The topic of robots taking over the jobs of real people is one we’ve seen discussed a lot in our world and that is generally the idea of one of the latest games I played called The Last Worker. The Last Worker comes from publisher Wired Productions and developer Wolf & Wood Interactive and sees a man who has been loyal to his company facing the threat of no longer being needed. Here is my review of the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR2 version.
The Last Worker is playable either via TV screen on the PlayStation 5 or in PlayStation VR2. For the purpose of this review, I tried out both of them. It’s a first-person narrative adventure game where you play as a man named Kurt who works for a major corporation called Jungle that has pretty much all but shifted to robotic workers. It’s very similar to something like Amazon and the game even has an evil founder that somewhat resembles the head of Amazon which I found funny. Kurt is the last human worker remaining at the company and you gradually get to learn more and more about his character and how he feels about things.
As you go from day to day in the game your job involves exploring Jungle while doing things like gathering packages, scanning them to verify their details, and then labeling them either for delivery or disposal if they are outdated or damaged in some way. At the end of the day you get a grade based on your performance. This part of the gameplay I rather enjoyed but other parts about it I didn’t quite so much. Kurt has a couple gadgets at his disposal including the Junglepod that is used to move around the factory and the JungleGun which is a type of gun you’ll be using. As you continue playing, you’ll have to deal with security bots and you can use various features of the JungleGun to disable them. The parts I really didn’t like were the stealth sections where you have to avoid security bots and which you can insta-fail at. Not all the robots are bad though as Kurt as a robotic best friend named Skew who plays into the gameplay and a robotic bird is met as well that Kurt takes a liking to.
Having played the game on both PS5 and PlayStation VR2 I can say that I preferred playing on the TV screen. I like the immersion of PlayStation VR2 but the control scheme was kind of aggravating and so I didn’t spend long playing it that way. You are forced to use what is basically tank controls to move and interacting with things was bit messy too. Movement isn’t like that when playing on the regular console and so I’d recommend going with that. Another thing I really liked about The Last Worker is the art style and the audio package. The game has a wonderful hand painted look to it that was done by comic legend Mick McMahon. On top of that it has a great cast comprised of people like Tommie Earl Jenkins, Jason Isaacs, Olafur Darri Olafsson, and more all of which deliver great performances. Whether it was moments of seriousness or humor the voice acting always felt on point. Finally, the soundtrack is also a bop which rounds out the technical side of things.
The Last Worker is a great trip into a dystopian world that has a great art style, well written story, and strong voice performances. Some gameplay sections were annoying and the game doesn’t control as well when played in virtual reality but those parts didn’t stop me from enjoying my time with this one at the end of the day.
*The Last Worker is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation VR2, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch, and PC. PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR2 versions reviewed. Review copy provided by the publisher for this review.
The Last Worker
$19.99
Pros
- Well written story that is both serious and funny
- Strong voice performances and soundtrack
- Great art style
- The package gameplay is surprisingly fun
Cons
- Instant fail stealth sections were annoying
- Doesn't control very well in VR
