Last Stop (video game)

Lore & Background

Last Stop is the second game developed by Variable State, a British independent game developer founded by Jonathan Burroughs and Terry Kenny, former developers with DeepMind Technologies. The game's composer is Lyndon Holland, winner of the 2016 British Academy Games Award for music. The game was first announced at Microsoft's Xbox London event in November 2019, with additional information shared during the Xbox Games Showcase in July 2020, and was released in July 2021.

The game is a third-person adventure where players control one of three main characters by deciding what they should say and performing a variety of minigame interactions. The story begins in 1980s London with teenagers Peter Hale and Samantha encountering a man named Frank and a green portal in the Underground. The game then jumps to 2020s London, covering three stories—Paper Dolls, Domestic Affairs, and Stranger Danger—which can be experienced in any order before converging in a combined final chapter.

Reader's Guide

Last Stop received 'mixed or average' reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. The game's narrative structure, allowing players to choose the order of three storylines before they converge, is a notable design choice. The plot involves body swapping, espionage, and supernatural memory erasure, all tied to a green portal and an alien planet. The game offers multiple endings for each protagonist: John can choose to swap bodies back or remain in a younger body; Donna can accept a contract to restore her lost family in exchange for joining a stranger after death, or remain alone; Meena can either accept a lower position at her firm to protect her family or quit and take the blame for two deaths. The epilogue features a local conspiracy theorist finding the original portal door in a subway tunnel.

Did You Know?

• The game's composer, Lyndon Holland, won the 2016 British Academy Games Award for music.
• The three main stories—Paper Dolls, Domestic Affairs, and Stranger Danger—can be played in any order.