Last Stop
Developer Variable State
Publisher Annapurna Interactive
Format PC (tested), PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Release Out now
VIDEO
GALLERY
Approached with a soapopera mindset, Last Stop comes into focus. Like all good TV, its pleasures are cumulative
Plenty of games have marketed themselves as ‘cinematic’ over the years, but a game that aspires to be televisual? That’s a novelty. Although television might not be quite the right word when discussing this anthology from Virginia dev Variable State. No, this is telly, of the ‘settle into your sofa groove and make a cup of tea during the break’ variety.
It’s an, but is most immediately obvious in its structure. After a short, tantalising intro – introducing a glowing green door in the London Underground and a mysterious figure who resembles a sort of Yorkshire G-Man – the game splits into three separate stories, each divided into six episodes. Paper Dolls is a body-swap tale that switches John Smith, a single dad struggling with social services, and Jack Smith (no relation), a considerably younger and fitter game developer who comes off as a bit shallow and self-absorbed. Stranger Danger, meanwhile, begins with a mysterious man who escorts people into his flat, never to be seen again; after following him, teenager Donna Adeleke discovers this is just the beginning of his supernatural powers.
