Raw Fury is finding developers who are bringing unique experiences using old concepts. I can dig it. Old concepts that are updated to modern gameplay are always a huge plus. And today’s review features a game that has a lot of Dead Rising built into it and follows that old concept of point and shoot without much thought.
Welcome to Last Man Sitting from developer DoubleMoose Games, where sitting one’s ass in a chair can be a dangerous experience. This game is a simple pick-up-and-go playing experience. The player is an office worker who is protecting the company’s goods against evil mutants and machines that are swarming into the office space. The game puts the player in an office chair, arms them with guns, power-ups, and buffs, then tells them to have at it. It comes with PvP and PvE experiences, but nothing really beyond those modes. The game isn’t meant to be deep, but rather fun in its execution. The depth of Last Man Sitting starts with customizations, upgrades, and the ability for the player to make their own office defender, and it does its best to expand that depth into the actual gameplay.
While this isn’t the deepest game of its kind, it delivers what you paid for it, which is just $8.99. Not a bad jumping-off point for those looking to have fun with friends, doing nothing particularly useful, all while not breaking the bank. That’s the point of games, right? Of course!
So, sit back, get packed, and let’s roll around this review.
Easy to understand
Last Man Sitting is the type of game that doesn’t need too many tutorials to pick up and play. In fact, it doesn’t need any tutorials to pick up and play. Playing off the old gameplay concept from Dead Rising, the game throws the player in the role of an office worker who is simply rolling around in a limited space while going up against a swarm of baddies. The swarm drops off goodies, power-ups, and the occasional health. Literally, nothing complicated at all.
The mechanics are easy to pick up on, as players will shoot, build up power, and get ready to unleash hell-on-earth onto swarms of enemies. Beyond those simple concepts, the game also features smooth and masterful controls, as well as quick ways to get around oncoming enemies, such as grinding the rail from one end of the room to another. The game is meant to be quick, chaotic, and easy to get right into with its purpose. It nails that design quite well and does so without much effort or thought. As I played this game, I felt like it started getting faster with mechanics, decision-making, and movement, as was designed. The game does a great job of allowing the player to get right into the controls and what they are capable of doing during a fight. You want that to be the case with any game of this type.
As the player goes deeper into the swarms/rounds, the game starts upping the ante with baddie difficulty, until ultimately the player runs into a boss. After the boss, the player can pick upgrades or unlockables and move on to the next wave. Again, it’s nothing too complicated when it comes to understanding the gameplay, and the concept Last Man Sitting is built off of seemed like a blueprint from Dead Rising. It’s essentially just an endless amount of shooting in a confined environment and contains a lot of wash-rinse-repeat.
On the level size side of the tracks, the levels are multi-tiered, expand out to a normal office space format (conference room, stairs that dip into a lobby, and whatever an office space might look like). It’s not big enough to lose enemy swarms, but it’s small enough to feel a bit claustrophobic and always on guard. That is a good thing, especially when you want your players to concentrate on the swarms of enemies and struggle with the need to survive. In other words, the levels are designed exactly the way they need to be. It works to keep the action flowing and make the player appreciate the small breaks in between the waves.
The driving point of this game and revisiting its gameplay is just personal goals of how far one can go before dying, as well as upgrades/customization. That former piece is a big selling point to the entire gameplay experience and a giant reason why a player would want to continually play it. Is that enough for a single-player experience? Maybe. I mean, Dead Rising and Zombies (via Call of Duty) live off that concept. It’s just dumb fun, and in a way, it works, especially for an $8.99 price point. The amount of depth the game offers for that price is well worth the risk.
PvP-ing it
Moving on to PvP, which I am sure is the main reason why people will play this game, Last Man Sitting has a lot of potential in this area. The PvP mode is the long-term bet on keeping this game going and alive. Going up against players, friends, or whoever in a chair armed with a gun is an interesting gaming proposal. While the matches were far and few between during my review time because the game had yet to catch fire, the PvP I was a part of was built into a tightly knit office space, much smaller than the PvE, that reminded me of Unreal Tournament back in the day. The player is forced to stay close and available for a fight, preventing any sort of camping or potential cheating. This design was built for pure and utter PvP chaos. Honestly, that idea is not terrible at all, but I would have preferred at least a more robust space like what is featured in the single-player experience. Just a little bit more elbow room would have sufficed.
Beyond the above modes, there really isn’t anything else to the game. While the upgrades, add-ons, and customizations are a plus and pretty much drive the desire to jump into the repetitive gameplay, just to see how things go, I do wish there were a bit more to the overall gameplay experience. Maybe a story? Even if it’s short? I feel like it should be a bit more than what it ended up being, but at that price point ($8.99), I understand that Last Man Sitting has enough to warrant the experience.
As it stands, the gameplay is built on a goofy concept of sitting in an office chair and shooting the hell out of ridiculous mutants and robots, all while trying to save an office space. Once the PvP starts to hit hard, this could be an interesting game to follow. Right now, it’s a repetitive concept that has just enough to offer and is priced low enough to give it a go.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
Last Man Sitting from developer DoubleMoose Games and publisher Raw Fury is a fun and simple shooter with a ridiculous theme, as well as a bevy of customization and upgrade options. The gameplay is short and repetitive, but the price point helps justify it.
