Video Game Review - The Last Worker

Rob reviews The Last Worker on PlayStation 5…

Simulation games are now quite a common thing. Gone are the days of the simple flight sim, and now we have the likes of Lawnmower Simulator, House Flipper, Power Wash Simulator, and many more. One profession that hasn’t made its way to video game format is the humble shelf picker. You know, those hidden in the jungle of the warehouse making sure that our boxes of online shopping get to us on time while their companies owner pretends to play Star Trek with William Shatner. 

Anyway, while The Last Worker isn’t a true simulation title, it is based around the thankless work of a online order fulfilment worker. In fact your the last worker left in the thriving economy that’s Jüngle. Clearly a play on the retailers Amazon and IKEA, Jüngle is an online shopping portal that’s reach is world wide. Inside the mass warehouses it’s a dog eat dog world as employees fight for their jobs against each other, and a world that’s becoming more automated. As the last surviving human worker, you’ll be up against order fulfilment, while uncovering a deeper mystery at play. 

The Last Worker is a game that initially hooked me. As a retail worker myself, the parody of Jüngle against real-world retailers was a interesting concept. The satire resonated with me, and it did well to show the employee vs employee nature that comes with “some” jobs. However, across its criminally short runtime, this satire doesn’t really get of the ground. Come the midway point to the adventure and it was hard to see what direction the game was ultimately going in to. Was it to become a true simulation game where you had to meet strict targets to proceed? Or was it simply a narrative adventure across a satire filled world? 

Well, the answer is really the former with a little sprinkle of the latter. While the story does portray Jüngle and it’s hideously creepy CEO as a pretty shit place to work, you’re never give the option of free will. If you don’t follow orders you’ll get fired, which is essentially a polite way of saying “Game Over!”, and if you do follow orders, well you’re then on the way to finishing the game. There’s no option to stick it to Jüngle and partake in corporate sabotage, or refuse to do anything and bring the whole system crumbling to a halt. 

Complimenting the sale of the narrative to you is a great roster of talent. Main character Kurt is voiced by Olafur Darri Olafsson, while his insufferable robot companion Skew is portrayed by Jason Issacs. Elsewhere, Clare-Hope Ashitey lends her talents to the mysterious Hoverbird, with David Hewlett rounding off the cast as the Jüngle CEO. With such a high calibre of the voice cast, it comes as no surprise that it’s this talent that really elevates the story being told. The timing of Skew’s quips quite often brought a smirk to my face, and Hewlett’s reactions as the face of Jüngle really sold the corporate entities dog-eat-dog mentality. Meanwhile Olafsson, Issacs, and Ashitey all played off each other really well, and the scenes which featured all three of them were exceptional. 

Turning to the overall gameplay and its rather neat. If The Last Worker was morphed into a true simulation spin off, it’s a mundane world I’d certainly spend hours in - and I didn’t play it in VR. As you can image, the warehouse of the future is an intricate network of rooms that are all designed to facilitate online shopping. From the main stock rooms that are floor to ceiling with stacked shelves, to maintenance corridors, employee quarters (which is literally the garbage disposal area), the atmosphere is portrayed extremely well. Traversal within this world is performed via a vehicle which allows you to quickly travel between these rooms and the miles of shelves. Utilising the DualSense controller you’ll be able to scoot about with relative ease, collecting orders, and out manoeuvring security bots.  Elsewhere and your fellow is then given extra tools to assess weight, and type of the package, while you manually check it against the inventory list. It’s execution is incredibly simple, and really reminded me of Hardspace: Ship Breaker (check out my Rapid Reviews UK review here). It’s mundane, but incredibly relaxing. 

Overall and The Last Worker is an interesting title that delves into the overlooked world of order fulfilment. It’s humour and satire poke fun at the world of big business corporations, yet also filters down to many high-street retailers too. While it’s narrative is a little on the linear side, the stellar voice cast more than makes up for it. If you’ve got an afternoon spare, or just want to experience the thrills of online order fulfilment in an increasing automated world, then The Last Worker is highly recommended. 

Rating: 8/10

A code was kindly provided for the purposes of this review. 

The Lasg Worker is available now can can be purchased from the PlayStation Store. 

This review does not include views taken from playing in VR. 

Liked this review and want to support the blog further? Please head on over to: Ko-Fi.com/GeekCultureRev. Thank you for your time!

Rob Lake - For more comic book and video game chat why not follow us on Twitter/Facebook @GeekCultureRev, and TikTok/YouTube @Geekculturereviews.