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Late last year, amidst the height of PUBG fever, indie developer KevKev revealed he has a unique take on the Battle Royale genre in the works. Titled Last Man Sitting, the game will revolve around the use of recoil physics to navigate the playing field (an office), surviving and killing your opponents in the meantime.
As of now, Last Man Sitting has no release date, but a precursor is currently available on itch.io. While Last Man Sitting takes inspiration from PUBG, Last Man Kicking is the office chair version of Rocket League…with shotguns!
Similar to Rocket League, the game features two goals, a giant ball, and teams of 3 v 3. The main difference is that, just like Last Man Standing, movement is controlled by the recoil of shooting weapons. As of now, the only weapon available is a shotgun.
As with most shotguns, the range is considerably short, meaning players need to get up close in personal in order to fight for the ball. Unsurprisingly, this results in a fair amount of mayhem. Bullets are flying, chairs are spinning and tangling up with each other, and buttons are being mashed furiously to get back up once downed.
There is a fair bit of strategy that goes into the gameplay. Trudging ahead will leave the goal, and your character, vulnerable. The health bar will protect you for a bit, but the aforementioned mayhem takes its toll quickly. Choosing whether to aim for the ball with the shotgun or propelling the character towards it has a huge effect on things as well. While it takes a bit of getting used to, the gameplay and its physics are a chaotic good time.
Last Man Kicking’s presentation lives up to the promotional material KevKev has released so far, matching the game’s wackiness. Explosions with each goal scored, punk/metal background music, and character rag doll physics represent the chaos I imagined when Last Man Standing was revealed.
With all that said, there are definitely some tweaks that may need to be applied here and there when it comes to the games fluidity. Outside of the health bar, it was very hard to tell when I or my opponent got hit. It’s very easy to lose your character as well, so customizable outfits would be beneficial – and would open up a huge market for custom content like Rocket League.
As of now, Last Man Kicking is definitely more limited than what has been shown for Last Man Sitting. The map is confined to a kids sized basketball court. Goals are also relatively small, making it a bit difficult to get an angle to score the large soccer ball. Those aren’t dealbreakers though. If anything, the game is just missing a bit of variety at the moment, something that’s not entirely too surprising for a new game created by a solo developer.
Verdict: It’s a great first step for both games. Last Man Kicking has shown that the idea is going to work really well, it just needs more diversity. With more guns, maps, customizable options, and mayhem I could see myself playing this goofy version of Rocket League – and soon PUBG – until the cows come home.
Last Man Kicking is available for purchase on KevKev’s itch.io page for $1.99.
Andrew has been in love with video game ever since his brother was forced by their parents to let him watch him and his friends play games like Goldeneye and Super Mario 64.
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