One Last Breath

Release Date: March 28, 2024

Arcade, platformers, post-apocalypse, indie games, 2.5D, side-scroll, action adventure, singleplayer

5.7

OpenCritic

88%

Steam

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One Last Breath is an action adventure game in 2.5D platform game convention set in the world after the destruction of humanity. As Gaia, endowed with powers of nature, tries to bring back to life the Earth devastated by human civilization.

Plot
Game mechanics
Technical aspects

One Last Breath is a 2.5D platform game set in a post-apocalyptic world after the destruction of humanity. It is the first game from indie Spanish studio Moonatic, which also decided that its first project would be a game with a message.

Plot

In One Last Breath, humans disappeared from the Earth a long time ago. They left behind a ruined world in which the few surviving animals have to face widespread pollution and aggressive mutants. In such bleak circumstances Gaia appears, brought to life by the last breath of nature. Blessed with extraordinary powers, she must travel the length and breadth of the world - in the hope that her gift will be enough to save life on Earth.

One Last Breath is not just the story of an entity trying to find itself in a post-apocalyptic world. The developers wanted to show what human greed and neglect of the environment can lead to. In the course of the game Gaia will have to discover the reasons for the downfall of humanity - the downfall for which she herself is responsible.

Game mechanics

It is a game, where the gameplay is mainly about traversing side-scrolling locations, solving environmental puzzles and avoiding hostile creatures.

It may bring to mind Inside by Playdead studio and Little Nightmares series by Tarsier Studios. Gaia is not a powerful hero who can defeat hundreds of enemies without much effort. In One Last Breath even an encounter with a single mutant will quickly end in death. So it's better to avoid enemies and sneak behind their backs (or whatever they have back there).

Even exploring empty locations comes with risks. Humanity left behind a lot of factories, research facilities, etc., and the mechanisms still working in them can prove deadly to the player character.

If we want to safely guide Gaia through the game, it is necessary to use her gifts. The heroine can manipulate the environment, for example, creating bridges from huge roots. Gaia's powers will also allow you to help the animals you meet survive in a bleak, dying world.

Technical aspects

References to Inside are also visible in the audiovisual design, not only due to the side-scrolling view. Although One Last Breath was developed using Unreal Engine technology rather than Unity, Moonatic Studio's team used a similar style to that of Playdead. The 3D graphics use mostly dark, dirty tones - you can forget about the color palette here. Combined with the minimalistic yet atmospheric soundtrack, this makes the game's world, though not devoid of beautiful sights, feel a bit depressing, matching the post-apocalyptic reality of One Last Breath.

Videos and Screens

[1:34] One Last Breath One Last Breath - Release Date Trailer

[1:58] One Last Breath trailer #1

5.7

OpenCritic Rating

Game is Recomended by 12% of Critics. There are 12 Critic Reviews.

OpenCritic

GamesCreed: 3.8 / 5 by Mehmet Atilla Turan

Thanks to One Last Breath’s interest in reviving this sort-of-forgotten subgenre, it was a refresher, at least for me. That doesn’t totally mean One Last Breath was a bit tedious to go to due to the simple puzzles, but hey, it was at least trying to put out an important message.

Full Review

NoobFeed: 40 / 100 by Jay Claassen

One Last Breath looks great from a distance but that notion changes very quickly when you start playing it. There’s endless potential and it needs a ton more polish before it can really take off but even then, there needs to be more intrigue to hold anybody’s attention. The minimalist story is what might make this game forgettable and it’s a sad fate for any release, however, not all hope is lost yet and we might still see more get added to what could be a great game to possibly rival a similar release known as After Us.

Full Review

TheGamer: 3 / 5 by Tessa Kaur

Since the game is so short, I still think it’s worth a try. When the game succeeds, it glows, and gameplay feels seamless and interesting. You might bang your head against it a little, but the solutions are always common sense and it feels incredible to work through something on your own. Just be warned that you probably won’t find the game’s ending particularly satisfying, but if you can look past that, One Last Breath does have something to offer.

Full Review

88%