impressed enough with the game to write this way too long review to recommend it!) So if you like clever little atmospheric indie games that try to be something a bit more unique, then don't let the downsides deter you. Give this a try. It's worth it.

EDIT: 2021. I've since come around to appreciating the effort that went into this title. Some of these criticisms are a bit harsh, so I recommend you look into the game yourself.

Pros:
+ Fantastic atmosphere, I was intrigued to explore this dying world and its bizarre apocalyptic story.

+ Beautiful pixel-inspired art and scenary.

+ Interesting mechanics that up the intensity and make you feel like you're running on a timer.

+ Overall combat concept is interesting.

Cons:

- Extremely short. 3 hours with no replay value is NOT a good value for 15$, independent or not. Even getting it at 12$ still felt like far too much. EDIT: While the value vs. time is still the same, I do not personally believe nowadays that 15$ for 3 hours is inherently awful value. This is up to the person who enjoys it.

- Misleading in its complexity and difficulty. The game convinces you its a rough and tough experience where you'll have to manage your supplies, but it practically throws supplies as you, AND the crafting system trivalizes any sort of "tough choices" you'd have to make. There's also the fact that it CHECKPOINTS your deaths so if you ♥♥♥♥ up you can just repeat the experience endlessly. And, finally, the actual enemies themselves are pretty easy to get through.

- Story is not detailed and its very bland. I feel no connection for my character, and while you can get a grasp as to what the story is, it's no dark souls -- the lore falls very flat. This is particularly disappointing as the world they've built up was so interesting. I would've loved to learn more about the world around me. There are also entire segments that I simply do NOT get at all, and I'm not the only one.

- The ending, and overall buildup to it, is very unsatisfactory. I feel like the developers wanted me to feel a "big bang" of revelation, of the world moving on past me and my demise being inevitable, unstoppable. However, because I felt no connection to the character, and because the ending ended far too soon, I felt nothing but disappointment. I have no issues with the ending being so fatalistic (apart from it being so damn predictable), but I DO have issue with the fact that it gave me nothing to think on. It was an empty experience.

- I feel as though having the 'zombies' be black goop monsters detracted from the overall horror.

- Gameplay is pretty linear. I wasn't too bummed out by this, but it kinda made it sound like the survivors need to be found by exploration, yet nearly all (if not all) of them were pretty easy to find.



Overall:

I wanted to like this game because the concept was very interesting. And, at first, I enjoyed it. However, the game promises a lot of things it simply does NOT deliver by any means. It's not challenging, it isn't that fun, and it definitely isn't that deep.


I'd recommend buying it on sale, while keeping in mind it can be beaten very quickly.