Already seen on different occasions in recent months, The last worker, whose release is set for October 19, once again distinguished itself during this gamescom 2022, with a demo of around 20 minutes. Intrigued by the title since its announcement, I went to the stand to test this playable version, and I come out with an irrepressible desire to play the full version!
The Last Worker puts us in the shoes of Kurt, a man working for Jüngle, one of the most profitable companies in the world, and who is a thinly disguised critic of Amazon. However, we are entitled to a future projection of the trajectory of the American giant, since Jungle has already achieved the unthinkable, automating everything that could be. The warehouse in which we move is therefore populated by robots going about their business. The only exception is our guy, who, for no apparent reason, managed to keep his job. Helped by his company vehicle evolving in a 3D space, Kurt obeys the little robot which seems to think that he is a new employee, and will carry out the task entrusted to him: to be assigned a box, to pick up the package, carry it to the "delivery tunnel" and drop it. The perfect opportunity to introduce a tutorial that helps us take control of the machine and see all the actions that Kurt can perform.
A perfectly boring job, therefore, with an extremely precise procedure that makes one think of what the smiling firm practices, in order to best dehumanize the task and prevent everyone from using their free will. Fortunately for us, we won't have to carry out this task for too long, since after making contact with the outside world, we will try to escape from this immense maze of corridors, which will attract the wrath of certain robots which are there to make sure everything runs smoothly. A chase will therefore follow, with a semblance of hide and seek to avoid being spotted by a robot and continue our progress, guided by this famous voice which seems to be an old acquaintance of our protagonist.
The paradox with the 20 minutes spent on The last worker, is that we don't really know why we are trying to escape. We just fell in love with this character that is Kurt, a deadpan guy, who just does what we ask of him, until we see a glimmer of hope. That Jüngle is a horrible box, we already know, even unconsciously, from our knowledge of the "real world". It remains to be seen how the subject will be treated over time, and if the gameplay will manage to remain interesting over the entire duration of the work (~6 hours of play planned) and if the narration will follow. We are still facing a narrative adventure after all, and the fact of having already done more than just advance (including hide and seek) is a plus. We also hope that the few puzzles and other puzzles designed for the game will live up to the ambitions of the title! Artistically, it's already a very good job in any case, with a very Telltale artistic direction, and a very high-flying dubbing that has so far shown no sign of weakness.
Very clearly, The last worker is one of my most beautiful surprises of this gamescom, and I think it wise to follow it carefully! Released October 19 on consoles and PC, with VR support.
