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About

"Last Year" is a horror strategy game that offers both single-player and multiplayer modes, allowing 2-6 players to cooperate or compete as Classmates or Fiends. The game features splendid visuals and delightful gameplay inspired by classic horror stories, but is missing some optimization and has several bugs. Players must work together to survive against Fiends in a nightmarish copy of their hometown and unlock powerful abilities through Arcane Secrets.

Last Year screenshot
Last Year screenshot
Last Year screenshot
Last Year screenshot
Last Year screenshot
Last Year screenshot

62%
Audience ScoreBased on 10,085 reviews
gameplay318 positive mentions
optimization74 negative mentions

  • The graphics and sound effects create an impressive and terrifying atmosphere, enhancing the overall gameplay experience.
  • The gameplay mechanics are engaging and fun, especially in a group setting, drawing comparisons to popular titles in the genre.
  • The humor and chaotic interactions during gameplay provide a lighthearted and entertaining experience for players.
  • The game suffers from significant optimization issues, leading to frequent performance problems such as lag and frame drops, even on high-end systems.
  • Many players find the grinding aspect tedious and unfun, requiring excessive time investment to unlock essential perks.
  • The lack of depth in the story and character development has left players feeling disappointed and desiring more content.
  • gameplay
    914 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay of "Last Year" is characterized by its unique mechanics and engaging atmosphere, drawing comparisons to titles like "Dead by Daylight" and "Left 4 Dead." While many players find the gameplay fun and rewarding, especially in a group setting, there are significant concerns regarding balance, bugs, and optimization, which can lead to frustrating experiences. Overall, the game shows potential but requires further refinement and a more robust player base to fully realize its capabilities.

    • “The game's atmosphere and mechanics make it a standout in the genre, and it's definitely worth checking out if you enjoy this type of gameplay.”
    • “The gameplay is exciting, and the graphics are fantastic.”
    • “The gameplay is fun and simple with a skill gap that can be mastered.”
    • “The overall mechanics of the game feel slow and unresponsive, making it one of the worst movement games I've ever played.”
    • “There is literally no counterplay to certain mechanics in the game whatsoever.”
    • “The gameplay is clunky and not very interactive, and as a 1v5, it's very biased to the killer.”
  • graphics
    390 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of the game have received a mixed reception, with many players praising their quality and aesthetic appeal, often highlighting the impressive detail and atmosphere they create. However, several users have reported performance issues, including lag and frame drops, particularly on lower-end systems, which detracts from the overall experience. While the visuals are generally considered a strong point, the game's optimization and player base issues have led to some disappointment among players.

    • “The graphics are amazing and the sound effects create a terrifying atmosphere.”
    • “I feel like I am playing in real life; great graphics and great gameplay. I love the style of this game!”
    • “The graphics are phenomenal, some of the best in the market for a horror game.”
    • “The graphics in my short playtime were depressing.”
    • “Also, the game is poorly optimized; even on the lowest graphics settings on an RTX 4090, I experience minor frame drops and stutter.”
    • “The graphics are a joke; all settings on high still result in blurry, almost unrecognizable textures, and putting the game to ultra causes stuttering.”
  • optimization
    258 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's optimization has received overwhelmingly negative feedback, with players reporting frequent frame drops, lag spikes, and overall poor performance even on high-end systems. Many users express frustration over the lack of improvements despite ongoing updates, indicating that the game feels unpolished and akin to a beta release. While some patches have shown progress, significant optimization issues remain, making the game difficult to recommend in its current state.

    • “Runs smoothly even on the worst modern systems.”
    • “I will also quickly say that the performance is quite good with only minor frame drops at times.”
    • “Glad to see already some changes and major optimization!”
    • “This game needs some serious optimizations.”
    • “The game's optimization is absolutely abysmal with GPU and CPU usage exploding just from being in the lobby alone.”
    • “The game has terrible optimization issues that result in random frame rate drops.”
  • stability
    226 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's stability is a significant concern among players, with many reporting frequent bugs, glitches, and performance issues that can disrupt gameplay. While some users find the game enjoyable despite these problems, the overall consensus is that it requires substantial improvements and patches to enhance stability and balance. Many reviews highlight that the game's current state is too buggy for a seamless experience, making it challenging to recommend without reservations.

    • “Game runs great at a solid 200 fps.”
    • “Runs great and I have so much fun with my friends!”
    • “They do weekly dev streams and constantly put out updates and patches to ensure the game is fun and bug-free for everyone.”
    • “It's incredibly buggy and most maps cause huge lag.”
    • “A buggy, messy excuse of a game, would not play it even if it would become free to play.”
    • “This game is not only still a buggy and barely playable mess, it somehow feels so much worse and unbalanced now than before on the discord store.”
  • humor
    120 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is widely praised, with players highlighting its ability to generate laughter through chaotic gameplay and funny interactions, especially when playing with friends. Many reviews mention hilarious moments, such as unexpected deaths and amusing character dialogues, which contribute to a lighthearted atmosphere despite the game's horror elements. Overall, the game's comedic aspects are seen as a significant draw, making it enjoyable and entertaining for players.

    • “It is an amazing fun game that always has me and my friends laughing.”
    • “The level designs are great, the killers are fun, and being able to gang up with your friend on the killer when he is bad and just beat him to death can be funny as hell.”
    • “The game puts a funny spin on scary situations.”
    • “This game is the biggest joke since Dead by Daylight; though jokes are supposed to be funny, I'm so lost... I thought that was pretty hard to beat.”
  • atmosphere
    80 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's atmosphere is a significant highlight, with many players praising its engaging and immersive qualities, enhanced by impressive graphics and sound effects that create a spooky and tense environment. While some maps and elements have been criticized for lacking inspiration, the overall design and mechanics contribute to a unique and enjoyable experience, particularly for fans of horror and cooperative gameplay. However, there are mixed opinions, with a few players feeling that the atmosphere could benefit from more content and refinement.

    • “The game has amazing graphics and sound effects that create a terrifying atmosphere.”
    • “The atmosphere and mood of the game is excellent.”
    • “The game's atmosphere and mechanics make it a standout in the genre, and it's definitely worth checking out if you enjoy this type of gameplay.”
    • “It's kind of boring, to be honest; there's not really any atmosphere.”
    • “- uninspired map and I can't really see how they think this is bringing the atmosphere of the 80s.”
    • “Every map looks worse and the atmosphere has been ruined.”
  • story
    72 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's story aspect is largely criticized for its lack of depth and engagement, with many players noting that it feels non-existent or poorly developed. While some appreciate the potential for a larger narrative, they express a desire for more lore and context to enhance the gameplay experience. Overall, the consensus is that the game would benefit significantly from a more robust story element to complement its mechanics.

    • “Maps that significantly vary in style coupled with the different story-driven objectives for each and the in-game crafting system for items make for a very fun replayable experience!”
    • “This game has a really cool story, born as a Discord exclusive, this game is now here on Steam.”
    • “My only faults with the game that aren't balance-based come from a lack of lore in the game. I'm a big sucker for lore, especially around supernatural games, and I think a nice injection of story would be nice. Who are these kids?”
    • “✅ no story”
    • “The "story arc" of each match, if you will, doesn't feel satisfying.”
    • “My only faults with the game that aren't balanced based come from a lack of lore in the game. I'm a big sucker for lore, especially around supernatural games, and I think a nice injection of story would be nice. Who are these kids?”
  • monetization
    72 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The monetization strategy of the game has drawn significant criticism, with many reviewers labeling it a "cash grab" due to the introduction of microtransactions, including a premium currency, despite the game being initially free. While some players appreciate that current microtransactions are limited to cosmetics, concerns persist about the potential for exploitative practices and a lack of meaningful content updates. Overall, the game's monetization approach has contributed to a negative perception, with calls for better advertising and a focus on improving gameplay rather than prioritizing profit.

    • “Since it's free and the only microtransactions are cosmetics, at the time of writing this review, there's no reason to not try it out.”
    • “As it currently stands, unless I have yet to find them, there are no microtransactions in the game, even for cosmetics.”
    • “There seems to be no microtransactions, no in-game currency that costs real money; everything in the game must be earned through actually playing it, which is absolutely amazing and rare to see in video games nowadays.”
    • “The devs don't know what the hell they're doing, and they're trying to pay it off with microtransactions.”
    • “Until they fix this mess (highly unlikely as they have found microtransactions), I can't recommend this pile of dung.”
    • “Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this game because I believe it is a cash grab.”
  • replayability
    36 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Overall, the game's replayability is mixed among users. While some praise the variety in maps, story-driven objectives, and character choices that enhance replay value, others criticize the lack of content and progression systems, leading to repetitive gameplay. The introduction of new features and improvements has increased replayability for some, but many still feel it falls short compared to other titles in the genre.

    • “Maps that significantly vary in style coupled with the different story-driven objectives for each and the in-game crafting system for items make for a very fun replayable experience!”
    • “A fun game with a lot of replayability, with an assortment of students and fiends to choose from (more coming in the future), I'd say it's definitely worth its price.”
    • “Pros: tons of replayability with each round feeling different than the last since every fiend and survivor play differently, and with the different spell and item combos, games can go fast or slow depending on what happens, which adds excitement.”
    • “There is barely any replay value here if at all despite being L4D2 versus.”
    • “The game was quite enjoyable at the beginning as it's kind of like Dead by Daylight meets Left 4 Dead; however, the lack of content made replayability limited as the objectives are always the same, it all falls down on how good the slasher is.”
    • “With a lack of content and any sort of progression system, it left little replayability.”
  • music
    34 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players finding it catchy and well-executed, enhancing the overall experience, while others criticize it as repetitive or annoying. The sound design, including voice acting, is noted for its comedic elements, but there are complaints about intrusive background noises during gameplay. Overall, while the soundtrack shows potential, it seems to lack consistency and polish, leading to a divided player response.

    • “The sound effects and music also add to the overall experience of the game.”
    • “The soundtrack is beautiful.”
    • “Music is instantly catchy without being annoying and the sound overall is high level.”
    • “So while you wait for a match to start, you may hear constant typing noises, music playing in other players' homes, and even conversations they're having with someone else without knowing the whole lobby can hear them.”
    • “🔲 just filling noises/no music”
    • “The voice acting is goofy and comical, and the music can be a bit nerve-wracking at times, which is great since it keeps you on your toes at all times, especially when it's time to escape the level.”
  • grinding
    32 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players overwhelmingly criticize the grinding aspect of the game, describing it as tedious, unfun, and requiring excessive time investment (8-12 hours) to unlock essential perks, which can make certain classes unplayable. Many feel that the grind lacks meaningful progression and variety, often leading to frustration and a sense of futility, with some suggesting that the game seems designed to push microtransactions instead. Overall, the grinding experience is seen as a major detractor from the game's enjoyment.

    • “Obnoxious and unfun grind, tedious tasks where you need to spend upwards of 8-12 hours just to unlock a specific perk you want for your build, some of which are literally required or your class is unplayable (medic needing healing hands, for example).”
    • “There's very little progression and it's extremely grindy.”
    • “If I were to describe the game in a couple of words, it would have to be tedious and unsatisfying.”
  • character development
    16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Character development in the game is highlighted by impressive character designs and visuals, which enhance the overall experience. Players appreciate the potential for growth through a diverse perk tree that allows for varied character progression based on class selection. However, there is a call for ongoing updates and new content to maintain engagement and keep the character development fresh.

    • “Awesome visuals and great character development.”
    • “Also, the promise or perk tree promises to be interesting; it gives many possibilities for character development depending on the class we choose.”
    • “The graphics are great and the character designs look perfect as well!”
  • emotional
    10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The emotional response to the game is largely negative, with users expressing disappointment over its decline despite recognizing the creative potential behind it. The sentiment reflects a sense of heartbreak and frustration, as players feel let down by the game's current state and advise others to avoid it.

    • “This game had such creative minds behind the scenes and it is so heartbreaking to see the fall of this game.”

Buy Last Year

6h Median play time
36h Average play time
3-30h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 46 analyzed playthroughs

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