One Last Job

I tentatively recommend OLJ if you are interested in a "team management game with some light strategy and short-form storytelling" set in a "cyberpunk dystopia" (quotes courtesy of marketing). If you like the Tricube Tales roleplaying system for resolving all conflicts, then consider this a full recommend. You play as a fixer. You bring people together to do heists. Everyone you hire comes with archetypes, perks, and quirks (like Tricube Tales). All of your challenges are resolved with six-sided dice (like Tricube Tales). There is always some risk of failure, but there is also always some chance of success. If risk management of d6s and Target Numbers is something you enjoy, then I recommend OLJ to you. Where this game falters for me is in being a storytelling engine; a relevant note considering the advert material: "One Last Job plays like a puppet theatre: you pick the scene, pick the crew, then laugh and cheer as the puppets fail (and succeed!) at their jobs." In my single playthrough to completion, I had crews crush heist phases but fail the actual heist, and I had crews botch every single heist phase but clear the actual heist. These events made it difficult for me to invest in the puppet show. How did these three patsies get the bank heist done for my client while failing every step of the way? How did two of them carry the third who broke their leg during the heist and also the money they supposedly failed to steal? Perhaps there is a story to be told there, but events like these broke my suspension of disbelief, and I would rather use other means to tell stories. I could see myself playing OLJ one more time, but I can't fathom there being enough as the game exists for a third run. Not even with the allure of making my own character pack (which I explored; it looks neat). OLJ can be a catalyst for your imagination, a way to engineer stories that you could further develop through other roleplaying avenues, but the processes here are definitely limited. Still, I enjoyed my time in this cyberpunk dystopia, and I am glad to have had my [i]One Last Job[/i].

I see what the game is aiming for, and it's not a bad idea - it reminds me a bit of something like Elder Sign, but cyberpunk. To me, though, success/failure feels too arbitrary and random. Because the target number is always at least a 2, you always have a 1 in 3 chance of failing regardless of any modifiers or bonuses, which means it happens a lot and there's nothing you can do to prevent it. It's not a bad game, it just feels like the player has too little control, and that's not really what you want.

One Last Job is an 'inch wide mile deep' game that's unforgiving and tricky to get the hang of, but once you do it's extremely rewarding. It's definitely a niche game - if you're not into playing with menus, this may be for you - but it scratches a very particular itch for me. The core gameplay loop is build your team, pick a mission, optimize your team for that mission, then watch a quick narrative unfold as the chips fall (or in this case, the dice roll) where they may. After that mission, you do it again. And again. And again. I admittedly haven't spent a ton of time in this game at time of review, but what you see is what you get here, and I'm a big fan. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go on one last job.

One Last Job is what it sets out to be, a pretty straightforward team optimization game. There's not really a story or cohesive narrative other than 'hire dudes, do jobs' and the jobs are pretty tame but for three bucks it's pretty fun and will kill a few hours at least. The reliance on randomness can be a bit annoying (same team, same quirks, same job, two very different results) but without it you can very quickly form an uber team so I get it. If you're not sure, try the demo. The experience never really changes too much, so five minutes will tell you how much you'll like the full game