I'm writing this review because this is the wrong version of "Last Year".


Unfortunately the developer makes it very unclear why there are even two versions and what the differences are.

"Last Year - The Nightmare" is just a re-release of an old version of the game "Last Year" aka "Last Year - AfterDark" aka "Last Year - Chapter 1".
So if you are remotely interested in this game, don't buy this version, buy the other one. The diferences of the 2 versions are mainly the ammount of content. And this one here ("Nightmare") is the one with the fewer content.

A bit more detailed:
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THE OTHER version (just called "Last Year" on steam) has
more maps, more charakter, character costumisation, more monsters, a progression system, tutorials, strangely enough no serverbrowser

THIS version ("Last Year - The Nightmare")
only some of the maps from "Last Year", one less Character, no character costumisation, lesser monsters, no progression system, no tutorials, a serverbrowser
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🔹Asymmetric multiplayer horror games have brilliantly reinvented the horror genre in the past few years, injecting the gameplay with an exceptional sense of competition. Last Year: The Nightmare (LYTN) falls under this category. Crowdfunded and initially released on the Discord store, LYTN paved its way with new features and content to Steam after the Discord store was shut down.

🔹Now with the updated version simply marketed as Last Year on Steam, Elastic Games makes another cash grab attempt to attract a publisher by re-releasing a very early build of LYTN as a different game compared to LY. The player base is now divided between three versions of the game with no cross-play whatsoever.


It's Halloween night in '96. A group of highschool archetypes is desperately searching around the eerily quiet campus area for a way out, while a killer picks them off one by one which feels similar to the 90s horror B-movies. Thanks to some never-seen-before mechanics, the game plays out more genuine compared to the trending titles in the genre.

Survivors
Our hapless high schoolers are tasked with either retrieving or fixing banalized objects to open up their escape route. Survivors can select one of the four classes. The Assault doles out melee damage, Scout highlights traps and other hazards, Technician builds gadgets, and Medic is the team's selfless savior. While each has its own unique weapon and equipment, none should be preferred over the other. Since every ability feels vital to the team's success.

Killers
Killers are the brute force, terrorizing the teens with their somewhat supernatural abilities. Playing as any of the three killers, you can choose to stay in invisible mode that allows you to traverse faster and set up traps. On the other hand, when in physical form, you can directly attack the survivors. This shapeshifting gives you the element of surprise to stay hidden, observe the survivors, and pick them off when the opportunity presents itself.

Starting with the Strangler, who is the weakest but offers heightened agility and more importantly, comes equipped with a chain. The Slasher is your classic axe-wielding madman and is also the most balanced out of the three. Finally, the Giant is the slowest. He offers the fastest time-to-kill instead, with a Juggernaut like rush coupled with the ability to pick up and throw survivors.

Map Design
The gym, library, and bell tower are three parts of the campus that can be chosen as your playground (or hunting ground!). Map design pushes players to scour each room to find essential materials for building weapons and equipment. All maps offer an adequate mix of verticality and horizontality to bring out the maximum potential of each class and also make things problematic if someone wanders off from the group.


Visuals
Frankly, I can't comment in detail on the visuals which I'll elaborate on in the technical section. But LYTN's nitty-gritty aesthetics seems to nail that horrific atmosphere thanks to using the Unreal Engine. The campus hosted a Halloween party and now it's trashed with party goodies and blood. Devs took their time to litter up the place so the attention they put on details is astounding, to say the very least for now.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2270984004
Sounds
Nothing catchy here but a bunch of unremarkable 90s horror movie tracks, that I'm sure the novelty of it was exhausted a long time ago. Music and other sound cues usually can't be heard quite well, as survivors have a tendency of calling out each other and announce their actions at an ear-splitting volume. Logically, makes me wonder why would they give up their location when a killer is out after them.

🔹TECHNICAL🔹
Specs: GTX1050 2GB - Athlon II X4 645 - 8GB DDR3 RAM

While I understand a GTX1050 isn't capable of handling modern games well enough, LYTN minimum requirement is far inferior to my card. Yet the game's horrendous optimization ruined it for me. Sometimes the game managed to reach steady 50-60 fps and at other times, freezes and lag spikes were present throughout the entire match. Moreover, the textures refuse to load in properly unregarding the graphic settings, causing blurriness and weird artifacts to appear all over the map.

🔹BUGS & ISSUES🔹

• Horrendous optimization
  
• Alt + Tabbing is dysfunctional
  
• Capturing a screenshot causes few-seconds long freezes
  
• Capturing a video in gameplay leads to black screen and disconnection
  
• Abnormal resource usage: Both RAM and VRAM usage stayed above 90% even at the lowest settings

🔹LYTN is dead on arrival. Devs re-released a very early build of the game that is horribly unpolished and has fewer features. The simply titled Last Year has two more maps, a progression system, cosmetics, a new survivor and killer, and loads of gameplay tweaks along with a lower price tag. LYTN is prone to be left in its current state And won't be seeing any new content, nor patches released in the foreseeable future. I won't say LYTN is a waste of time. In fact, It proves to be fun with friends/non-toxic randoms. But if you're foolish enough to spend money on such games, you're better off playing Last Year instead of this.

Follow our curator page, OCG-Curations, if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.

This is the old Discord build of the game ported to Steam and allegedly given a balance patch and improvements. This still lacks many new features and fixes the regular (also known as the "After Dark" version) build of "Last Year" on Steam has.

Cons:
- Less features, maps, etc for more money (compared to After Dark version)
- Unbalanced gameplay (they did revise some stuff when porting it, but still not balanced)
- Map design is much worse and doesn't have shortcuts and revisions other game has
- Voice chat issues (can't adjust VOIP transmit or receive volume, no HUD indicator you are talking)
- You are not intended to be able to join games in-progress, but these games still show in the server and allow you to try to connect to them. The server browser simply refreshes with no explanation when trying to connect to the game. The server browser does show which games are "IN LOBBY" (joinable), however
- Can't play as same character skin as another player
- Performance is not as optimized as other version of game (other game had multiple patches specifically to address performance)
- Low population/lobby simulator, as an already dying community is now split between this game and the other version of the game

Pros:
- Graphics are slightly better (lighting, reflections) - tone and atmosphere is scarier because of it
- A lobby browser, which the other version of the game lacks (other version just has a quick play button that throws you in a lobby based on your Steam region)
- Achievements (but no Steam cards at time of writing and not likely to get them, as this usually requires a certain active player count)

There's nothing more to say other than pointing out the fact that this is an incredibly ♥♥♥♥♥♥ "business practice" (read "scam"). The developers are releasing a 2 year old build of Last Year for a price higher than the more polished game. It is literally the same version I played 2 years ago on the Discord store, before it was ported to Steam the first time and then somewhat improved upon. All bugs are included as well! My review for the actual game, which is also negative, is just as on point for this title as the refined one. It's already just as dead.

Review for the actual Last Year:
"Got it on Discord originally. Kudos to the devs for giving it to me on Steam.
Sadly, the game isn't very dynamic. Every game plays out pretty much the same way, it's easy to kite the killer with just the slightest amount of teamwork.
I like what it tried to be, but I feel like the potential hasn't been realized. Updates have been very slow, extremely so before it was put on Steam."
Anyway, I would love to recommend this, but it's borderline dead and seems to move into micro-transactions as well."

I cannot stress enough that I discourage everyone from buying into this scam. If you absolutely have to try it out, please buy the actual game that's just called "Last Year" (which I still don't recommend). It's also on Steam and has many more features, since this version is the same title but without 2 years of updates. That version is also cheaper.
Lastly, I sincerely hope these scammer developers go bankrupt as soon as possible. I really liked the game for a while, I've given you the benefit of the doubt on multiple occassions, but enough is enough.

the game looks good but im am unfortunately not able to join a game because there are no other players wating in a lobby no one and tried to join a server and no servers... id love to give this game a go but its a shame there isnt enough people playing.

Servers dont populate. Also a 2 year old game that got re-released....... I bought this game and sat in a lobby with 4 people waiting for a 5th. Server had a mixed bag of countries in there also which wasnt a good sign. DEAD GAME!

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!
The developers gave up, and no longer support the game and the servers are dead and empty.
It's online, multiplayer only so you'll just be wondering empty halls.

Can't even get a refund, because I didn't know the game was abandoned at purchased and waited to long to try and get a refund.
(It was a fun game when I played the original Discord release. To bad it died hard)

No one plays this game don't bother buying it unless you have a full party to play with.

I bought it but its a dead game whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

was a great game before it died