Last Flag is a product of nostalgia.
It began as a fond memory of childhood games and grew to encompass the aesthetic and musical stylings of an era that exists only in a cultural memory. As such, it is nothing close to realistic, but more of a vague caricature of collective recollections embellished by time.
The influences are equally easy to spot. Visuals, especially the characters and the UI, borrow liberally from Valve's iconic Team Fortress 2. Animations stretch and bend in a cartoonish style reminiscent of Animaniacs and Overwatch. The soundtrack riffs on everything from the aforementioned Team Fortress to Tarantino-esque samplings of 70s grindhouse cinema.
The big picture is the brainchild of Dan Reynolds and his brother Mac. Last Flag grew out of a desire to recapture the sense of childhood play and bring a personal touch to the hero shooter.
"I grew up in a nerdy household where all we had was piano lessons and videogames. We weren't athletic kids!" Dan laughs. "So just picture eight boys fighting over the minute amount of time to play on a computer."
"When the Nintendo 64 arrived, it changed everything because it had four controllers. That was the genesis of gaming for us. We loved multiplayer games that didn't take themselves too seriously, but also had good character development. It was this dream that stuck even as life happened."
15 years later, with a little band project called Imagine Dragons on the side, the Reynolds' brothers have reunited to make their dream come true.
"We grew up at scout camp with Mac where, at night, we'd play Capture the Flag. It was so scary and fun and we loved the experience on all the games we played together. But none of them had that experience of actually hiding the flag, which is a big part of the joy."
The project began between just Dan and Mac, but quickly grew as Dan reached out to indie devs and passionate coders through forums and Discord. Today, the team is around 30 people.
"Originally the characters I pitched were all my friends. The Carpenter is my trainer and best friend," says Dan. "Eventually we found that not all of our friends were interesting enough to be characters in the game! I think in the end only the Carpenter survived out of all the pitches."
There's a lot to love in the sincerity. It might not be original, but it's refreshing how Last Flag doesn't try to hide its love for existing media.
Says Mac Reynolds, co-founder and CEO of Night Street Games: "When we think of the action of our game, we think of Team Fortress 2, another one is Super Smash Brothers. But we also talk about Monkey Island in terms of humor. There's also a lot of X-Files in the implied sinister backstory regarding this game show."
The mix of casual and competitive came directly from their love of Team Fortress, Reynolds says. Valve's massively successful shooter appealed to them because of its easily approachable nature. "It can be both over-the-top and fun but also hyper-competitive."
The gameplay itself is wildly familiar. Sitting in the warm-up lobby, it would be easy to mistake it for a heavily modded version of Team Fortress.
You pick a hero out of nine characters, each of whom represents a familiar class. The Carpenter is a heavy, the Boy Scout exactly as it sounds, the Bounty Hunter is more of an all-rounder, and so on. It is comfortable in the sense that anyone who has played a game of this type before can easily pick up Last Flag and understand the basics.
When the round starts, both teams have an opportunity to hide their flag in a safe zone. After a brief period of respite, the carnage kicks off as both sides battle for control of waypoints while scouring the map for the opposing side's flag. Once discovered, players must deliver it back to their base and protect it for a full minute in order to win.
It's here Last Flag differs from traditional Capture the Flag games, though I'm uncertain if it's for the better. Instead of fast-paced rushes back and forth, which play out in tightly wound and labyrinthian corridors, much of the sessions I took part in felt more like, well, Team Fortress.
There is back and forth, sure, but also a lot of sitting around holding onto capture points while one member of a five-person team searches for the flag. The levels aren't huge for control point battles, but they are too big for Capture the Flag. As a result, a lot of the early skirmishes end up as traditional death matches until someone accidentally stumbles upon the flag.
After that, the rush to the base is equally unbalanced. Because the maps are larger, a single death can often mean a loss as the run between headquarters can take the entire minute without a chance to turn the tide. It's also frustrating to first navigate your way back to base only to endure yet another countdown at the finish line.
Despite these balancing issues, Last Flag works because its core gameplay is ultimately a lot of fun. The shooting mechanics are solid and there's just enough variety in the characters that they rarely feel pointless in the grand scheme of things.
For a demo, Last Flag also runs surprisingly well, with barely any noticeable issues in terms of quality or frame rates. The art style scales wonderfully, so even lower settings look lovely. It has the kind of easily understandable layout that allows the player to familiarize themselves to the gameplay faster. Finding that balance isn't easy, and most titles never get there, so Last Flag is already on solid ground.
The audio cues are equally smartly designed. As the timer runs out on any given match, the music picks up the pace. Flags make a distinctive noise in the wild, which makes their discovery just a little bit easier. Voice acting is solid throughout and the characters have an easy charm about them.
On paper, there's a lot to love about Last Flag.
But in practice, this is a game that has more than an uphill battle against it. At the time of writing, the multiplayer demo has hit a peak of just a bit over 800 players according to the Steam Charts. Word of mouth is fine, though not the kind of hype you'd need to break through in an extremely saturated market like this one.
Then there's the content itself. The demo features a single map and all the heroes available at launch. Once the full title comes out, one more maps joins the offering. That's not a lot, especially for a game that begs for constant engagement. It won't take long to see everything Last Flag has to offer.
Mac Reynolds says the staggered release of maps is intentional: "We have plans for additional maps for post-launch. There are two maps at launch and a third one deep in development. It takes a lot of time to make them because of hiding spots and getting the size right. The same applies to the heroes; we want them to be unique and that the roster isn't overwhelming to new players."
That same attitude applies to the release plan. Unlike other competitors, Last Flag isn't free-to-play.
"Our game is a one-time modestly priced purchase and our main goal is to build a community," says Reynolds.
"That means all additional maps and characters are included in that purchase price. Cosmetics can be earned by playing the game. We want to provide value for the purchase."
At the time of writing, that modest price is still unknown. But the promise of a game that doesn't insist on begging you to spend more is tantalizing. Especially as other free-to-play endeavors have very visibly failed this year alone.
But with just six weeks to go until the promised launch of April 14th, Last Flag still has to prove the community there's something worthwhile to build around. It's fun to play and visually appealing, but very, very limited in content and scope. While my friends and I enjoyed ourselves during the still ongoing demo period, after a few matches there wasn't a massive desire to press on.
Still, I'm a sucker for passion projects and realized dreams. Last Flag is made with great love and a clear understanding of multiplayer gaming. I'd love to see it grow and develop over time.
Here's hoping it gets that opportunity. Go check out the demo on Steam, where it runs until March 2nd.
