The Final Station

The Final Station is a video game where you play a train conductor. You find yourself in the middle of an alien invasion; what one would call an unfortunate situation.

The game is a side-scrolling 2D shooter with the goal of clearing the level so as to move on to the next level. You clear a level by finding a piece of paper with a code on it; you then input the code into a machine that lets you progress^A). During the levels, you can pick up food, medkits, ammunition, and money. Medkits are used to heal yourself and passengers and food is used to feed passengers only. Money can be traded for more supplies or weapon upgrades. In-between each level - which are called stations, by the way - you have to maintain the train to make sure it doesn’t explode.
I originally described the gameplay as ‘fun at first, but grows tedious fast’; after replaying the game, I have slightly different thoughts. What the player does for most of the game - exploring each level to find the code and supplies - is, while basic, quite good actually. I found the in-between bits most frustrating. The issue there is a combination of repetitive tasks (maintaining the train) and information overload: you have the backgrounds (and foregrounds…) giving a little information; you have passengers talking amongst themselves and to you; you have messages coming in from co-workers. If the repetitive tasks were removed (which includes having to feed and heal the passengers), and it was purely a way to get story, then it would be fine.
What really elevates the game, however, is the atmosphere. The music and visuals contribute to it especially. You really get the feeling the world is ending.
As far as story is concerned: I think the game has an average story, with the DLC having a better one; the backstory and worldbuilding is quite good. The issue with the main game’s story is that the conductor (who the player controls) doesn’t talk…or, rather, he does talk, but the player doesn’t hear him. This comes off as a half-assed attempt to create a silent protagonist, and leads to a disconnect between the player and the player character. This disconnect is felt most after the conductor decides to leave Metropol, and the player doesn’t know why. The game here is failing to properly communicate important information about the conductor…which is necessary if he’s going to be half-silent. This doesn’t apply to the DLC, where the player character does talk, and the player can hear him^B). The silence of the conductor is probably what makes the story so confusing - the player simply has no idea why they’re going where they’re going at the end of the game, until they get there.
The DLC’s story is extremely simple - the player character is trying to get to a shelter. This is why I say the DLC has a better story…because it’s much simpler than the main game’s, but there’s also far less happening. The DLC also has the bonus of answering a few questions raised during the main game.
I stated that the backstory and worldbuilding is quite good, and I think it’s one of the highlights of the game. Similar to many a soulslike, the backstory is mostly fed to you through disconnected notes and the environment. This encourages exploration, and makes the player think about what exactly’s going on. Besides notes, though, the other main source of information are the passengers…and good luck listening to them while you do everything else on the train! The DLC fixes this one problem by having the in-between bits serve as just a way to craft and listen to the characters speak. Consequently, a player gets more out of each playthrough of the DLC than of the main game - as far as story is concerned.
I have a few more issues with the gameplay, but I’ll note them in the gameplay section instead.

The Final Station features three kinds of guns - handgun, shotgun and rifle. The rifle serves as an upgrade to the handgun. The handgun/rifle is weaker than the shotgun, but it can hold more ammo and it’s more accurate. Interestingly though, the shotgun is not well suited for the armored infected.
Over the course of the game you can get upgrades for the handgun and shotgun.
Frustratingly, the rifle doesn’t come with any of the upgrades that the handgun gets, which makes the rifle more of a downgrade than an upgrade. The rifle is slightly stronger than the standard handgun…but weaker than an upgraded one.
The DLC has just one gun - a revolver. Although I think it’s equal to the first game’s handgun.
Besides guns, the main game allows you to punch zombies, or smack them with your shotgun/rifle. The shotgun/rifle has a higher range and does slightly more damage than just a regular punch. The DLC has the player character use a bat, which is equivalent to the shotgun/rifle.

You don’t have to worry about saving ammunition, because there’s plenty of it during the game - although you shouldn’t be cavalier about it either. Most zombies can actually be killed with mêlée attacks without taking any damage, so learn to figure out how to fight in this way.

The lore is not as difficult to understand as it may at first appear. It’s certainly different from Evangelion, where it’s not always easy to figure things out. My initial impression was that The Final Station was written to be intentionally mysterious…but I don’t think that’s true after my playthrough. So this is just me saying it’s easier to figure out than Evangelion^C). However, the easiest to figure out was Ender Lilies. All the notes there fit too neatly together.

This is basically a summary of the backstory and the story of the game and the DLC. Note that this is probably not perfect. Also, spoilers are unmarked here (which includes the footnotes).

Some time around 1953 aliens invaded the Earth - this event was called the First Visitation. The results of the First Visitation was a destruction of most of the planet (presumably) and the displacement of a large group of people, and an almost complete destruction of the country the game takes place in^D).
One man, Vermond White, a survivor of the First Visitation^E), took the reigns of the country and began rebuilding it. To help him achieve this, he forms the Council. Publicly, members of the council are said to be some of the brightest minds in the country…but the truth is a little confusing. Each member of the council, bar Vermond, used a fake name in public and they were all criminals. It’s speculated in-game that this was Vermond trying to rebuild ‘at any cost’, but it still isn’t completely clear what was up.
During the rebuilding process, a number of refugees and migrants flood into the country from abroad - they’re later identified as settlers, and are generally disliked by most in the country.\
As the rebuilding continues, and Vermond starts preparing for the Second Visitation, he goes missing - which is as much as the public knows. In reality, the council had apparently joined together and secretly imprisoned him, betraying his plan to save humanity^F). This particular bit is confusing, so I’ll lay out the details and then offer my own speculah.
The name of the DLC - ‘The Only Traitor’ - refers to the Hunter, who is identified as ‘Arthur Vane’ in the DLC. Vane was a member of the council, but his label of ‘The Only Traitor’ raises some questions. If he was the only traitor of the council to betray Vermond’s plan, then why is there evidence to suggest the council collectively imprisoned him. Well, the likely answer is that most of the council was in favor of Vermond’s plan, and labelled him as a traitor. Vane then, somehow, convinced the council, at some point, to betray Vermond. There is also the alternate option (and it’s quite weird): Vane betrayed the council and Vermond, but the council didn’t side with him, and betrayed Vermond individually. This is likely what actually happened, because the First Council (referring to the one headed and assembled by Vermond White) is stated to have been successful at delaying the First Visitation, and at preparing for the Second…which couldn’t have been possible if they had already sided with Arthur Vane.
Anyways, Vermond is thrown into a prison cell, where he gets tortured and eventually dies. Before this occurs, however, he gets into contact with the son of one of the council members - Adam Thornton. Adam Thornton ends up as the only member of the Council still loyal to Vermond’s original plan.
Presumably following the Council’s betrayal (but before they throw Vermond into prison…if such a period of time existed), a settler proves himself to be scientifically gifted in the laboratories of the Strugatsky Brothers^G), where he studied under them before (presumably) surpassing them. He gets labelled as ‘The Blacksmith’ and eventually gets assigned to work on the Guardian - another plan by Vermond White to help save humanity. The Guardian being a giant robot
Besides the Blacksmith, another man steps in to help in the plan, and he gets labelled as ‘The Architect’. The Architect’s job was to plan the city of Metropol, which was to be built around the guardian, and to design and construct the walls surrounding Metropol…which would render the city safe from the aliens. While he performs this job quite dutifully, he ends up falling out of favor of the Second Council^H), and the construction of the walls keeps getting delayed. He then gets fed up with the situation and leaves, but the Council keeps spying on him^I). The Blacksmith continues working on the Guardian.
The Second Council is, by this point, working against the interests of humanity, and directly against the plans of Vermond White. This is because Armand White was approached by Arthur Vane, who convinced/tricked him into cooperating with the aliens. Vermond White had tasked Adam Thornton with preventing this meeting from ever occurring, but he failed.
By this point, several years have passed^J), and most veterans of the First Visitation are now over a hundred years old. The Council is now continually (but still secretly) sabotaging efforts to prepare for the Second Visitation. This includes demilitarizing(!), building shoddy bunkers, delaying Guardian and Wall construction, etc. The only people still actively working towards the original plans are Adam Thornton, The Blacksmith, The Architect (technically) and those working for the three of them.
An extremist religious group appeared as well…and they were likely founded by someone who knew about the details of the next visitation. Their goal is to find a way to not turn into zombies^K).
The Blacksmith also invented a new experimental type of train, which is, in reality, some kind of strange nightmare creature.

The Conductor wakes up just before the Second Visitation begins. As this is a summary of the game’s story (with important details filled in), I’ll skip over describing it intricately.
The Conductor is first tasked with testing out an experimental train designed by the Blacksmith but, over the course of the game, is given other tasks - only because his train is nuclear, and consequently the only train still functioning in the entire country by the mid-point of the game.
The Conductor is, inexplicably, central to the plans of Arthur Vane…to the point that Vane wants him dead, but can’t kill him directly until the end of the game.
The Conductor finds himself helping with the completion of the Guardian, by transporting the necessary pieces to Metropol. This is probably why Vane is so obsessed with stopping the Conductor…because the Conductor is, unbeknownst to himself, helping with Vermond White’s original plan.
Adam Thornton is also still trying to resist, but ends up giving up at some point, for reasons unknown. Although he does still seem to be himself after he’s reborn.
The DLC’s main character is moving around at roughly the same time as the Conductor. For most of the game, he’s slightly behind him (seeing the aftermath of attacks that occur just after the Conductor leaves), before getting ahead of him sometime near the end of the DLC.
The Second Visitation goes very badly for humanity, which retreats into the shelters. Those that don’t turn, but get reborn, go back to their normal day-to-day lives, however, preparing for a portal to open to the alien world.
The DLC character runs into the extremist religious group, where he finds they’re experimenting with survivors to figure out how to be reborn…instead of ending up as a zombie. He eventually gets found out as ‘not a part of the group’…forgot to mention that he snuck in, pretending to be a new member…where he’s promptly saved by Arthur Vane. After going through some flashbacks, Arthur Vane tasks the DLC character with murdering the Conductor, promising to send him to a shelter afterwards. Apparently, Vane didn’t consider the Conductor would offer to bring the DLC character to the shelter the second he saw him…so the Conductor stays alive.
It’s unclear just how much of Arthur Vane’s plans were disrupted by the Conductor, although it’s presumably a lot.

This is basically all I can conclusively say with the information currently available. It’s possible another game in the series will give me more to work with but, until then, that’s that.

Originally, I hadn’t noticed this until my first rewatch of Evangelion^L) and a little thinking about the game.
I can’t tell if the similarities are coincidence or not, although I’m more likely to lean into it being a coincidence, or passive influence^M). The most striking similarities, to me, were in the artbook.

• Official site
• MobyGames entry
• I may be one of the few left who cares about this game, but damnit, the atmosphere is interesting!
• If you wanted to read the conversations from The Only Traitor, but you didn’t want to bother playing the game over and over again, I recommend watching this video.