Last Expedition hands-on 2022 preview

The last of our PAX West 2022 coverage is drawing near. Three of the last few titles we will be covering are Gala Games Last Expedition, Spider Tanks, and Superior.

After the show floor closed on Sunday, we met with Gala Games for a little mixer. At the event, guests were encouraged to socialize, drink, eat, and even play demos of Gala Games upcoming games.

Although Gala Games is regarded as a Crypto & NFT company, no mention of Crypto or NFTs was mentioned during the mixer. The primary focus of the Gala Games’ mixer was to preview their upcoming games Superior, Spider Tanks, and Last Expedition. Each gaming station featured Alienware Laptops and Logitech mice and headphones.

Last Expedition (First Run)

At the mixer, we started out by playing Last Expedition. For this demo, Andrew and I were paired with one of the developers to jump into an expedition. Upon dropping, we learned that no expedition is actually the same. At the start of each expedition, the game randomly generates the map, making no run exactly identical.

For our first expedition, we were taught the basics, how to craft weapons, grenades, medkits, and accessories from raw materials. The beginning was the developer showing us how to search for materials and mine them once we had found them. Finding resources and mining them was relatively simple, what wasn’t simple was defending ourselves from the alien inhabitants. Precision was key, but working together made it easy to take down most of the aliens. The only difficulty came when aliens would swarm and the bigger ones would get involved. The most annoying aliens were the spitting ones that dealt acid damage.

Once, we had enough materials, med kits, and weapons, we set out to gather the three alien treasures. In order to do this, we were able to use one of the character’s radar systems to point us in the right direction. During the first run, we were forced to use the radar on multiple occasions in order to find the alien treasures. With gathering each node, there wasn’t a massive issue unless we accidentally brought aliens with us.

Once all three alien treasures were found, we set off to return to our ship. That’s when the real chaos started. Upon gathering the third treasure and setting out to return to our ship, the alien alarm bell must have rung. As we ran for the ship, it seemed like every alien possible decided to give chase. As we got close to the ship, Andrew went down. Rather than leaving a man behind, I declared that no man would be left behind.

The developer reluctantly agreed and we released fire onto the aliens until none remained. We then grabbed Andrew’s semi-lifeless body, brought it towards the ship, and revived him. After getting back on the ship, we were able to extract.

2nd Expedition

Now, our second expedition was not like the first. We can easily say that it was that crew’s Last Expedition. For the second expedition, we decided to face off against the other squad of players. Before we could even encounter them, we knew we were in for a world of pain.

Prior to landing, players can select their drop zone on the map. Originally, we joked about landing right next to the enemy. If we did, we’d easily encounter them and have to either fight for resources or work together. Instead, we decided to drop on the opposite side of the map. Looking back at that choice, it was the wrong one. Within seconds of landing, we were already under attack from aliens. We were forced to run for our lives and scour for resources.

Resources were limited so we decided to separate in order to scavenge anything we could find. Ultimately, this would be our downfall. While searching for materials, we only had a pistol and a knife available. All three of us managed to get ambushed by different aliens before we could even find enough resources to defend ourselves. As we died from the alien overlords, the other team asked how we managed to die.

Despite dying in our second run, Last Expedition was a lot of fun. The Idea of having to gather resources in order to build weapons, med kits, and aid, was an interesting approach that you don’t see very often.

Shooting in the game took a bit to get used to but once we did, it made clearing waves a lot easier; in a way, the gameplay almost reminded us of Socom. The spitters in the game felt a little unfair but could be fixed over time.

Would you consider checking out Last Expedition based on the game’s description and our experiences? Let us know in the comments down below!