Last Stop is really good.

Hey everybody. I'm not writing a full review or anything, because frankly I'm not good enough a writer to do so. But I just finished Last Stop on gamepass, which is a new game from the people that made Virginia. And I have to say I really, really enjoyed what I played.

It's three short stories told through 6 chapters each with a 7th chapter bringing them together. All the stories has a supernatural element to them but actually focus more as character pieces. They also all reflect different genres, with one being a bit of a goofball comedy, another being a family drama and the third being...sort of a teen adventure, I guess I would call it? (gave me a "Stand By Me" vibe, anyway.) And like Virginia, it played with visual editing is very effective, cinematic ways. Unlike Virginia, it is voice-acted and for the most part rather well done, though there is one protagonist that is such a mild English bloke that I can't tell if the voice actor did a lethargic job or if that really just is the character.

The last chapter also sort of felt like a stealth sequel to Out of this World. I mean, it's not, but I liked making the comparison.

The stories are not likely to blow your mind or anything, they are just three really solid stories told well with a clever gimmick that works.

It's only maybe 4 hours to get through it all, there is no side stuff and not a lot of real player agency, so some might compare it to a walking simulator (not an insult in my tastes, I love walking simulators when the story is good), but I preferred thinking of it as a mildly interactive anthology show. You do get to affect the endings a bit, but it's just a few binary choices, very much a "see the other choice on youtube" sort of ending.

Anyway, it's on Gamepass as I mentioned, so that makes it pretty low stakes to check out. Hope others like it too. Cheers.

Right on. It looked really cool.

I saw it on Game Pass and decided to try it out (because why not?)

The gameplay reminds me a lot of a Quantic Dream game. I've only played the first chapter of the first guy but I enjoyed it. I'll certainly put more time into it.

I just started but why this lil girl have specific preferences in Mouthwash and a desire to get a toothbrush for her birthday. Wildin.

@camosid: straight bonkers, right!?!? Kids these days with their oral hygiene and Nintendos and wacky cigarettes, just nutso!

Just noticed this on PSN and remembered this thread title...and then saw this was from the makers of Virginia and became very skeptical. Virginia was a game I really wanted to like but ultimately found to be a huge waste of money, although the editing was neat in a video game sense. If you had to spend $25 on this instead of just give it a whirl on Game Pass, do you think you'd still like this this game as much?

@nodima: I’d still like the game itself regardless of price point, but I may mot have experienced it if I had to pay $25 to get in the door. I think judging artist works on monetary terms is not a great way to enjoy anything, because costs taint literally everything in our lives.

I think a well cooked steak tastes great whether I had to pay for it or if I got it for free at a BBQ. But I’m probably not going to buy it myself too often, which just results in not having a steak at all.

@tartyron: I wouldn't judge anything solely based on that, either. That being said, Virginia was something like $15 when it first came out, was barely the length of a feature film and was pretty flawed. If I go to a bar and the beer I order is skunked and the bartender makes a weird-bad riff on an Old Fashioned, I think it's fair to be disappointed I spent money at that bar, whereas if a friend carried the tab or the bartender cleared it I'd just laugh it off.

Or, similarly, if I'd have spent a full $60 on Detroit: Become Human, I'd have cursed myself for letting David Cage get one over on me yet again. But as a PS+ offering, I get to revel in the farce of it all and better appreciate the things it does decently.

If you're the type of person that could attend a concert where the amps are blown out and you can't hear the vocalist at all and walk away saying, "hey, at least it was art!" color me impressed, but I don't think it's unfair to ask if the game is different enough from Virginia to justify paying full price to see what's up with it or wait for a discount because it shares what made Virginia so flawed for me, which the old video-games-as-art magazine Kill Screen put most eloquently: "Virginia is selling points all over, a mood board of ideas—some cool, some musty—that take the player’s interest as self-evident."

@nodima: I totally see your point, and it's a valid and correct point, and even in my case I'm not saying that price isn't a factor, just that it's not a criteria I tend to use once I've already consumed it and the refunds aren't gonna happen. When it's time to express what I think of a game, I'm basing it on how it made me feel. Sekiro made me feel like a badass. Gone Home made me feel nostalgic for my teen years. State of Decay 2 made me feel like a shift manager at McDonalds.

So when I say that Sekiro is good, it's not because I got it on a steam sale for half off (which I didn't), it's because it's a well made game. If it was cheap, that's nice, but it's gravy and not something I factor into my endgame opinion of it. To use your example of Detroit, I also got it on PS+ and I thought it was bad, even for free. Sure, it might have stung more if I had paid for it, but it still would have been a bad opinion, paid for or otherwise.

As for your concert example, that's not an equivalent argument in my opinion. Firstly, that is not going to make me feel good if the show sucks, I wouldn't argue "hey, art is art" if the performance made me feel bad, as it would in the situation you describe. It would still be art, but i would not have enjoyed it, and thus not recommend it. Art is not automatically good just by being art, because trust me, most art is bad art. It's why I like to promote what I find good when I find it, because most of it sucks. Secondly, I hate concerts anyway, so I wouldn't go. Too many people packed together, long before the pandemic, ruins all experiences for me. So even if I got in for free, and it was the best show every performed on earth, I'd probably not have a good review for it, because I personally would be on the floor having a panic attack. Again, comes down to "How did it make me feel?" It's not the bands fault that I get panic attacks in crowds, but I'd still express unhappiness at the experience.

And that could be different for you, and that's fine. Differences are good. In the case of Last Stop, I enjoyed it, it reminded me of how I felt after watching the first season of Stranger Things (The only season I liked, but I liked it a hell of a lot.), and I wanted to let folks know about it here as GB tends to be a community that is willing to try games outside their wheelhouse. If you aren't into the idea of a game before you play it and the price point makes that feel too much of a gamble, then you probably won't enjoy it. You could also always pirate it too, as it's on PC. Ahem! Not that I condone such criminal behavior, just that it's possible.