When Bartolomèj Kvapílek is killed during one of Last Train Home’s first missions, we immediately reload to see if we might save him. Described as a ‘drunken bard’ in his biography, he has the Chaotic and Charismatic traits, but beyond that it’s difficult to let go of any soldiers so early in our journey. Twenty-five hours later, we barely flinch at leaving Leona Hráblová behind. She may be an excellent medic and a veteran of almost every deployment, but she has become Weak, Self-conscious, Scarred, Impaired, and Agitated – debuffs that collectively make it impractical to keep her on the train when there are others eager to join, even if it would be the moral thing to do.

Our sentiments speak to Last Train Home’s two greatest strengths. On the one hand, it fosters a firm bond between you and your soldiers, fictionalised analogues of the real Czech and Slovak Legionnaires that found themselves stranded in the newly constituted Bolshevik communist state during the Russian Civil War of 1917–23. The combination of traits and bios, together with trackers for health, stamina and morale, base stats such as Fitness and Intelligence, one of four ideologies, and up to six roles based on the soldiers’ experience, helps to foster the illusion of real personalities. These interact with other mechanics in a way that forces you to use, and thereby get familiar with, all your troops.