Developer: Con Artist Games
Publisher: Armor Games
Reviewed On: Xbox Series X
Code Received.
I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned before, but the zombie genre is quite prevalent in the gaming sphere. We’ve seen it in many forms; shooters, open world meat grinders, narrative games, puzzle puzzlers, text adventures, sandbox tomfoolery, and of course the survival horror template born from Alone In The Dark and Resident Evil. Hell, the first one I ever played was Ubisoft’s debut, the Dawn Of The Dead adaptation Zombi on European computers from waaaay back in the 80s. There’s not much new to mold the concept into at this point (I’m not holding my breath for LEGO Re-Animator), so what’s left is the twists in the road developers choose to add to well worn formulas. As it turns out, Last Stand: Aftermath navigates those twists quite literally.
Set in the fictional Union City, a survivor compound known as The End has found a unique and somewhat mercenary means of supply running to survive. Namely exiling anybody bitten and infected by zombies and sending them on scavenger runs, collecting as much as they can in the limited few days they have left to benefit the healthy community. You are one of the exiled, or technically all of them, as once your current character dies, you get to pick from a random selection of new characters. Then you set off again satisfy the needs of the many, or the needs of the few if you choose to use all the resources for yourself and see how long you can survive.
The Last Stand: Aftermath is best described as an isometric scavenger hunt road trip with permadeath, like a hybrid of the How To Survive series and, bizarrely, very similar to the shambling corpse that was Activision’s The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. Set off in your car along a road map that often splits into two or three different routes and go as far as your limited fuel tank will take you. Stopping off at one of the destinations along the way, loot the area for all it’s worth, get some fuel for the next stop, and go to the next place. If you don’t have enough fuel expect to be thrown into an emergency detour with a particularly bustling zombie population. Basically make your way from A to Z, collect all the things so you’re not screwed at the end. So what’s the hook? Well, the fact that you were screwed before you even stepped foot in the car.
It’s a killer concept for a zombie title, and the way Con Artist Games use it as a spin on familiarity is pretty interesting. Your journey has a ticking clock element, as your health bar is split into several blocks. As either time or infection damage goes on, one by one those blocks will be corrupted by the virus, shrinking your maximum ability to heal little by little. Which would suck a lot more if you didn’t gain zombie perks and buffs every time a block is taken over. There are some pro and con corruptions, such as a speed boost that saps a percentage of your stamina, but there are some perks that are purely beneficial. Tougher skin, bloodlust perks, XP boosts, faster melee, etc… If you want a real risk and reward run, you can sacrifice blocks yourself by consuming infected samples dropped by some enemies, but don’t get too power hungry because they speed up the ticking clock that leads toward your death, so fast that it’ll take off like a helicopter.
Once you’ve started over with a new cannon fodder character, it might seem like a drag to have all that power stripped away. Never fear, as you’ll be collecting items classed as Knowledge during each run that accumulate points you can redeem at the home camp (or via random radios back to camp) that carry over across every character you use. These give you permanent, non-infection related perks, housed in several rather robust skill trees that alter everything from stamina and combat, to a percentage reduction to your infection rate. I really enjoyed the roguelite loop thanks to elements like this, and also the ability to be ruthless with your weapon discoveries. You find caches of weapons and items on your travels and are given the option to either transfer them to camp and ultimately your next character, or just use it all for yourself. Little player generated wrinkles in the loop kept this fresh for me. You really feel the benefits of these perks, especially in combat where at first the shooting feels a lot more loose than the melee, do you’ll miss more than you hit. But once you start adding perks and finding gun mods, it’s super satisfying to see yourself picking off a horde without missing a shot. Crafting in general is interesting too, as you start with an empty recipe book that you can fill up with experimentation at workbenches and bonfires. I was still unlocking recipes ten hours in.
Aesthetically it’s generally solid, with a suitably broken down mossy and rusty look to the suburban areas. Animation is nice for a pulled back isometric look and there’s enough detail in the areas that they don’t get old too fast within the procedural generation of the levels. It’s not perfect however, as there’s some occasional odd glitches on enemies, some pretty severe screen tearing that I hope is patched soon after launch, and to my eye the image looks weirdly stretched horizontally and noticeable on oddly short and wide character models. As if the default image is wider than the original aspect ratio. I really liked the sound design too, with an unobtrusive and atmospheric score, and there’s some chunky and varied gun effects throughout.
There are a couple things here I feel need tightening up. Graphical issues aside, I do think the generation of the loot drops seem rough sometimes. There’s a very specific area in your journey that isn’t random where you have to run a gauntlet at a military roadblock. A couple of runs I’ve ended up with ten scavenged hunting rifles and literally no ammo drops from this roadblock. On the other hand, the banged up snub nosed revolver I left camp with is all I’m given bullets for. It seems a little more sketchy than your usual item generation. Some fairer ammo drops for your inventory would be nice. Another hitch is that when the game tells you how many items a building has to loot, it often hasn’t spawned all the items in yet. I also feel like the opacity of walls when you’re inside buildings needs a little more refinement.
Overall, despite a few gripes, I’ve had a much better time with this one than I was expecting. As a fan of the zombie genre that often tends to drop off quickly within its looter formula, there’s been enough twists on the style and concept in The Last Stand: Aftermath to keep me engaged way past watching my fiftieth character drag themselves toward their car. If you’re looking for an interesting apocalyptic roguelite with a novel turn on the progression, this should scratch that itch. Itchy. Tasty. Recommended.
