The Last Hope

About

The Last Hope is a single player open world role playing shooter game with horror and historical themes. It was developed by Balti Calarasi and was released on August 29, 2016. It received negative reviews from players.

You are a scientist who was working on the development of a time machine. When the experiment began, a wormhole was formed and mankind and most of wildlife disappeared. Now you are humanity's last hope because you the last man alive. Your mission is to find the time machine. Therefore you will have to explore Russia, Germany, Norway, Egypt, U.S., Mars and the Moon. Use portals because these can te…

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38%

Audience ScoreBased on 355 reviews

story14 positive mentions

gameplay8 negative mentions

Ambitious and unique concept combining survival, exploration, and time travel across diverse locations and eras including Earth and space.
Variety of traversal methods including cars, boats, airplanes, rockets, and different gameplay activities such as fishing.
Soundtrack with region-specific music enhancing the atmosphere and cultural identity of each area.

Poor execution with clunky controls, bad optimization, frequent bugs, and technical issues leading to performance drops and crashes.
Uninteresting and repetitive gameplay consisting mostly of running/walking with minimal enemy interaction or meaningful survival mechanics.
Low-quality graphics, inconsistent visual design, poor animations, and numerous spelling/grammar errors in text and story presentation.

story
56 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
62%
13%
The game's story offers an ambitious, time-travel narrative spanning diverse settings, but many reviewers find it disjointed, clichéd, and poorly written, often marred by bad grammar and confusing translation. While some appreciate the creativity and unique premise, the story frequently lacks coherence and polish, detracting from the overall experience.
- “It promises a story that spans continents and centuries, taking players from the ruins of modern civilization to ancient worlds filled with dinosaurs and beyond to extraterrestrial landscapes.”
- “Such a deep and involving storyline truly a beautiful masterpiece with all of the right mechanics.”
- “This is a time travel story that delves deep into our cultures and has a lot to say about us as people, nations, and colors.”
- “The story makes no sense at all and it looks absolutely terrible.”
- “The plot is worse than anything coming from a fanfiction.”
- “The game is really really random with a nonsense storyline, one minute you're a scientist?”
gameplay
47 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
68%
17%
The gameplay of The Last Hope is widely criticized for being disjointed, underdeveloped, and lacking polish, with survival and time-travel mechanics failing to integrate into a cohesive or engaging experience. Many reviewers describe it as repetitive, clunky, and more of a walking simulator, with poor controls and frustrating transitions, despite the ambitious scope and variety of activities. While some praise certain elements like vehicle sections or responsiveness, the overall consensus is that gameplay is tedious, buggy, and ultimately unenjoyable.
- “The last hope, developed by Balti Calarasi and published by Handmade Games, is a peculiar and ambitious indie project that attempts to combine open-world exploration, survival mechanics, and time-travel adventure into a single sweeping experience.”
- “This global and interplanetary scope is underscored by the inclusion of vehicles such as cars, boats, airplanes, and rockets, which expand both traversal mechanics and the sense of scale.”
- “These mechanics intertwine with encounters against wildlife and other threats across each environment, giving players the constant challenge of balancing exploration with survival.”
- “The variety of activities on paper makes it sound like a sandbox without limits, yet in practice the mechanics feel loose and underdeveloped, more like a collage of ideas than a cohesive experience.”
- “The ambitious combination of survival mechanics, time-travel storytelling, and vehicle-based exploration may have resulted in a disjointed experience, where individual systems lack the refinement needed to work seamlessly together.”
- “If you manage to pass the Egypt level (push the lemon down to the tarmac to beat the Egypt level; yes, this is real advice because the developer forgot to tell you), the game literally transitions into a driving game with the worst mechanics I've ever had the displeasure of working with.”
graphics
29 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
45%
24%
Reviews of the game's graphics are highly mixed, with many criticizing outdated visuals, poor optimization, and frequent performance issues that lead to lag and frame drops. Some users find the environments dull or empty, while others praise certain visual elements like immersive weather effects and detailed crafting visuals, noting that a strong PC is often required for a good experience. Overall, the graphics are viewed as inconsistent, ranging from mediocre to surprisingly good depending on individual expectations and hardware.
- “Honestly great game with great music and sounds; the visuals are amazing and so real!”
- “The visuals are absolutely stunning; the weather and soundtrack are absolutely immersive, and the fabulously created crafting system enhances the experience.”
- “The game has good graphics, sounds, and music.”
- “The environments, though geographically diverse, often feel empty and disconnected, lacking the sense of purpose or design flow that ties them into a compelling world.”
- “Horrific graphics and optimization with frequent drops to 5-15 fps.”
- “Graphics are super outdated or look dull.”
music
21 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
33%
29%
The music in the game evokes mixed reactions, with some praising its region-specific, culturally immersive soundtracks that enhance atmosphere, while others criticize it as repetitive, annoying, or poorly executed. Though certain areas feature memorable and fitting tunes, inconsistent quality and occasional sound issues detract from the overall experience.
- “Complementing this gameplay loop is a region-specific soundtrack, with up to six unique pieces of music per area, designed to enhance the atmosphere and reinforce a sense of cultural identity in each locale.”
- “The soundtrack is another noteworthy strength, as it demonstrates an effort to ground each area in its own cultural and emotional tone.”
- “All this is accompanied by excellent graphics and music.”
- “The graphics, music and sounds are terrible.”
- “The electronic music is strident and awful.”
- “No music or atmosphere sound.”
optimization
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19%
25%
56%
Optimization is widely criticized, with frequent and severe performance issues such as low FPS, stuttering, and high hardware strain even on lower settings. Controls are occasionally praised, but overall the game suffers from poor technical polish, unreliable physics, and visibly limited resources typical of smaller indie projects. Many users find the optimization so bad that it significantly hampers gameplay and enjoyment.
- “The controls are tight and responsive and the gameplay is on point. This is what peak performance looks like.”
- “Well, it is good for a first game but needs to be more optimized... cs:go runs better than this.”
- “You go from point to point, along the way you need to control the hero’s performance, collecting food and avoiding skeletons.”
- “Technical roughness is also hard to ignore—control responsiveness is clunky, physics behave unpredictably, and performance can stutter when environments become too large or complex.”
- “Performance is a joke, you might want to limit the fps to 30, otherwise it will burn your GPU/CPU while it doesn't matter if you use ultra or low graphics.”
- “Horrific graphics and optimization with frequent drops to 5-15 fps.”
stability
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from severe stability issues, including frequent bugs, glitches, and significant frame rate drops, resulting in a frustrating and choppy gameplay experience. Controls are unresponsive and exiting the game can cause glitches, making it feel broken and poorly optimized despite meeting system requirements. Overall, the numerous technical problems severely hinder playability and enjoyment.
- “On top of that it is also incredibly buggy and it runs terribly in some parts even if I pass the recommended system requirements by a country mile.”
- “I wouldn't even recommend it at a $1 price tag; it's broken, buggy, glitchy and it just does not work. It's extremely boring as 3/4 of your time is just going around aimlessly trying to figure out what the hell is going on.”
- “Also the amount of framerate drops and other various bugs and glitches made this funny at first, then after maybe ten minutes it became a chore to play.”
humor
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game largely stems from its many flaws, bugs, and awkward mechanics, which some players find unintentionally hilarious. While the broken aspects provide comedic value for those who enjoy glitchy, "so-bad-it's-funny" experiences, others may quickly tire of the frustration. Overall, the humor is niche and best appreciated by players with a strong sense of irony.
- “Nothing works and it's a walking simulator, but some of the enemy movements were far too funny not to burst out laughing at.”
- “However, if you have a thing for hilariously broken games like me, then you will have fun.”
- “This is hilariously the best game I have ever played in my life.”
atmosphere
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
20%
40%
The atmosphere receives mixed feedback, with some appreciation for region-specific music and cultural elements enhancing immersion, but overall the environments and scenery are often seen as bland, basic, and lacking the impactful ambiance suggested by their descriptions. Some users also note the absence of music or atmospheric sounds in certain areas.
- “Complementing this gameplay loop is a region-specific soundtrack, with up to six unique pieces of music per area, designed to enhance the atmosphere and reinforce a sense of cultural identity in each locale.”
- “The remaining part includes other atmospheric sounds that trigger upon interaction or setting foot in a new environment.”
- “No music or atmospheric sounds.”
- “Scenery and atmosphere are bland and look boring.”
emotional
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect of the game is mixed, with praise for the immersive and culturally resonant soundtrack, but significant frustration due to bugs and gameplay mechanics that cause unexpected damage and detract from the experience.
- “The soundtrack is another noteworthy strength, as it demonstrates an effort to ground each area in its own cultural and emotional tone.”
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization of the game is criticized for being unethical, as the developer, Cristian Manolachi/Atomic Fabrik, is accused of repeatedly releasing low-quality content on Steam primarily as a cash grab.
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game offers significant replayability, providing players with extensive opportunities to enjoy multiple playthroughs.
- “Definitely has a huge replay value!”