Annapurna's Last Stop: Zen And The Art Of A Philosophically-Driven Video Game

Last Stop is the latest crippled published by Annapurna Interactive, developed by Variable State. Variable State is nary alien to creating meaningful gaming experiences arsenic seen with 2016's Virginia, so erstwhile I dove into Last Stop, I couldn't hold to spot what other this workplace had successful store. As a monolithic Albert Camus fan, I was not disappointed by the intricate existential doctrine interwoven into the Last Stop storyline. 

After our Last Stop reappraisal went live, I had a fewer readers scope retired to maine asking who Albert Camus adjacent was. He was a French philosopher, journalist, and writer of immoderate of my favourite humanistic books similar The Stranger, The Myth of Sisyphus, and The Fall. His content is that humans request to clasp the absurdity of our precise existence, which blends the philosophies of existentialism and nihilism successful the look of chaos. Last Stop's communicative reflects that blend that the Absurdism doctrine centers connected with the communicative offering a dualistic acquisition that pits the mundanity of regular beingness against the absurdity of a supernaturally driven fate.

Last Stop features 3 characters, each with six chapters detailing their journeys towards an epic decision seen successful the last arc. The travel starts disconnected slow, monotonous, and without immoderate existent purpose. Moments successful clip captured that we tin each subordinate to: feeling stuck, feeling excessively bushed from being alive to wherever adjacent picking retired a elemental outfit feels similar excessively overmuch work, feeling suffocated by overbearing household and expectations, feeling wounded erstwhile you consciousness slighted by a idiosyncratic you attraction about, feeling aimless erstwhile hanging retired with friends, feeling similar a nonaccomplishment erstwhile faced with idiosyncratic younger and more successful. The instances are endless, but each arsenic relatable. This level of the mundane is the cleanable juxtaposition to the unbridled chaos seen with the supernatural element. Each quality is faced with a antithetic facet of the supernatural contempt determination being a transportation to each three. This is wherever the Camus notation comes in. This communicative is astir embracing that absurdity and realizing that sometimes determination is nary prime but to succumb. This is particularly evident successful the last 2 chapters, and it was wrong those arcs that I couldn't enactment the crippled down. 

But it was overmuch much than conscionable the communicative itself that had maine reminiscing astir The Stranger and different reflections of quality thought. It was the plan elements that Variable State included, arsenic well. The characters we play arsenic and those that substance to them each person elaborate faces, features, and expressions that bespeak their ain quality experience. Everyone else? No facial features astatine all, not adjacent successful vague detail. I've seen immoderate speech that seemed to bespeak this was a "lazy" plan choice, but I person to disagree. To me, it felt similar a deliberate determination to bespeak a fewer points: one, a absorption connected the main characters. The communicative is astir their idiosyncratic experience, their choices, and their reactions. It's not astir those connected the "outside," and that's precise overmuch however we are successful existent life. When we are hyper-focused connected our ain reality, thing extracurricular of that world is non-existent oregon seeming unimportant. We astir go similar faceless ants to 1 different unless our paths straight intersect successful a mode that our caput deems notable. The prime to marque the faces of those not straight correlating with our characters beryllium wholly featureless, adjacent erstwhile up close, reflects that passageway imaginativeness that we are each intimately acquainted with. 

The communicative of Last Stop besides delves into themes of cognition arsenic reality, meaning my cognition whitethorn beryllium antithetic than your cognition but some perceptions are our realities arsenic we cognize them. What we spot is what we know, truthful that is what is "real" successful that infinitesimal successful time. With that aforementioned passageway vision, those extracurricular characters are not an impactful portion of our perception, making them blend into the inheritance astir equitable to that of furniture: replaceable existence. 

Last Stop besides tackled issues that were little philosophical and much ethical, specified arsenic candidly talking astir crunch successful games. Crunch isn't moving a small other present and there, which is simply a communal misconception and a crushed wherefore I thin to debar utilizing that connection successful casual conversation. It's astir extended periods of overworking, oftentimes nether enactment that doesn't truly spot their teams arsenic human. We've seen it clip and clip again successful the news, and adjacent the media broadside experiences it. I had 1 occupation successful games media wherever I worked 8 months consecutive without a azygous time disconnected and was expected to constitute from the infirmary erstwhile I had a seizure and adjacent had to enactment from the beforehand enactment of a ceremonial of a adjacent relative. Luckily, that was years ago, but those types of moving conditions are much communal than galore mightiness think, and not conscionable successful games. Last Stop opened the doorway to this speech erstwhile much erstwhile the quality Jack is introduced, who works successful the game industry. There is simply a country aft Jack and John, who is simply a middle-aged azygous father, swap bodies and John (as Jack) is faced with his archetypal enactment successful the satellite of crippled development. The "cool" brag comes successful utilizing "hip" lingo and trying a small excessively hard to look "chill." He comes successful and drops the casual, "Pressure from the apical is high, truthful we've got to enactment done overtime with nary benefits and nary days off." But don't worry! He offered a pizza enactment to marque being "down successful the trenches" much bearable. Because arsenic we each cognize successful the firm world, pizza parties hole all.

It's those types of interactions that marque Last Stop a overmuch deeper communicative than I deliberation galore mightiness comprehend astatine archetypal glance. The graphics are simplistic, the question of the crippled is limited, and the communicative is linear. But that last choice? Playing done each the options, tempering with antithetic reactions, and choosing empathy implicit scorn proved to maine that Last Stop has a extent that is needed sometimes. Sometimes, you conscionable request a crippled to unwind and sprout the proverbial s**t, portion different times our brains crave thing a spot much meaningful. If you find yourself looking for the latter, I can't urge Last Stop enough. If interested, consciousness escaped to check retired our afloat reappraisal here.