I don't often get really angry about games. This is partly because I tend to rent rather than buy, so I rarely end up wasting my own money on a bad game. And partly because I'm so used to the games industry doing stupid things that it takes a lot to irk me. But I can honestly say that The Last Guy has got me more than a little miffed. Not because it's a bad game, but because it's such a bloody good one. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's one of the most enjoyable and original titles I've seen this year. No, what's got my goat is the fact that it's been released on Sony's Playstation Network download service with hardly any fanfare at all. There's been a trailer released, and maybe one or two small press articles, but that's it. The release of mediocre shoot-em-up Haze on, the other hand, was accompanied by a media blitz, TV sponsorship deals and so forth. A game which was so poorly received that it's now being sold for about half its recommended retail price. The mind boggles.

But that's enough ranting for now, what of the the game itself? It doesn't easily slot into any one genre. If you had to slap a label on it, you could say it's a strategy action game, which casts you as 'The Last Guy' of the title. Some sort of evil space ray has hit the earth, turning anyone who was exposed to it into a variety of mutated creatures. The game calls them 'Zombies' though in actual fact your enemies in the game run the full gamut of B-movie monsters, from shambling corpses through to giant eyeballs, huge insects and beyond. Which might sound like a cue for a shoot-em-up, but it's not. In fact, you have absolutely no means of fighting these creatures. Instead, you've been tasked with rescuing the survivors of this strange apocalypse, the people who were inside when the Earth was hit, and who are still human. Only you can draw them out from their hiding places and lead them to safety. So no pressure there then.

The action in The Last Guy is viewed from a top down perspective, almost as if you were observing the action from a plane or orbiting satellite. You can zoom in and out though in general the default zoom the best perspective to play the game from. As you roam around the twelve or so city maps, each representing a real city, survivors leave their homes and come out to meet you, forming a line behind you. Rescue enough survivors, and escort them to the escape zones on each map, and you'll unlock the next city. Should you also rescue the four VIPs found in each city, and you'll gain access to a bonus level. Which all sounds easy enough, but there's a couple of snags.

Firstly, there's the monsters who, somewhat surprisingly, don't seem that interested in hunting down the survivors. Instead, it's you they're after - should they see your character, they'll invariably bolt after you. And while you're a fairly small target, if they plough into the line, any survivors in their way will scatter, forcing you to evade the monster and go back and pick them up again.
And secondly you're up against a time limit - if you don't get the survivors to the escape zone in time, it's game over. You don't have to rescue every single survivor on the level, but you do have targets to hit. And here's where the strategic element of the game comes in. Rather than hanging around outside a building waiting for everyone to pour out - which takes time - you can circle your line of survivors around the building, and everyone inside the building will be added to your line. The longer your line is, the easier it is to do this, and the faster you can gather survivors. So it's in your own interest to keep survivors with you rather than returning them to the escape zone. But the longer the line gets, the more likely it is that some monster's going to smash into it and force you to go back and rescue the survivors, costing you precious time.

There are other elements to the game but it'd take too long to list them all. What I can tell you is that it can take a few goes to finish The Last Guy's levels, but that you'll find yourself loving every minute of it. It's challenging, but rarely frustrating, and it's great to see your guy wandering around with a huge line of survivors in tow. Of course, you've also got no-one else to blame but yourself when you lead them into the path of a monster, and half of them scarper, but that's part of the fun.

If there is one problem with the game it's that on each level there are a few small areas where it can be hard to see where your character is, even using the game's special map mode. But that's just a minor gripe, and the game as a whole is a blast from beginning to end. And given it can be had for princely sum of five pounds, you really have no excuse not to buy this.