You've gotta give it to The Last Worker in its opening set-up. An all-encompassing products and logistics corporation by the name of Jüngle, run by a man with the slickest of bald heads and weirdly-transfixing stare, you wonder if eyelids are even a concept present in this fellow. At one point you almost expect the founder/CEO here to be introduced unceremoniously under the name Beff Jezos. Asking us if we'd be interested in signing up to Jüngle Prime at all. OK, sarcasm over: to be this blatant and upfront in what you're satirizing, you've either gotta be super confident that the surrounding material is that strong, or naive enough that none will notice (or care) that your prescribed sense of subtlety is ankle-high. The kind of subtlety rivaling that of a hammer-head atop a nail or an alarm clock at the crack of dawn. From its introduction and early scenes, signs remain positive that the first option is the likely outcome and this confidence in what The Last Worker is dishing out is down to a few factors.

The first is that the narrative pulls off what I'll dub (for lack of a proper term) the Firewatch effect. Condensing a vast chunk of personal history for main character Kurt, down to an introductory animated sequence. Much like how Campo Santo provided a small but impactful series of sentences to set the scene and get the player fully on-board with the main character's point of view, The Last Worker's "show don't tell" approach is similarly impactful and effective in its delivery. Providing surprisingly poignant details through its visuals -- as apathetic as I often am when it comes to games striking at its player's emotions, even I found myself partially moved. You want me to step into the cynical, just-about-carrying-on shoes of the main lead after that intro? No need to ask me twice.

The Last Worker Preview Screenshot

From here, what you get with The Last Worker is that established mix of witty (or at least attempting to be), snarky brand of humor. Writing that has no difficulty in shifting between passive and upfront aggression in its parodying of runaway corporatism. Making light of dark moments and dampening its brightest of spots with similarly-easy and quick finesse. In any other scenario, Kurt's downtrodden, grumbled delivery would be grating, but this is partially off-set by your AI companion whom in the intro, mistakes you for a new employee. A soon-to-follow subverting of that charismatic stereotype only adds to the appeal of the delivery. In reality, Kurt has spent most of his time working and living amid this vast factory of packages, transportation chutes and that aforementioned CEO ominously drip-feeding you superfluous company mottos and buzzwords.

The other crucial element that too stops The Last Worker from feeling too formulaic in regards to its predecessors is its chosen art-style. A surprisingly-vibrant, cel-shaded look that in a way extends the overall intentions in mocking that sanguine-like, multi-national corporate mentality. All glossy, bright, luminous exterior, but whose inner workings are as dross, lifeless and empty as its multitude of hallways. There are suggestions there were many more living-breathing employees here prior; instead, your only company appear to be the endless slew of worker drones off on their pre-programmed routines. But that decision to favor color and an aesthetic as slick and glossed-over that cel-shaded can be is a suitable fit. If nothing else, The Last Worker's one of many takes on "a dystopian time" feels like a clean break from the ample side-scrollers or platformers of yore. Games whose oppressive tone, slower pace and desaturated color palettes, risked coming off too on the nose. More on the nose than our in-game Beff Jezos character it seems.

The Last Worker Preview Screenshot 2

So at least in terms of story and how the game is framing this specific brand of corporate dominance and authoritative stamping-out of what may have been happier times, The Last Worker is intriguing enough. Which ends up being a blessing in disguise as it's the gameplay here that is a lot less convincing and a lot more frustrating to be convinced of its nature. Specifically the, what feels like, repeated objective players will be partaking in on their inevitable ventures. That of sorting packages and determining where in the facility said objects should go to. Here, The Last Worker's lack of properly letting players get accustomed to the premise, alongside a clumsy control scheme, lets it down. As sufficient as the game is in explaining how to move about the game, the same can't be said when it comes to those brief conundrums on figuring out if a box is labelled correctly and/or how to brand it.

There are essentially two phases to this gameplay. The first is analyzing the package itself; latching onto the targeted box with your trustee anti-grav gun, rotating it to catch sight of any labels or symbols denoted and cross-referencing that with your on-board scales. Essentially, does the weight and size as illustrated on the box match what your own equipment says? If not, you need to correct that. If only the game's means by which one can do that didn't feel as cumbersome and as confusing as it did. At times requiring one to hold a button down while flicking through label options, at times it not working? Then there's the second part which is where The Last Worker's clumsy execution falls apart. Having to categorize packages depending on whether they're suitable for delivery or not -- be that because they're, for example, damaged. Whether it was the environment one was playing this in and/or the reliance on audio cues one wasn't aware of, but it's not the best-explained or illustrated part of The Last Worker. A prompt or reel of visuals to refer to wouldn't have gone a miss. The game in the end providing barely any time to ease into its loop before it's demanding you make all the right choices, should you want to avoid a game over and subsequent restart of that sequence in the story.

The Last Worker Preview Screenshot 3

And yet, the narrative and introductory world-building is appealing. Deviating enough from the regular tedium of "dystopian" locales, alongside entertaining character dialogue and exchanges. On the basis of writing and performance, you can't fault The Last Worker's attempts. But it wouldn't surprise me if this greater emphasis on allowing its narrative foundation to flourish has unfortunately come at the cost of spending just as much time on the gameplay. The second key component to the game where one's doubts are more firmly planted. A more clearer tutorial on its mechanics -- or at least not unloading every element or potential attribute onto its players in the first round -- would help immensely. Pivotal to the not-so-subtle intentions it may be and, let's be honest, is unlikely to change that much given the impending October release. Maybe a second look-in (in quieter, more private surroundings) may alleviate or even rid those concerns. At the very least, even as a gameplay-first kind of person, the story hooks and aesthetic interpretation of corporate dominance has given The Last Worker a reason to venture deeper. As unconvincing a gameplay loop -- that can last the entire length -- it feels it's teetering towards.