Last Stop test: the hype train forgot to stop

Last Stop is a game that has managed to present itself in its best light. Manufactured by Variable State, to whom we gladly spare the few imperfections of Virginia (his first game), the project had on paper absolutely everything to convince me. Supernatural elements that disrupt a mind-numbing daily life, strong characters, and rigorous writing combining humor and solemnity.

But like those who post extensively retouched photos of themselves on their Tinder profile, Last Stop actually has little to do with what its various trailers have led us to believe. Namely an interactive choral film, which provokes something other than yawns and polite smiles.

Last Stop test: the hype train forgot to stop Read the conclusionLast Stop

An interesting concept...
Superb music
Some (very rare) replicas that hit the mark
Available on PC, Xbox and Cloud via Game Pass

…but poorly executed
A laborious and incoherent writing
Deeply soporific gameplay
Brutal transitions between gameplay and cutscenes

The day everything changed

Rather drastic style change for Variable State. Signatories of a nice Lynchian investigation in the first person in their first game Virginia, the three friends remain however attached to a very easily identifiable school of game design.

Heirs to games like Dear Esther (The Chinese Room, 2012), The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts, 2014) or of course Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer, 2013-2020), Variable State dreams of being a great storyteller. But where the studio managed to hide its hesitations (legitimate for a first draft) in a silent thriller like Virginia, it has a much harder time doing so in Last Stop and its cast of very talkative characters.

The game tells the story of three protagonists in a modern London where strange phenomena manifest themselves to whoever pays enough attention. In this case, John Smith, Meena Hughes and Donna Adeleke see their daily lives turned upside down the day they are witnesses, actors or victims of the phenomenon in question.

Metro, work, (big) sleep

The plot of the title is quite interesting. The cutting is done by “episodes” of a maximum of twenty minutes in which each character is played in turn, and in the order that you want. We then move on to the next episode, which we can again explore first with Donna, John, Meera or vice versa. But let's not make too much of this feature: it does not change the outcome of the plot.

The staging and the interactions offered in the game are largely inspired by the games of Dontnod or Telltale before him. It's about selecting dialogues (which are often just three different ways of saying the same thing), getting from point A to point B (systematically passing through the same completely empty environments) or perform pompous QTEs that even Quantic Dream would no longer risk (yes, you have to brush your character's teeth. Captivating.)

Worse, Last Stop is a game that has enormous difficulty in being understood. It is sometimes difficult to understand if we are still in a cutscene or if we can move. Sometimes I stayed planted like a dive for a good 10 seconds before realizing that I had to move.

In the same way, the incessant changes of shots and perspective mean that we do not immediately find our character on the screen. The game itself also seems a bit lost, not knowing what to do to justify its status as a "video game". Some gameplay “sequences” consist of — literally — taking three steps forward to trigger the next cutscene. Incomprehensible.

JVFR

See that subway tunnel on the left? Well that's not the place to go at all.

Terminul, everyone get off

All this without mentioning the pathfinding completely off the mark, which means that the characters who accompany us on our – exciting – walks take all the obstacles in the way in the face. In terms of immersion, we have seen better. Especially in a narrative game.

Because the fact is that if Last Stop wants to be inspired, on the form, by what Dontnod proposed with Tell Me Why, it is so clumsy that it systematically misses its subject. You see I believe that a narrative game, choral moreover, must above all be carried by its characters. Too bad: the scenario imagined by Variable State never pays homage to the pretty vocal cast brought together by the studio.

JVFR

Very well dubbed, the characters are unfortunately poorly written.

JVFR

Donna's arc is both the most dramatic and the least staged.

In fact, none of the different characters was able to convince me or give me the slightest emotion. It must be said that we are not quite dealing with the friendliest people on Earth. John Smith is a single father who delegates the organization of the home to his 8-year-old daughter (the mental load starts early). Meera Hughes, a former SAS employed by a secret government agency, is unfaithful and inconsistent. Finally, Donna Adeleke is the archetype of the candid and selfish teenager, refusing to see a truth that has been under her nose from the start.

Characters that are difficult to appreciate, which are certainly not helped by a totally inconsistent script. We see in particular Meera (secret agent, let us remember) making a phone call to her lover while her husband is literally three meters away.

JVFR

A sympathetic fool, John is just as incoherent as the others.

Life is like train travel

There are quite a few cool moments. The one illustrated several months ago by a gameplay sequence is one of them.

In the skin of Jack, another protagonist who happens to have swapped his body with our good old John, it is a question of infiltrating the video game development studio that employs him. A sequence that leads to a delicious exchange on working conditions in the industry, and in particular on a few lines of grating dialogue about crunch.

A grin escapes us. Then we dive back just as dryly into the emptiness of a story which we quickly admit is of little importance to us. Blame it on these famous characters who never manage to interest us in their fate. But also to graphics from another time (Virginia was artistically more successful) and laborious animations that constantly take us out of the dialogues.

So there is not much left at Last Stop for him. If not its soundtrack, still composed by a Lyndon Holland who, obviously, has not lost all his inspiration. Him.

Last stop, l'avis de JVFR

Virginia was a flawed, but intriguing game. Its successor is at least as imperfect… but offers absolutely nothing that can make us want to come back to it.

A poorly written interactive choral film, and tied up with mittens, Last Stop disappoints not only for its irritating protagonists as much as for its gameplay of a rare laziness. To the point that it even gives us the impression of not wanting to be a video game.

A criticism that it is not uncommon to make to narrative games of all kinds, but that Last Stop deserves much more than others. It is that, contrary to South of the Circle, to quote only him, he never manages to bring us into his universe. Fortunately, Game Pass owners will not have to pay for their entry ticket. But it's a safe bet that they will choose to get off a few stops earlier than its terminus.

Last stop

Variable State goes off the rails. After the intriguing and Lynchian Virginia, the English trio signs with Last Stop an uninteresting interactive choral film and, worse, badly written. Never quite sure if it should assume being a video game, it offers an irritating and unpleasant gaming experience. A real disappointment.