The Last Haven
- February 17, 2023
- Thunder Devs.
- 5h median play time
Get on Steam"The Last Haven" is a post-apocalyptic survival game set in a world devastated by nuclear war. As the leader of a settlement, you must provide for your people's basic needs, manage resources, and maintain morale while dealing with challenges such as low temperatures, radiation, and potential attacks from marauders. Your decisions and management skills will determine the survival of your people in this harsh environment.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game has a unique blend of city building, resource management, and RTS elements, making it engaging and fun.
- The developer is very active in updating the game and responding to community feedback, showing commitment to improvement.
- The graphics and sound design are appealing, contributing to an immersive post-apocalyptic atmosphere.
- The game suffers from numerous bugs and AI issues, leading to frustrating gameplay experiences.
- Resource management is unbalanced, with players often running out of essential supplies too quickly, especially during winter.
- There is a lack of clear instructions and tutorials, making it difficult for new players to understand game mechanics and controls.
- gameplay180 mentions
- 24 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 12 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players highlighting significant bugs, poor mechanics, and a lack of intuitive controls that detract from the overall experience. While some find the core mechanics interesting and addictive, others criticize the game for feeling unbalanced, repetitive, and lacking essential tutorials or explanations. Overall, players express hope for future improvements, but many recommend waiting until the game is more polished before purchasing.
“The gameplay mechanics are intuitive, offering a balance for both seasoned strategy veterans and newcomers to the genre.”
“There is a lot of interesting mechanics introduced and fun to play, as far as it is working at the moment.”
“An excellent game, the gameplay is quite simple, construction, research, and extraction of resources will definitely not get boring; it is immediately clear that this is not just a simulator without a goal and plot.”
“It is riddled with confusing, questionable, and sometimes downright broken systems and mechanics and frankly feels like an early access game in very early development despite getting a full release over 2 years ago and having about a dozen updates since then.”
“I can't recommend this game at the current state, a lot of bugs that make the game unplayable, duplication bugs, game is not saving properly and some stuff that you build disappears after reloading the game, game events don't trigger properly and you have to reload your game so events trigger again.”
“The mechanics in this game need a serious overhaul.”
- graphics64 mentions
- 53 % positive mentions
- 41 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
Overall, the graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many players appreciating the art style, color palette, and aesthetic appeal. While some describe the graphics as beautiful and well-designed, others criticize them as buggy or lacking polish, suggesting that improvements could be made in future iterations. Despite these criticisms, the graphics are generally considered decent for an early access title, contributing positively to the overall gameplay experience.
“For an early access game, the graphics are good and gameplay is lots of fun.”
“A wonderful base building/RTS game, though walls and such can be made a little bit cheaper. Other than that, the developer is always active and releases new stuff often. The graphics are beautiful, sounds are good, it's just a nice little game, totally worth buying!”
“Great graphics, user-friendly interface, this game does not let me get bored.”
“Buggy, crappy mechanics, poor graphic design.”
“The graphics are meh, the combat is pretty bad, the research is slow.”
“I can't make a base which feels aesthetically pleasing, and I can't build one which is mechanically efficient.”
- stability46 mentions
- 9 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 91 % negative mentions
The game is widely criticized for its significant stability issues, with players reporting numerous bugs, glitches, and unfinished mechanics that hinder gameplay. While some find it enjoyable and see potential, many recommend against purchasing it until substantial improvements are made, as it currently feels janky and unpolished. Despite active developer engagement, the overall sentiment is that the game requires considerable work to reach a stable and enjoyable state.
“Even in early access, this game is smooth, basically bug-free, and is fun to play.”
“It's certainly not too buggy that it's unplayable in its current state, and the game is fun to play.”
“Do not buy this game, it's buggy, feels unfinished and repetitive.”
“The game is good and addictive, but way too buggy, not certain if it will be patched or not in the future, so I asked for a refund.”
“I would not recommend getting this game now; it needs a lot of work, glitches, and just general gameplay mechanics like using too much wood and coal through winter, making it impossible to do anything.”
- story34 mentions
- 6 % positive mentions
- 82 % neutral mentions
- 12 % negative mentions
The game's story is largely criticized for its lack of depth and clarity, with many players noting that it feels more like a survival experience than a narrative-driven game. While there are hints of a post-apocalyptic setting following a nuclear holocaust, the missions often lack meaningful objectives, leaving players feeling unfulfilled. Overall, there is a strong desire for more story elements and better integration of narrative into gameplay to enhance the experience.
“At some point, the game introduces a new story element (you will be extorted), but at that point, you are already halfway to your knees.”
“- a fascinating storyline, the ability to search for resources.”
“There isn't much of a storyline except that the world underwent a nuclear holocaust and you're trying to survive the brutal winter in northern Russia.”
“At some point the game introduces a new story element (you will be extorted), but at that point you are already halfway to your knees.”
“I hope that there could be perhaps more story elements and objectives.”
- music28 mentions
- 14 % positive mentions
- 71 % neutral mentions
- 14 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some praising the ambient tracks for enhancing the overall experience, while others criticize the repetitive nature and inappropriate genre choices that clash with the game's atmosphere. Additionally, users express frustration over the ineffective volume control, which lacks proper separation for music and sound effects, making it difficult to adjust the audio levels. Overall, while the soundtrack has its merits, it also highlights significant areas for improvement.
“After jumping in, I first noticed the art style which grew on me the more I played, and also the ambient music tracks made playing a very enjoyable experience.”
“In this game, the picture and soundtracks are too well combined, leaving in constant tension and keeping in a kind of atmosphere.”
“The music is fantastic, the ambience is amazing and the game is in good alpha stage so far from what I can tell!”
“Lastly, the music is repetitive and the voices are accented (though still English) and reminds me of another fairly poor game I have.”
“The single volume slider (not separated into SFX, ambient, music, etc.) does not function correctly: the lowest possible setting is hardly any different from the normal volume, which also means that the game cannot be muted in the options menu.”
“The developer chose an awkward music solution, heavily dependent on royalty-free romantic genre.”
- replayability18 mentions
- 11 % positive mentions
- 72 % neutral mentions
- 17 % negative mentions
The game's replayability is a significant concern among users, with many noting that the lack of variety, such as only having one map and repetitive challenges, diminishes its longevity. While some believe that harder levels could enhance replay value, the absence of gameplay beyond a certain point (winter) is seen as a major drawback. Improvements in game mechanics and map diversity could potentially increase replayability, but as it stands, many players find it lacking.
“I can see this game has a lot of replayability, especially on harder levels.”
“Biggest con for me is replayability as there is only one map and I like variety and change.”
“From what I know, there is no gameplay after winter ends; that is simply where the game ends, which in my opinion removes all replayability.”
“The typical problem with these types of games is they don't have any replay value because the challenges are so repetitive.”
“If these issues could be fixed, and even if you could provide larger maps to explore, with more items in those buildings to find, it would really help keep the game's longevity and replay value.”
- optimization10 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 30 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is praised for its smooth performance across various PC configurations, allowing for an immersive experience without significant technical issues. However, there are concerns regarding the need for further optimization to reduce resource usage and issues with soldiers' navigation and combat performance.
“The game runs smoothly on a variety of PC configurations, ensuring that players can enjoy the immersive experience without being hindered by technical issues.”
“Just needs some optimization to bring down that usage.”
“However, there is another problem involved: soldiers now have problems in finding their way automatically, and their combat performance does not have much sense of operation.”
“The last haven also excels in its attention to optimization and performance.”
- grinding8 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious and slow, with many expressing frustration over the repetitive nature of resource gathering and the limited exploration of the map. The focus on single lines of dialogue during events adds to the irritation, making it difficult to progress and enjoy the gameplay. Overall, the grinding experience detracts from the game's enjoyment and pacing.
“The game is too slow in my opinion; the fact that every single event makes you focus your camera on a single line of dialogue is tedious and irritating.”
“I spend an entire evening grinding to make a frigging tank.”
“The portion of the map you do have access to gets explored insanely quickly, leaving you just grinding out resources and research.”
- humor8 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is noted as both amusing and addictive, particularly in its strategy and survival elements, with players finding humor in unexpected situations, such as empty colonies and rival factions clashing. However, some players also highlight a disconnect between the developer's claims of community engagement and their actual responses to feedback, adding a layer of irony to the experience. Overall, the humor contributes positively to the game's enjoyment, despite its technical issues.
“Very funny and addictive for a strategy/survival game; you have to try lots of different strategies to survive!”
“It was funny to see my colony empty (0 people) but different enemy factions fighting each other in my base.”
“Which is kind of funny because it's a fun game and would be much better than many other games if it weren't so broken.”
- atmosphere6 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- -17 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is praised for its effective combination of visuals and soundtracks, creating a tense and immersive experience, particularly in its post-apocalyptic setting. However, some users feel that the visual atmosphere was superior in earlier versions of the game. Overall, the atmosphere contributes significantly to the game's appeal, enhancing the combat experience.
“Lots of combat, great post-apocalyptic atmosphere.”
“In this game, the visuals and soundtracks are well combined, creating constant tension and a captivating atmosphere.”
“The visuals and soundtracks in this game create a constant tension, but it ultimately feels overwhelming and detracts from the overall atmosphere.”
“While the graphics and music are well integrated, they contribute to an atmosphere that feels more stressful than immersive.”
“The combination of visuals and audio is impressive, but it results in an atmosphere that is more exhausting than engaging.”
- emotional4 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game is praised for its emotional resonance, which, combined with its captivating world and strategic depth, makes it a standout title in its genre. Players find that the emotional elements significantly enhance their overall experience, making it a must-play.
“Its captivating world, strategic depth, and emotional resonance set it apart as a must-play for fans of the genre.”
- monetization4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Reviews indicate a strong dissatisfaction with the game's monetization strategy, labeling it as a "cash grab" and expressing concern that the lack of meaningful updates suggests a focus on profit over player experience.
“I'm sick to death of these half-assed cash grabs.”
“It's possible that they will stop making updates of substance and this is just a cash grab that they will let die.”
