The last Train

Review

The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings were supposed to end world war II! Well, the outcome was a little bit different! The Empire of Japan retaliated with extreme force; a force that crippled the great US of A! You are the last train driver and must help people to get to their destination within the USA, no matter what. This is the last train!

The Last Train is a strategy/survival/adventure game developed and published by Smash Game Studios where you take the role of a train one of the left train driver post World Warr II.

The game has two modes of play: story line and sandbox.

As you start the game, the first thing you have to do is to name your character.  Then you’ll choose which train line to be (either the Last Train or the Western Pacific), and where it will start its journey (from one of 21 locations on the map of USA). There is a small tutorial if you need it, but you’ll be able to figure out what to do without it.

Essentially, your task is to move survivors from one state to another within the 21 locations available. Each of the survivors has a reason as to why they need to travel to another state.  For your trouble, you’ll be rewarded either with food items (including drinks), resources or tools which will be shown just under the name of the traveller. All you have to do is to hover over the passengers on the train platform to see all their information. You can also explore towns by clicking on the explore button on the bottom right corner of your screen.  There, you can unlock building doors if you have a lockpick in hand, or you can smash the door with a hammer or axe to gather resources. As soon as you are able to open or knock down the door, you’ll be able to smash windows to get further resources. There are other things to gather from each of the towns, but bear in mind that once you have vandalised an entire building, no more resources can be found there. You’ll be starting the game without any tools whatsoever, and you’ll need to make sure that the passenger you decide to take to his/her destination has the right reward for you to be able to craft the appropriate tool needed for smashing doors or windows. It’s pretty much a point and click type of play.

Your train will be limited in term of seats at the start of the game, and you’ll only be able to take on 5 passengers at any given time. There too, you have to amalgamate enough resources to be able to add additional seats and power to your train. You can also add more storage space to your inventory. The trick is to make sure you don’t run out of coal or food, or it will be game over.

As you progress and add more seats to your train, it will be all about making sure you get train on the correct route, and then dropping off and picking up passengers.  Every few weeks, you’ll be treated to a short cut-scene, which is good.

I did enjoy the artwork, but I would have liked a little more animation. It would have been nice to see the wheels turning on the steam engine, for example. The soundtrack is pleasant, and there are several resolutions to choose from. The concept of the game is interesting, but it needs a lot more content, in my opinion - picking up and dropping passengers and breaking into houses is fun for a while. The game would have been better had they included managing and transporting resources (demand and supply) within the country as well as transporting survivors.