12) Last Year

A basic overview of the game showing off the concept art and character models.

Five teenagers trapped in a high school, trying to get out before the killer finds them. Last Year embraces the high school stereotypes common in film and television and sets them against a crazed killer, slasher-movie style. Much like Dead by Daylight or Friday the Thirteenth above, this is an asymmetrical multiplayer game. A sixth player controls the killer with the obvious goal.

As the killer, you have the ability to despawn and respawn, allowing you to pop up wherever you like so the players are never actually safe. That mechanic reminds me of playing as the zombies in Left 4 Dead 2, where you could choose where to spawn as long as it wasn’t in sight of the survivors. It’s an interesting and somewhat unique mechanic that will really ramp up the paranoia the five other players are going to feel. There are three killers to play as. The Giant, the Slasher, and the Strangler. Their roles are pretty self-explanatory: Slasher slashes, Strangler strangles, Giant bashes.

As for the five other players, they fit into the stereotypes of high school, and have a team role. The Jock/Assault character who can attack and stun the killer; the Nerd/Tech character who can hack computers (because that helps when you’re being chased by a killer) and pick locks; the Unpopular Girl™/Medic who can apply first aid to any wounded character; and the Popular Girl™/Scout, the fast girl who fills the bitchy cheerleader teen horror film archetype and the fast but fragile gaming archetype. With their powers combined, they must get to the truck and drive away. It sounds pretty simple, but much like Dead By Daylight, there’s some prerequisite objectives to meet before you can drive off.

Last Year is set to be released in November.

Concept art from the Slasher’s point of view.

Looks like the Giant’s gotten a victim.