Objective
Get from one station to the next along the Night Line. Each stretch has something in the way.
- 1 · Kingsbridge (easy): the shutters are down, so you walk 160 metres of tunnel to Marrow Lane.
- 2 · Marrow Lane: barriers along the platform edge. Find a staff key card, open the gate, and walk the twin tunnels to Hollow Street.
- 3 · Hollow Street: a station that closed in 1959. Wade the flooded tunnels to Old Docks and pull three breakers to turn the power back on.
- 4 · The Last Train (hard): it won't stop. Walk through five carriages to the cab and pull the emergency brake.
- Night Loop (endless): one tunnel that never ends. Trains come more often the further you get.
Three stars on a level: make it out, find every token, and never get caught.
Controls
- WASD: walk. Mouse: look (click the game to lock the mouse).
- Shift: run. It uses your breath.
- Hold Q: look back over your shoulder.
- F: torch on or off. G: throw a flare.
- Hold E: climb up onto a platform, pick things up, use panels and breakers, open doors.
- P / Esc: pause. Options, mods and lenses are there.
- Touch: left thumb moves, drag on the right to look, and use the buttons.
Trains
- They don't stop. Not at stations and not for you.
- Listen first. The rails start to sing about ten seconds before a train reaches you. Then the wind picks up and the dust starts to blow.
- Watch the signals. Green is clear, amber means a train is coming, red means get out of the way now.
- Refuges are white recesses in the tunnel wall with a blue lamp. Stand inside one until the train has gone.
- Platforms are always safe. In the twin tunnels you can also step through a cross passage into the other tunnel.
- A train goes straight through the Conductor too. That gets rid of him for a while.
The Conductor
- He only moves when nobody can see him. Keep him in your torch beam or under a lamp and he can't take a step.
- In the dark, seeing him doesn't count. If your torch is off or he's beyond its reach, he can walk straight at you.
- He is always behind you. Hold Q to look back. You can walk backwards with your light on him.
- Listen for the punch. Click, click: that's his ticket punch. When he's close, the lamps flicker and you hear him breathing.
- Tickets save you. If he reaches you, he punches a ticket instead and goes away for a while. With no ticket, it's over.
- He stands differently every time you look back.
Shop, mods and lenses
- Tokens are hidden in refuges, rooms and on platforms. They buy upgrades that change how you play: a bigger battery, a wider torch beam, running shoes, a watch that counts down to the next train, flares and spare tickets.
- Lenses: camcorder, old film, night vision (he counts as lit everywhere) and thermal (he is cold, so he shows up black in the dark).
- Mods: Lights On, Slow Trains, Disco Trains, Big Head, a Duck Conductor, Cinema Bars and Hardcore.
- Difficulty: Story, Normal or Nightmare. Story gives you two tickets and a slower Conductor.
How it looks like that
Last Train runs on a renderer written for this game, with no game engine. It grew out of the one in Dead Air.
- Your torch and an oncoming train's headlight both cast real shadows and light up the dust in the air.
- Every corner, rail and bench sits in its own soft contact shadow, worked out from the depth of the picture.
- The floor you stand on reflects the station: polished platforms, wet track beds and flood water with ripples.
- 21 surfaces, from glazed tiles and terrazzo to cast-iron tunnel rings, ballast and seat fabric, were made by a script from noise, not photos.
- The trains have lit interiors, and the passengers asleep inside them never move.
