Released Oct 19th, rarely does an indie game have an all-star cast
But The Last Worker, a first person narrative action-stealth game by Oiffy and Wolf & Wood Interactive Limited has a cast just as impressive as any AAA title or any big budget movie, for that matter.
Names such as Claire Hope-Ashitey (Children Of Men), Jason Issacs (The Patriot, Harry Potter) and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (True Detective, BFG) are unheard of for such a low budget title.
So how the hell did it come to be? Writer and director of the game Jorg Tittel explains that he knows the entire cast from working with them on movies. “Except Zelda Williams,” he adds. “I just tweeted her, explaining the project and she was excited to join us to make an amazing game.”
And exactly how does this cast add to the experience? Is it all big names and big disappointment in the gameplay? Let’s find out.
Welcome to the Jüngle
In The Last Worker you play as… well, the last worker funnily enough in a giant packing warehouse called Jüngle, a play on online retail giant Amazon. The story is that you lost your partner long ago and now you are trying to find her again. This is made difficult of course by many obstacles encountered along the way.
The dark, dry humour characterised by writer Tittel’s razor-sharp wit moves the story along nicely with clever dialogue. Everthing in the real world is constantly and scathingly satirised, making this dystopian world feel all too close to close to home.
Dredd
The all-star cast doesn’t just stop at the voice actors. Character and asset designs are created by Mike McMahon, the original Judge Dredd artist for 2000 AD comics. The visuals have a distinctive blend of reality and satirical comic, adding to the unique edge of the title.
Not Death Stranding
Tittel was keen to dispel any comparisons to AAA games. Some people took one look at the game and said, “Oh, so it’s like Death Stranding!” Tittel does not seem happy with this superficial comparison, adding, “It involves moving packages, sure but The Last Worker is a completely different experience.”
“We compare it more to the stripped down, satirical story of Papers, Please and other small indie titles with engaging stories.”
So basically, don’t expect indie Death Stranding 2. The story is far more far-reaching and the gameplay more slow paced and gets under your skin in a way we have never felt before. This marks it out as something far more memorable than most AAA titles.
Slow Hover
It’s difficult to comment on the gameplay for the entire game as we only got our hands on the demo at the press event. But the gameplay we experienced allowed us to move around boxes and chat to our robotic helped, the cleverly named Skew (like SKU, a joke all retail workers will get) and use stealth to avoid evil guard robots.
Navigation on our hover craft was smooth and intuitive. It was also very slow. But this fits with the pacing of the game, making you take in every detail of the Jüngle facility.
The main tool for the gameplay is the yellow handheld device used to lift packages and defend against enemies. This is limited in scope because this is a stealth game first and foremost. But we were reassured by Tittel and producer Ryan that the tool takes on more diverse uses later in the game.
VR
One of the most intriguing aspects of The Last Worker is its planned release on VR. Most VR titles so far, with the exception of Half Life: Alyx haven’t given much thought to story.
Yet, the story is the main event for The Last Worker. It will be exciting to see how far the engagement and immersion potential of VR technology will be pushed by Wolf & Wood Interactive.
In true The Last Worker style, there will be likely be a good deal of social commentary on how VR is used today as is likely to be used in future. This can even be seen in the brief demo, as one of the items your character delivers is a VR set for a baby.
Experiencing this kind of commentary while wearing a VR set yourself is an experience we don’t want to miss.
Summary
An all-star cast is worth nothing more than the paper it is written on if not pushed to their creative limit. But with Tittel at the creative helm of The Last Worker, there is no doubt that this will shape up to be one hell of a title when it is released later this year.
This game offers engaging gameplay, a cleverly satirical narrative. The dry humour has far-reaching revelations about our own world and the future we are hurtling towards. For all these reasons we can’t wait to get lost in the warehouses of Jüngle when this title is released.
The Last Worker is due for release in 2022 on Steam and all major consoles October 19th
