The Final Station can, in a way, be described as an indie answer to The Last of Us. Both of them are games set during the zombie apocalypse that have a fair bit of gameplay going on, yet are ultimately plot-driven, using the gameplay process to give the rhythm to your journey through the one and only plot arc along the linear, scenic levels, while listening to a subtly atmosphericThe Final Station can, in a way, be described as an indie answer to The Last of Us. Both of them are games set during the zombie apocalypse that have a fair bit of gameplay going on, yet are ultimately plot-driven, using the gameplay process to give the rhythm to your journey through the one and only plot arc along the linear, scenic levels, while listening to a subtly atmospheric soundtrack (one in Final Station mainly leans on piano, as opposed to guitar-heavy tracks in TLOU) You can hardly draw so many parallels with any other notable zombie game, be it the interactive cartoons of Walking Dead or the hub-based CRPG of Dead State, let alone the countless scores of gameplay-centered titles.
That aside, Final Station is still very much its own beast. For one, the storytelling focus is entirely different: whereas TLOU was all about the famed Joel-Ellie bond with a few notable supporting characters and minimal worldbuilding, Final Station only has characters as far as it needs to advance its plot and world-building. Machinist you play as is silent, save for written replies in rare chat logs with other train drivers (sometimes you can even choose one of two options there, but it does practically nothing.) The other characters are decently written spins on familiar archetypes (the alcoholic, the conspiracy theorist, the amoral backstabber, a mysterious smoker with shady motives, etc.) but that's all they are. Only ones that stuck out for me was an entertainingly incompetent young military spy, who keeps on peppering his speech with military terms, and a jumpy, armed woman who distrusts you and other passengers before her station reveals that she has a husband waiting for her. If she survives for that long, that is.
Yes, characters can die on board your train if you fail to heal them, bring food or repair ventilation in time. However, this is never scripted, and is entirely up to you, and the way you play. Not just moment-to-moment train management choices, but the ground-based gameplay too, and the systems altogether form a complete loop. If you fight well on the levels without wasting ammo, you'll be able to clear out everything (rather than be reduced to just grabbing the passcode for leaving the station and running), and find both the survivors of that particular station and whatever food/health packs is hidden, + get more money for rare shops. Because the game is entirely linear, the developers were able to playtest the locations of everything very well, and so the game always remains tense even if played well. Whenever you find a good amount of ammo, next few rooms with decent selection of special infected types are sure to grind it all down, but it's also rare to be reduced to melee for long for that very reason. More importantly, there are EXACTLY enough healthpacks in the game, including ones bought in the stores, to keep every character alive - so long as you don't use any on yourself, that is. You do that, and you sign someone's death warrant.
Anything else? Well, the meat of the narrative is arguably in the train conversations between passengers. Of course, you have to be quick on your feet there, as you stop hearing them while on a different wagon to fetch stuff or repair something. However, they also pause a bit for when you leave, and so quick readers will not really miss anything at all. Moreover, there's always only one mechanism on the train per inter-station journey that needs repair (indicated by sparking): when the truly important conversations are happening, that mechanism will be the suspension you can fix while listening to passengers at the same time.
Notes and logs on the stations are much shorter by comparison and are mainly there for you to get the sense of each place instead. Each station really is quite different - it's clear the developer wanted to show the most comprehensive cross-section of the apocalypse possible, and so you'll get (zombified) subway stations with a nearby shopping mall, gang hideouts, army bases, seaside towns, a snowy hillside mansion with a chapel, a pitch-black tunnel, and more, as well as a few town stations where life is still active and you can see plenty small scenes of everyday life besides the necessary shopping at hand. It's also important that while actual pixel-art is kinda run-of-the-mill, every level, on foot and (especially) on train, still manages to produce oftentimes stunning vistas due to the talented use of many diverse backgrounds, or even foregrounds (one level has newspapers blow across the foreground every so often).
The main problem is that the game kinda coasts to a halt in its final third onwards. You'll figure out the gameplay by then, and ought to predict the "twist" story builds up to as well. In the absence of further character development or choices, there are only the backgrounds to hold your interest... and plotline interpretations (at least 3 of them, and they all make sense within the story.) So, still worth it.… Expand
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