Last Train Home is the ultimate quartermaster experience. You will be assigning logistics to make sure everyone is happy and ready for battle.
Ashborne Games has previously co-developed one other game, the helicopter flight shooter Comanche. However, they note that the title was originally being worked on solely by their partner, Nukklear. It is unclear if this was an open collaboration or some kind of imposition or mandate by publisher THQ Nordic. Ashborne Games is THQ Nordic’s Czech subsidiary, based in Brno. Their home is likely a strong influence on Last Train Home’s setting.
The game is heavily based on the real-world Czechoslovakian Legion, but has alterations to make the narrative more exciting. During World War I, a band of Czechoslovakian soldiers formed an allegiance to assist the Entente Powers based in the Russian Empire. They fought bravely against Austro-Hungary, but following the end of the war, they found themselves embroiled in a new conflict, the Russian Civil War.
The Czechoslovakian Legion is technically neutral, meant to be neither completely loyal to the White Army nor fight against Vladimir Lenin’s Red Army. Their main goal is to take their armored train to Vladivostok and sail back to Central Europe. However, morale compasses and a need for supplies may sway the Legion to take up direct arms.
The life of the Czechoslovakian Legion is divided into two sections in Last Train Home: maintaining the train and going on combat missions. Personnel might specialize in one of those areas or be able to take on tasks of both. This also depends on the roles they begin with or learn by leveling up with promotions.
Onboard the train, the Engineers pilot the locomotive and help it maintain a constant speed; they can also forge new equipment and technology. Cooks can make better use of food supplies, creating recipes that can improve the performance of other passengers. Doctors treat the wounded over time and can make new medical supplies for missions. Workers are more general and can take on tasks like stoking engine fires or manning onboard weapons like machine guns or artillery cannons.
The train can move at two speeds: Normal, which is better for fuel management, or Overdrive, which makes it go faster to escape possible threats at the cost of extra coal and more pressure on the crew. This is independent of the in-game timer, which can be set to Fast, Normal, or Pause. These can be combined to make an ultra-quick train that uses both Overdrive and Fast time together.
An important thing to note about Last Train Home is that the train typically can only go one way on the track. If you miss a stop or town, the soldiers will have to manually walk back to a destination, presenting new dangers and wasting time. This makes it important to monitor not only actions aboard the train but also what is around the environment and the upcoming trail.
Troops also have traits that can affect their personality, reactions, and affinity with a role. This can include Alcoholism, Ruthlessness, Monarchist devotion, Popularity, or even Scarred. Some of these alter the narrative interactions, make them less reliable in the fight, or quickly alter overall stats. It is imperative to look at everyone’s traits to decide important promotions and tasks.
There are three main stats to shuffle around in Last Train Home: Health, Morale, and Stamina. Health is typically lost during combat missions, but characters can still be hurt on the train. Morale tends to drop when events go sour, supplies are lost, or people die. Truly depressed soldiers may fail at their job or abandon the legion entirely. Stamina is their overall energy, making it key to work on tasks without falling asleep or traveling from the train to side objects. Most tasks have day and night shifts, allowing people to automatically sleep when the sun goes down.
When reaching a hostile zone, you will now need to deploy a squad. This can be made up of three to ten troops of various combat roles. Riflemen are armed with a bayonet-tipped long rifle, making them powerful both in melee and at range. Machine Gunners can lay down suppressive fire, either mowing down enemies or forcing them to take alternate routes.
Grenadiers in Last Train Home can set up consumable explosives and detonate enemy positions. Scouts can spot dangers in an area by concentrating and can also snipe to execute key targets. Finally, Medics can apply bandages to heal, but they tend to be armed only with pistols.
Someone’s combat role and training role tend to align with each other. A Medic might also be a doctor, a Grenadier, or an Engineer. But this isn’t always the case, and it is possible to have odd combinations like Rifleman with Cook. Some others might have dual combat roles or dual-train roles. More jobs can be unlocked by leveling minimum stats, like intelligence or fitness.
This makes it key to whom to pick for a mission, as stats and conditions are carried over between each Last Train Home’s gameplay section. You don’t want a Scout to fall asleep because they were steering the train all night, nor would it be good if the only Doctor left was heavily injured and in no condition to heal others. This sometimes results in you taking a squad of junior personnel simply because they aren’t battered.
Last Train Home’s combat missions are in an isometric view and are played in real-time with pause. This gives it a similar feeling to classic RPGs like Baldur’s Gate or Icewind Dale. A group of characters can be selected by dragging the mouse. One will be assigned as a leader, typically whoever was clicked on last. This one character will interact with objects and collect loot while the others stay in position.
Auto attacks are assigned with the right mouse button, and the leader’s skill can be accessed by pressing Z. This means the team needs to be constantly unselected and reselected so that the proper ability is displayed. Characters in a group can also be cycled through with the Tab key, though directly clicking on a portrait will fully disband the group. It would have been better if everyone’s skills were visible at the same time.
The intended gameplay of Last Train Home is very much to pause the game, assess the entire situation, and then deploy accordingly. By default, auto-pausing happens infrequently, so you will be mindful of when exactly to freeze the action. This can be adjusted in the options menu to auto-pause in more critical situations, such as someone dying, an enemy spotted, or someone running out of ammo.
Last Train Home’s combat has a high element of survival mechanics. Every auto-attack and most abilities use consumables constantly. Is it worth it right now to easily kill a group with a machine gun if it depletes too many resources? What if your Grenadier has poor accuracy and could miss anyway? There might not even be enough cover for a single character to ambush while everyone else is vulnerable. There are many times when you don’t want the whole team attacking to save ammo or avoid injuries.
There will be some equipment caches in most combat zones. This can include different types of ammunition, cloth to make bandages, various types of food, herbs, train fuel, crafting parts, and explosives. Items will need to be manually picked up, and there is no faster means of looting everything. Money is found in the field and is typically earned by selling excess goods in a city.
Outside of the main map objective, there are typically side quests that can offer further rewards, typically experience points. Sometimes the rewards are not stated in the mission log and need to be finished blindly. Some of these involve using your resources, like healing the innocent or target practice. You will need to weigh the benefits of character improvement against wasting materials.
You should not expect characters to make it out unscathed. Even when the action is paused, troops can fall either by the sheer number of foes or the limited cover of everyone. Many combat scenarios offer recruits, though it will be a mix of veterans and green rookies.
Last Train Home has an emphasis on planning, survival, and accepting losses. This is very similar to games like Banner Saga or Deadliest Dungeon. You could restart a mission if things go truly south. Or adapt the Fire Emblem method of reloading to when things are smoother and more predictable.
Unfortunately, the saving system is fairly obtuse. Only one campaign can run at a time, and creating a new profile will wipe all past progress, but oddly, it will create a “Past Journey” GameCrossRun.sav file that cannot be deleted. However, it is possible to manually save and toggle on autosaves. You also always automatically save when quitting.
But, saves cannot be specifically named in Last Train Home, only gaining the title of where the Legion is located. You also cannot delete saves in-game and have to find the files on your hard drive. This results in tons of clutter and utter confusion about what saves is what. It is likely that Ashborne Games intended there to be only a single save but backed out of the idea, creating a large amount of wasted space.
Last Train Home has some minor bugs, mostly from the audio. Entering and leaving a mission will often cause the music and final sound effects to blare several decibels higher than configured in the options. It is also sometimes possible for the music to still play for a few seconds even after the game has been fully closed.
Last Train Home is great for those who want to meticulously plan everything else and manage a spreadsheet of resources and logistics. Things will be taken slowly, almost at a snail’s pace, to avoid roadblocks. Those who want to rush into action will likely quickly kill the entire Czechoslovakian Legion. This can easily accumulate with loading back dozens of hours if you can even figure out which save file it was.
