Explore End-Stage Capitalist Dystopia in The Last Worker

It’s never comfortable being told you’re part of the problem. So, when I sent my first box — I mean “dream” — into the shipment chute just a few minutes into the Last Worker demo, it was hard not to think of the real Amazon workers who do a very similar task every time I need toothpaste or lightbulbs and don’t want to go the store. The uncomfortable feeling only grew when my robot helper (voiced by Harry Potter film series alum Jason Isaacs) showed me what was in the box I just sent out: Baby VR goggles.

I imagine this scene would only have a bigger impact if you were actually playing with VR goggles on, which seems to be what the game was designed for. In The Last Worker, gameplay that isn’t hiding from robots generally consists of moving packages and other objects around using what is essentially the gravity gun from Half-Life 2. While the controls work just fine with a mouse and keyboard, flinging around packages is almost certainly more satisfying if you’re actually swinging your arms around. Indeed, Wolf & Wood — who’ve teamed up with the multi-platform writers at Oiffy to develop the game — have already developed a few other first-person narrative VR titles, including Hotel R’n’R and The Exorcist: Legion VR.

Besides the immersion afforded by VR and the focus on narrative, one of the game’s clear strengths is its all-star cast. In addition to the Brit who played Lucius Malfoy, The Last Worker boasts Clare-Hope Ashitey, David Hewlett, Zelda Williams, Tommie Earl Jenkins as supporting characters, and stars Icelandic-American sensation Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, who was clearly used as a model for the main character.

While its narrative-focused gameplay may not be for everyone, you don’t have to wonder — you can download the demo now on the game’s Steam page and see for yourself. The Last Worker is set to release sometime in 2022 on all major platforms as well as on Meta Quest.