We’ve already seen a decent bunch of quirky arty style games on the Playstation Network. Games like fl0w, Pixeljunk Eden and Pain have all fallen under this category and have been fairly well received. The next in the this ongoing trend appears to be The Last Guy and although it may look like it, it should fit quite nicely with the aforementioned titles.
The protagonist, The Last Guy has a job to save abandoned refugees that are stranded in buildings because of an attack led by giant monsters and zombies. Surprisingly the game comes off as being quite original despite the generic video game story because in The Last Guy you aren’t saving the world your just helping the stranded survive and escape. The originality is only furthered by the graphics as every thing you see is pre-rendered imagery taken from satellites. From this Google Earth-esque top down view you adventure around real life locations and help lead the survivors out of buildings and into a near by escape zone in which they will later be picked up. You then have x number of minutes before this happens for you to collect x amount of survivors. While on your way you’ll encounter a whole multitude of various enemies to stop you on this mission.
It sounds simple and it stays true to this basic premise throughout but you have different ability’s to help you on your way. You can gather all your followers into a group to avoid any prospective attacks and you can even sprint if your running out of time. Spread throughout the game world are any number of pick-ups to also aid you in this task. These range from a few seconds of invisibility to a straight teleport to the escape zone.
You get the feeling that you’ve seen most of The Last Guy before. The generic backstory, the blatant pick-ups on offer, the timed missions with a target score and that’s not even mentioning the overly simple controls and visuals. Despite this The Last Guy does come off as being fresh and original because although it’s got all the ultimate video game clichés in one game, The Last Guy has enough charm and simplicity to pull it off. You can tell that The Last Guy isn’t trying to fool anyone and is very much a video game.
It’s really the satellite imagery that makes the game what it is. You adventure around in real life locations and the fact that the graphics are actually photo realistic really helps sell the experience even if it really feels like a video game. The only disappointment is that you can’t pick were you want to go. All the levels are pre-made and there is no level generator based on Google Earth at all. It’s a shame but there are enough levels to keep you going.
The Last Guy’s main strength is it’s biggest weakness though. It excels because it’s overly simple and this really comes across if you play this for a couple of hours. You are essentially doing the same thing over and over again and you’ll die quite easily and quite quickly. Possibly due to the fact you have no health bar but you can be chilling along one second and then, if your not careful, you will be dead the next. The Last Guy seems like it’s been intentionally designed to be a quick pick up and play game but one that should be experienced in short bursts. This would be fine except after a few levels the game becomes incredibly challenging so you need to work for a while to get your strategies down. Overall this puts a downer on what is an averagely competent game.
The Last Guy is different, orginial but repeative and tired all at the same time. If you don’t mind a bit of trial and error in your games then The Last Guy is one you should pick up. The game is a weird one to recommended to anyone as it is so fresh and original although if your still reading now you should definitely check out the demo on Playstation Network. Otherwise it might be best to give this one a miss unless you like quirky Japanese mini-games that run on a light formula.
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