Emotionless: The Last Ticket Review | A Cosmic Walking Simulator That Runs Out of Steam

Emotionless: The Last Ticket throws you into a liminal, cosmic horror experience set inside an abandoned amusement park. It’s a walking simulator through and through, one that trades jump scares and combat for atmosphere and dread.

Visually and thematically, it leans into heavy H.R. Giger influences, blending futuristic, almost alien architecture with eerie remnants of human spaces. The result is a mix of cosmic and Backrooms-esque liminal horror, where the world feels vast and claustrophobic at the same time. It’s undeniably intriguing, but as the experience unfolds, the game’s ambitious ideas start to clash rather than connect.

Story & Atmosphere

A walking simulator really needs to nail two main elements to stand out: story and atmosphere. Since there’s no combat or distinct gameplay, the world and narrative carry the experience.

Emotionless succeeds here – at least in parts – nailing the liminal, disorienting tone featured in the cosmic horror sections. One memorable scene has you navigating tight, dimly lit tunnels before emerging into massive, underground spaces that feel equally unsettling. There was also a specific rollercoaster segment (yes, there’s multiple rollercoaster rides), where the two worlds combine together, which was especially striking.

However, the amusement park portions feel far weaker by comparison. There’s little here that feels new or particularly scary, and it ends up being more of a slog than a scare, especially in contrast with the cosmic sections. 

Outside of a couple of moments (such as that rollercoaster ride I mentioned before), there’s very little crossover between the two worlds. The Giger-esque elements barely bleed into the “real” amusement park, and the amusement park hardly feels related to the cosmic realm. At times, it almost felt like two separate games stitched together.

Whilst I enjoyed the voice acting, particularly from the protagonist’s father, and the way the playable character’s emotions gradually faded as he descended deeper into the void, I couldn’t help but wish there was more to do along the way. 

A few more interactable objects or collectibles revealing fragments of backstory would have gone a long way in making exploration feel more rewarding. As it stands, much of the world feels like a backdrop to walk through rather than a space to truly explore and engage with.

Gameplay & Performance

Outside moments of brilliance in the world-building, Emotionless starts to crumble. The first major issue is performance. The game started really rough, bordering on unplayable, and even after restarts and tweaking the settings, it still felt clunky. By the end of my playthrough, Emotionless was also struggling to execute the larger set pieces. Controller support was also pretty inconsistent; I couldn’t navigate the menus properly with one, and the camera sensitivity was painfully slow, even when maxed out.

And probably Emotionless’ biggest flaw: the repetition. The rollercoaster sequences were genuinely fun and creative the first couple of times, but by the fourth ride, the novelty’s long gone. I came here for cosmic horror, not Rollercoaster Tycoon. 

The same goes with the walking – by the time you’ve trudged through your fortieth tunnel with the same light flickering mechanics, the game’s tension fades into monotony. With such wide open areas and unclear pathways, you often find yourself backtracking through the same area, which feels less and less rewarding as you progress through the game and realize there are no monsters chasing you, no puzzles to solve, and nothing actually horrifying happening.

I held out hope that the one shooter mini-game at the amusement park was a sort of tutorial for a boss fight to come, seeing as there was no reward for completing it but unfortunately it was just completely random and what I feel to be a missed opportunity.

Verdict

Emotionless: The Last Ticket is packed with haunting cosmic imagery and a truly unsettling atmosphere, but like one of its rollercoaster rides, it loops around the same ideas until the thrill starts to fade. It’s a fascinating proof of concept, beautiful in moments, frustrating in others, but not quite the full ride it wants to be.

If you’re a big fan of walking simulators or cosmic horror, it’s definitely worth a look, but for everyone else, it may not leave much of a lasting impression.

2/5