The Last Gas Station

It starts off nice, but quickly becomes rather dull and boring. You end up automating all the minigames later on, along with an AI auto buyer and 3 workers. This results in you standing around doing nothing because there is nothing to do for you anymore. There's a Retro switcher at the end of the last shop upgrade that allows you to turn off automation and do the minigames again for a tip. But it costs 30k and is the most expensive upgrade you can buy. Meaning it's likely the last thing you will buy and makes it absolutely pointless at that point. Then there's the story and it's mysteries as the secondary hook to the game. But the issue is that the story kinda culminates into a pretty boring conclusion. And it doesn't really solve anything because being a mystery is the whole point. There's also this weird undertone of one customer ranting about electric cars, one character at a tire dump going on about how tires on EV vehicles wear out faster and can't be disposed of fast and properly. (Which is true apparently) And then if you lean more towards "Civilization" instead of the local legends and myths as a stat, you get the bad ending where [spoiler] you straight up die / disappear. [/spoiler] It really comes off a bit like the game has this "technology bad" subtext. TL:DR; If you're looking for a good mystery or a chill minigame / job simulator, look elsewhere.

The game is okay. I played through the entire thing, finished most achievements and purchased all but one of the upgrades. I find the game is fun to play till you get to the automation stage, at which point you end up standing around waiting for the day to end if you hire the kids to work the station for you. The visuals are interesting, but I found the ending was pretty lackluster after all the excellent buildup throughout the story. Probably wouldn't play again.

Very unfortunate! I loved this game but the weird political agenda demonizing electric cars made it very weird. Not sure if the developers got payed by the fossil fuel lobby or Trump but I was definitely tainting the experience of an overall pretty nice game.

Originally, I was going to give a positive review - while the game is fairly simple and the "storytelling" only happens through some (weird) cutscenes, there was a certain zen to it. The characters were somewhat charming. But there is few things I find as impossible to forgive as adding full mechanics AFTER 1.0 release - specifically ones that change how the gameplay feels. Today's update added an electricity-mechanic that not only makes it impossible to fully automate (you can't have all auto-services running simultaneously), but also forces you to downgrade already automated machinery. It was a 6/10 before this, it's at best a 4/10 now.

This is typically the case where I would like there to be the possibility of putting a neutral opinion. The game is not bad, the gameplay is simple but effective, at first, then comes this feeling of emptiness. The story is light and above all lacks consistency, the characters we met are just there to open up new areas that will only be used for fishing afterwards. To get all the successes you have to start the whole game over again, so no. And speaking of successes, new ones were added about a week ago but no communication (the discord is brain dead) so in summary it's fun to play but nothing more. A photo mode would have really been a plus because the pixel art is very pretty.

I wasn't sure if I should buy this one but it is a cute pixel game about managing a store and having a few side quests. It is a very cozy and fun experience, I spent 16 hours on it so the price was well worth it! I have absolutely no remarks about it, recently the dev even added small additions for people who finished the game. I will probably buy the DLC to come! Ps: For achievement completion, the automations count towards the goal so you can close the garage if you don't like that mini game and only open it once you upgraded it to automation. Pss: Being able to close the toilet is sadistic, I mean it's just free money, you don't have to operate it, so if you close it you are just mean to the people haha

Приятный, расслабляющий тайм менеджер, чем-то по своему подходу к повествованию и геймплею схожий с Punch Club 2 (в первую не играл пока). Потихонечку развиваешься, отстраиваешь новые здания и расширяешь магазин и саму заправку. Мини игры занимательные, сюжет интригующий. И хотя все действия происходят локациях на десяти (а основные вообще на паре-тройке), играется всё это интересно, легко и непринужденно. Единственный момент, который вызвал некоторые затруднения - это получение трофеев/ачивок за прохождение. Тут несколько концовок и не совсем понятно, как к некоторым из них прийти. Но гайды в сети есть и если решите бить "платину", то с подсказками точно разберетесь. Разработчикам и самой Alawar - огромный респект! Жду что-то в похожем стиле, а может и сиквел/приквел (например, про исчезнувшего бывшего хозяина заправки).

While the game is pretty engaging in the first few hours, after a certain point you become stuck in managing all the tasks you have to fulfill for your customers while constantly being forced into dialogue with NPCs for a while until you reach late gane. All of these NPCs represent certain myths surrounding your location, neither of them being close to interesting (think Aliens, Big Foot and Military tests). The story is pieced together by note logs, the mentioned NPC dialogs and small dreams after ending a day. I felt getting more and more annoyed as those story bits would pull you out of the gameplay loop. The gameplay itself too is mediocre, as a job tycoon it is lacking any sort of depth and healthy progression. Both being overwhelmed by managing 5 tasks at once and just letting your character idle are part of said progression, but the switch happens just within a few gameplay hours. Before that point every new unlock feels more like a punishment because you'll need to man one more workstation. Every unlock after that feels meaningless, as you don't do much anymore anyway. The characters and their motivations are just so damn shallow, even the protagonist. No backstory or explanation on their motivation to run a gas station. She gets told multiple times to not leave the gas station at night. SHE DOES IT TWO DOZEN TIMES. And after every supernatural encounter she says: "Wow, I really should stay inside" and goes out again the next night. Funnily enough with all characters being so shallow and uninteresting, two of these characters have a hatred for electric cars because they are so bad for the environment due to them burning more tires and using rare metals dug out of mines by children. It is so weird that many NPCs stay so vague and superficial, but these two have literal minutes of uninterupted dialog on why electric cars are bad. This honestly feels like a personal vandetta of the dev being sprinkled into his game. All updates being released right now are just consisting of collectables in form of fishing and photografing cars. Neither of these take any skill and are purely dictated by luck. This just exists to atleast somewhat fill the completely empty late game.

The Last Gas Station — это прям тот случай, когда «простая заправка» оказывается круче, чем кажется на первый взгляд. Alawar снова подкинули свой фирменный уют: картинка приятная, глаз радуется, а ты уже через пять минут чувствуешь себя настоящим хозяином станции — будто всю жизнь только этим и занимался 😄. Тут тебе и магазин, и рыбалка, и фотоохота — будто собрали все «расслабон-активности», чтобы ты мог и делом заняться, и душой отдохнуть. А поверх всего этого накинули сюжет — и не какой‑нибудь проходной, а с интригой и несколькими концовками. Так что даже когда просто полки расставляешь, всё равно будто в большую историю вплетаешься. Платину я выбил с удовольствием — было прям в кайф закрывать достижения. Правда, ближе к финалу игра будто решила: «А давай-ка мы его ещё немножко пофармить заставим». Рыбалка и фотоохота в этот момент начинают смотреть на тебя с намёком: «Ну ещё разок, ну пожалуйста…» 😅 И вроде понимаешь, что это механика, а всё равно иногда хочется сказать: «Я не рыбак, я бизнесмен!» Но даже с этой лёгкой «душноватостью» в конце игра остаётся очень душевной. Плюс отдельный респект за то, что её до сих пор обновляют — значит, разработчики реально болеют за своё детище. Если хочется чего‑то уютного, но чтобы не просто «кликай и смотри», а с историей и смыслом — советую смело брать. Гарантирую: пару вечеров точно незаметно пролетят! 😎 (Проходил на Steam Deck, все в кайф)