The Station

Even stranger than its premise and scarier than it looks, The Station is a short ride to a great ending.

Walking simulators are often defined by their stories. The Station never truly delivers on its premise or setup

So called "walking simulators" live or die on whether they deliver an engaging story, and while The Station appears – at least at first glance – to have this covered, it misses the mark in a number of important ways. It's not bad by any means, but its characters and themes feel light and underdeveloped. While it stumbles narratively, it does at least successfully craft a tense atmosphere, but neither this nor its modest number of enjoyable – if somewhat easy – puzzles are enough to make this a prime candidate for first contact.

The Station fails to captivate despite its interesting ideas and puzzles. The setting is nice, but the script and narrative couldn't quite deliver on the core concept.

Disappointed would be the wrong — and likely more forgiving — term to describe one's feelings coming out of The Station. Disheartened is a more fitting definition; worse than its length or the severe lack of effort put into its environments that expand beyond the puzzle-solving (easily the game's best and only salvation of a plus-point) is the otherwise safe and stale retreading of a formula that has been repeated many times in sci-fi themed games and executed much better in ways more thematically interesting.

If a walking simulator with an exploratory story sounds like a great experience, then The Station is one worth jumping into. Exploring the desolate space station, recovering audio logs, while solving puzzles and challenges may not make this the most innovative in the genre, but it is definitely one of the more enjoyable examples.

It is a fun alternative to kill time or to space out your other primary games, but it may not be the one that make you super excited.

The Station is an interesting space adventure that does not overstay its welcome. I enjoy playing these so-called walking simulations, and The Station is a good one with an interesting story for its short adventure. The one complaint I'd have is that the initial loading is rather long since you'll be staring at the loading screen for around two to three minutes before you're presented with the initial story cutscene. Other than that, this is a solid walking simulator on PlayStation 4 from an indie team of veterans you should check out.

While the storyline may be decent, the many plot holes and cheap horror elements definitely do not work in the game’s favor. The experience is short though, so these elements do not completely ruin it.

The Station is a wonderful example of how a game's atmosphere can impact and influence the narrative. The space station felt believable, although the few characters that lived aboard fell a bit flat for me. As a sci-fi walking sim, The Station is more than successful enough.