Review: Last Horizon

Last Horizon
Pixeljam

Reviewed on: PC
Also on: iOS, Android
Street: 11.18

As a minimalist, rogue-like, physics-based exploration game, Pixeljam’s Last Horizon has come prepackaged with a sexy bevy of video game buzzwords. I usually like to exercise caution when faced with a game that claims to merge all of these different sub-genres together, as it’s typically an arrogant attempt to please every core audience—which never works. Last Horizon, on the other hand, is a game that puts its genre cocktail to good use.

Conceptually, Last Horizon is about seeking greener pastures. Beginning on the surface of a muddy brown planet circumscribed with the remnants of a dead city, a small rocket ship blasts off into space looking for a planet that is better suited to support life. It’s a journey that requires resources—the ship burns fuel, the crew needs oxygen and the hull is always in need of repair. In order to reach the final destination, the ship must land on various planets throughout the galaxy to replenish its resources. This is where the physics kick in. Each planet has its own gravitational pull, so if your ship comes in too hot, you just crash into a fiery wreckage on the surface and that’s that.

Getting used to Last Horizon’s physics system is actually lots of fun—even though it results in a lot of crashed ships. Once the player gets used to using a planet’s rotation and gravitational pull effectively, it feels pretty damn rewarding to absolutely nail a landing. Even though it is tempting to land on every planet that pops up on the radar, it’s not overly necessary—I’m currently to a point where I just stop if I’m near death or trying to dodge a stray cluster of asteroids.

Speaking of asteroids, the universe of Last Horizon is fraught with all kinds of obstacles. Some resource-dense planets require navigating through an orbiting asteroid field, and I’ve often been knocked around by the small moons that sometimes orbit other planets. While this is a pain in the ass that can quickly get you killed, it’s still fun to see how the collision will alter the moon’s orbit—they’ll crash into the planet as easily as anything else.

Since each different galaxy map has a set objective, it’s tempting to just fly as straight as possible, only stopping when necessary. In order to encourage exploration, however, each galaxy map has 10 life-sustaining planets that warrant a landing. Each different ecosystem that the player finds adds important elements to the overall colonization process, so there’s an added benefit to try and find all of them. While present on the surface of these life-sustaining planets, the ship still sucks resources from the surface. This gives players the options to take just enough to keep moving, or to completely suck the life out of an entire planet. I have yet to see a reason for not just leaving the dried husks of once-healthy planets in my wake, but perhaps some type of morality system will end up screwing me in the end.

For a rogue-like game, especially one set in space, I was hoping for more procedural generation in each play through. Players can expect to die a lot in Last Horizon, so it would be nice to have a different set of planets to explore each time. Without this mechanic, the game can feel a little grindy and repetitive.

All the same, Last Horizon’s introspective gameplay and perfectly composed ambient soundtrack make this a great little game that works well in bite-sized play sessions as well as extended periods of space exploration. Plus, it’s kind of fun to read the game’s narration as if you’re Matthew McConaughey from Interstellar.