The Last Guy PSN Review

There are many games that don’t make sense in the real world. The Last Guy is one of these games, as it has people running about in an orderly line when stressed out. Now, I may be wrong, but I rarely see people forming an orderly line, as they are always shouting, fighting, and pushing to get ahead. Oh, and there are zombie monsters and retro disco style music in it to, but that’s perfectly normal in my opinion.

In The Last Guy you play a nameless, almost imperceptible protagonist as you guide him around environments built from satellite images of famous cities (Tokyo, London and Sydney for example). You move around the pixel-sized hero to rescue people littering the streets, parks and building of these cites, and once rescued they will join an ever growing line of people behind you as they scuttle merrily along.

There are other factors as well which mixes things up a bit. For example, many of the survivors are really small, and you can’t see them from the normal view. So you either have to use the thermal image view (by pressing X) to light up each with a green light, or zoom in (with the right shoulder buttons) to get a better view. However, zooming in reduces you view of surrounding streets, and using thermoview makes enemies invisible, so you have to be careful when you use them. You also have the option to dash to specific area in the game, or group the survivors closer behind you, thus making the line shorter. However performing each on of these tasks consumes stamina, which means you have to use these cautiously as well.

Truth be told, it all sound very easy, but when you add a time limit and a selection of enemies to the party things can get a little complicated. For example, rushing to rescue the set amount of refugees in a set time limit will no doubt lead to you taking a few chances, with the hope you don’t get punished big time for the risk. In fact, this turns out to be the game’s biggest flaw, as you are not rewarded sufficiently for your risk taking.

For instance, if you make a mistake in the game by directly hitting a zombie who was hiding away in the shadows, then you are tossed right back to the start of said level, losing up to five minutes’ work by simply making a wrong turn. Thankfully the penalty for enemies hitting your line of survivors is not as bad, as this just cuts your line at the point where it got hit making everyone rush into building waiting to get rescued again.

When I played the demo of The Last Guy I fell in love with the game. It was one of those smack yourself on the head realisation moments that you wonder why something so simple had not being done before. I played it to death for two full days, trying incessantly to rescue every one of those green dots (aka people) that needed my help. And trying to get the longest line possible before bringing them back to the rescue zone.

Regretfully, upon playing the full game my opinion somewhat changed. My urge to get the highest rating on each of the levels fell to the wayside, and I started to rush my way through. I will admit there is a good idea at the heart of the game though, but crucially the idea is not expanded on sufficiently to raise this to the heady must-have heights of many other PSN games.

Nevertheless, if you end up buying The Last Guy you’ll probably end up liking it to some extent, and if you can try and pace yourself, and don’t rush through the game, you’ll enjoy it even more. Sure, it’s not the best on PSN, but it is certainly not the worst either. When all said and done you could spend a fiver on something a lot, lot worse.

7 out of 10