The Last Survey

Genre: Visual Novel

Players: 1

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Review:

The Last Survey is a Visual Novel released on PC in 2020 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2021 that focuses on an analyst presenting dire news to a corporate executive.

The presentation in this game is maddening, possibly intentionally so. The game uses crudely-drawn, poorly-animated white line art on a black background, backed by a droning soundtrack that seems less like it’s trying to set a mood and more like it’s trying to drill into your brain. For a game with a hopeless, dour tone about events that are seemingly apocalyptic, this is all very fitting… but that doesn’t make it any less irritating. And surprisingly, despite this extremely low-fi presentation, this game still takes up 1.188GB of space in your Nintendo Switch’s memory. I’m mystified just where all that space went to, because it certainly doesn’t show here.

Unfortunately, I’m still not quite sure just what the dire prediction at the center of the titular survey actually is, even after completing the game, something that will only take 30-60 minutes depending on your reading speed. Through most of the discussion, indications seem to indicate that the dire circumstances being alluded to are a nickel shortage due to over-exploitation of resources, but later statements seem to imply some sort of connection to global warming? It’s odd that this extremely important report would be so vague to the player. At best we can conclude that the implications of the report will be dire for all of humanity, will certainly spell inevitable doom for the nameless company at the heart of the story, and will require great sacrifices by the leadership at said company to prevent – sacrifices that are highly unlikely to be made.

The hazy nature of this game’s topic matter is due in part to a slightly excessive use of purple prose. While not so overbearing that you can’t follow along with the story, the text here is so steeped in flowery language and metaphor that it feels like work parsing through it at times. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the writing in this game is generally of superb quality, but at times I think it’s just a bit too pretentious, and could benefit from realizing that its protagonist is supposed to be something of an everyman, and his narration should perhaps reflect that a bit better.

As far as the “game” elements present here, players are given two choices whenever your character is prompted to speak, but these choices rarely amount to much. Again, I suppose there’s an argument to be made here that this is befitting the topic matter of a game painting a hopeless situation of a dying world where our fate is in the hands of those who are disinclined to save it.

Still, I found the topic matter well worth exploring, and the angle it’s being approached with is fairly original, especially for a videogame. And while I take some issue with the style of the writing, I can say that the quality of the writing is superb. Unfortunately, this is in service to a generally unpleasant experience, and one that has little to offer in exchange for its $15 price tag.

Ultimately, that what The Last Survey amounts to – $15 for 30-60 minutes of unpleasant, bleak, overly-florid monologue wrapped in an ugly, mind-numbing presentation. I suppose if you can get this game on sale at the rock-bottom $2 price, it might make for an interesting diversion, but mostly I’d suggest you stay away from this game.

tl;dr – The Last Survey is a Visual Novel about an analyst delivering an alarming environmental report to a company executive all but certain to ignore it. The topic matter here is interesting and the text is well-written, but it’s overly-florid, depressingly dour, and packaged in visuals and a soundtrack seemingly designed to make this as unpleasant an experience as possible. And at $15 for a 30-60 minute experience, tops… I can’t recommend this game to anyone unless it’s on sale at a highly-reduced price, and even then only if you’re looking for a very short and depressing distraction.

Grade: C-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Winner:

Most Overpriced ($15) – The Last Survey is not a horrible game, although it is a soul-crushing experience with a narrative that’s as depressing as it is pretentious. However, none of that is why this game wins this award. Rather, The Last Survey takes home his prize for being a $15 game that players can easily finish within 30-60 minutes, depending on their reading speed. Players have a few meaningless choices they can make along the way, but largely, you’re paying $15 to read a depressing story about… er… I’m still not entirely clear if this is about a resource shortage or environmental problems. In any case, this is way too high a price for an experience this short, even if you want to be depressed.

The “Why is this taking so much space on my memory card!?” Award (1.19GB) – While The Last Survey is one of the smallest games on this list, its file size of over 1.19GB strikes me as the most egregious. The game’s subdued, droning soundtrack and poorly-animated, crudely-drawn monochrome visuals don’t seem to present any reason why this game should be as large as it is. Each of these games feels like it’s being wasteful with the space it requires, but The Last Survey feels particularly pointless in its use of space.

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