[h1]The Last Stand: Aftermath[/h1]
[h3]Fun but Unfinished and Poorly Optimized Zombie Game[/h3]
[h3]Broken game and not worth trying![/h3]
The Last Stand: Aftermath is the latest entry in this nostalgic zombie game series that originally began as Flash games. This release revisits many of the core mechanics that defined the original games, such as resource scavenging mechanic and the zone exploration system, but presented in a more polished and modern way.
Despite these improvements, the game is plagued by many technical issues that terribly compromise the gameplay and the overall performance of the game. There's black screen critical error that makes the game nearly unplayable at the very beginning of the game, that has no clear fix and still hasn’t been fixed, despite being addressed by the developer more than five years ago. Along with issues like clipping through the floor and obstacles, flying enemies that aren’t supposed to. This game seems to have been completely abandoned by its developer, as it hasn’t received any support for so many years. I definitely don’t recommend this title, even though I had a lot of fun playing it while trying to overlook its terrible flaws.
[b]Gameplay: Fairly fun and engaging zombie survival simulator only to be overshadowed by many important flaws.
Art: Great graphics with nice designs of post-apocalyptic environments, weapons and assets
Music: Unremarkable soundtrack[/b]
[h3]Gameplay[/h3]
The Last Stand: Aftermath features crafting and simplified survival mechanics that make the gameplay more fun than the previous entries. However, the game’s crafting system is quite simple and doesn’t allow you to make truly useful things at the beginning. This mechanic becomes less important later, since most useful items such as guns, melee weapons, ammo, and batteries can be obtained through scavenging different places.
On the other hand, the combat feels quite smooth and dynamic, whether using melee weapons or guns. Each rifle, pistol, and machine gun feels unique, and they can be upgraded with different attachments, giving them a certain degree of RPG-style customization.
The game’s story is fairly simple and linear. It starts with an interesting premise that justifies the game’s roguelite style, but it is later handled in a very superficial way, with disconnected and pretty boring main missions. Speaking more about the roguelite aspect of the game, it’s fairly well done. With each run, we gain experience that can be used to unlock permanent abilities for future characters.
[h3]Art and World Design[/h3]
The game’s graphics are visually gorgeous and sometimes a bit too colorful for a survival zombie game. The models and textures of guns, zombies, characters, landscapes, and houses are incredibly detailed and compelling. On the other hand, the game’s zone design is very wide and varied. There are many different and interesting environments to explore, such as neighborhoods, stores, farms, military bases, swamps, bunkers and more. This is the most appealing aspect of the game. Unfortunately, due to several collision issues with environmental obstacles, objectives spawning outside the map boundaries, and other accessibility problems, the exploration system and its enviroments end up feeling wasted and broken.
[h3]Music and Sound effects[/h3]
The soundtrack doesn’t stand out much, but it serves its purpose and fits the game’s atmosphere fairly well. On the other hand, most of the sound effects are recycled from previous entries, but with lower sound quality. Sometimes, the sounds of the guns and the zombies feel a bit out of place or sound very low.
