The Last Friend

I went into The Last Friend expecting a thin genre mash that would collapse under its own ambition within an hour. What I got instead was a genuinely well-constructed hybrid that makes you juggle two distinct skill sets simultaneously, and manages not to choke on either. The core loop works like this: before each wave, you spend scrap to deploy dogs across three to five lanes, with turret dogs providing the automated defensive line, skill dogs passively buffing protagonist Alpha, and ultimate dogs unlocking a charged finishing move once you have dealt enough damage. Then the wave hits, and you are no longer just a strategist sitting behind a wall of turrets. You jump lanes, throw light and heavy attacks, build stamina for special moves, and keep one eye on your RV's health bar the whole time. Lose the RV or lose Alpha and the round is over. That dual-loss condition is the smartest design decision in the game; it forces constant attention rather than letting you set a turret grid and go make coffee. The decision space before each mission is where the strategy layer earns its keep. You pick five dogs from an expanding roster, and the combination genuinely matters. A fire-heavy enemy group punishes you if you forget a Pomeranian with a super soaker, while a boss stage strips away turret dogs entirely and forces you to lean on skill dogs and Alpha's own combat chain. The RV itself can be upgraded between missions using stars earned in levels, adding better scrap-extraction rates, protective shields, and other bonuses that compound meaningfully over the campaign's fifty-plus stages. None of this is Paradox-tier complexity, but it is a proper decision tree, not an illusion of one. Difficulty is where critical opinion is most split, and honestly the split is accurate. The opening hours are very forgiving, possibly too forgiving if you have any lane-defense experience at all. Co-op mode softens the challenge further, which reviewers have widely noted. Around two-thirds through the campaign, though, the difficulty spikes noticeably, and the multi-screen boss fights introduce curveballs that require real adaptation rather than rote lane-filling. The story is cheerfully nonsensical, a Mad Max wasteland with a wisecracking chihuahua in a robo suit, and the writing is funny enough that skipping dialogue is actually a mistake. The art runs at a clean sixty frames, every level gets its own title card, and the soundtrack holds up outside the game. On the downside, intro logos are unskippable on launch, the quick-travel system only unlocks for completed areas (maddening when you want to replay earlier missions), and the sticker collection system is nearly invisible in the UI. For genre purists, the lack of deep AI complexity or mod support means this is a session game, not an obsession. Replayability after the credits is thin. But the campaign itself is well-paced, the breed roster is large enough to encourage real team-building experimentation, and local co-op makes it a rare crossover pick for people who do not normally touch strategy games. The tutorial respects your time, explains both layers clearly through T. Juan's grumpy coaching, and never overstays its welcome. If you want an entry point into hybrid tower defense that does not demand mastery to be enjoyable, The Last Friend is a structurally sound and charming answer.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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