Last Drop Early Access: Finnish GTA, Except Everyone’s Drunk and Nobody Has a Gun
- Niels Gys
- 54 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Quick Verdict
Last Drop is not Finnish GTA, and treating it like one does the game a disservice. What launched into Early Access on August 18 is a stranger, scruffier proposition: an open-world 1994 Finnish underworld drama where driving, ordinary work, RPG progression, drinking and surprisingly elaborate fistfights matter more than stealing cars and ventilating pedestrians.
There is already a real game here. The entire map is available, you can explore it by car or bike, earn money, visit shops and pubs, develop character stats, manage inventory and learn new fighting moves by watching VHS action movies, which may be the most authentically 1994 progression system ever conceived.
But there is also a bloody enormous Early Access warning label attached. Only the beginning of the story is currently available, roughly a third of the planned quest structures are implemented, and developer Lohkare Games expects development to continue for another one to two years.
So should you buy Last Drop now?
Only if you're comfortable buying into an unfinished Finnish sandbox rather than expecting a complete crime epic. The foundations are intriguing and early Steam reception is encouraging, but anyone coming specifically for "GTA in Finland" needs to lower the assault rifle, put on a cheap leather jacket and recalibrate immediately.
If Last Drop has you craving crime with fewer saunas and considerably more felonies, head to our Mafia: The Old Country coverage. Same general career advice: meet criminals, make terrible decisions, discover that legitimate employment was probably easier.
This Is Not GTA With More Saunas
The comparison is understandable.
Open world. Cars. Bikes. Crime. Violence. A protagonist called Seppo "Zeze" Sahtivaara trying to survive the Finnish underworld in 1994.
Give that description to the internet and somebody will have typed FINNISH GTA before you've finished saying "Sahtivaara."
Except Last Drop doesn't appear particularly interested in being GTA.
There are no guns in its headline combat system. Instead, fights are built around one-on-one brawling, with strength, agility and stamina feeding into character development. Better still, Zeze can learn additional fighting moves by watching action movies on VHS.
Forget spending eighteen skill points unlocking Uppercut III.
Zeze apparently improves his capacity for pub violence by sitting in front of a television studying men whose entire acting range consists of removing sunglasses before an explosion.
That's magnificent.
And it tells you considerably more about Last Drop than the GTA comparison does.
This is interested in living inside its grimy little 1994 world.
You work. You earn money. You buy things. You drive around. You eat. You drink. You manage an inventory limited by both weight and physical volume. Your drunkenness is actually tracked as a character statistic.
Most games give you Intelligence, Charisma and Dexterity.
Finland has apparently looked at this and said:
Where is Pissed?
The Underworld Is Here, But Don't Expect a Crime Sandbox Yet
This is the important distinction for anyone arriving specifically because Last Drop looks like a crime game.
The underworld story is real. Zeze is explicitly being dragged through a violent criminal environment, and fighting is one of the game's central systems.
What isn't established in the current Early Access version is a deep, player-driven criminal sandbox.
There isn't evidence yet for a GTA-style wanted system, robbery economy, drug operation, burglary, elaborate theft mechanics, black-market empire or an endless buffet of crimes committed because you briefly wondered whether the man across the street owned a nicer car.
That doesn't make Last Drop less interesting.
It makes it a different kind of crime game.
Its current identity sits closer to a rough open-world life story that happens to descend into the underworld than a playground constructed specifically to let you become Finland's most administratively troublesome citizen.
And frankly, that's probably healthier for it.
We have enough GTA clones. Most of them discover that recreating Rockstar's formula with eleven people and the budget of a regional carpet warehouse is considerably harder than the pitch deck suggested.
Last Drop has something much more valuable: its own identity.
The combination of grounded Finnish life, 1990s atmosphere, ordinary work, drinking, vehicles and fighting gives it a texture that another map full of floating gun icons never could.
Want another open world where merely surviving the neighbourhood feels like a full-time occupation? Read our S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope coverage next, where the scenery is gorgeous, everything wants you dead, and workplace safety has apparently been outlawed.
The Big Problem Is That You're Buying the Foundations
Early players clearly see something in those foundations.
Last Drop has already reached Very Positive territory on Steam, with roughly 85% positive from 171 reviews only days after launch.
That's an encouraging start.
It is not permission to ignore how unfinished this thing is.
The developer is unusually straightforward about the current state. The map is there, but only the opening section of the story is playable. Roughly one-third of the intended quest structures are implemented. More side quests, NPCs, vehicles, locations and mechanics are planned. Some audiovisual material is still unfinished.
And development could continue for another one to two years.
That isn't a small disclaimer hidden underneath "minor polish remaining."
That's a construction site.
The pub is open, the beer is cold and somebody has already started a fight, but half the building still has men in fluorescent jackets carrying plasterboard through it.
For Early Access buyers, that creates a very simple dividing line.
If you want to explore an evolving open world, mess around with the systems already there and watch the game grow, Last Drop has enough personality to make that proposition interesting.
If you're buying because you want Zeze's complete criminal story?
Wait.
You cannot review a book because somebody handed you Chapter One and assured you Chapter Twelve will be absolutely mental.
What Makes Last Drop Worth Watching
The strongest thing Last Drop currently has isn't size.
It's specificity.
1994 Finland matters.
The VHS training matters. The absence of gun-centric combat matters. Working for money matters. Driving around this world rather than merely using it as connective tissue between firefights matters.
Even the drunkenness stat tells you what kind of fantasy this is chasing.
The danger with indie open-world games is always ambition. "Open world" has buried more small studios beneath feature lists than the British Empire buried countries beneath flags. Cars! Jobs! Shops! NPC schedules! Combat! Weather! Stats! Story! Side quests! Seventeen types of sandwich!
Last Drop is already carrying a lot.
But its weird Finnish character gives those systems a reason to exist beyond ticking boxes on the Things GTA Has clipboard.
That's the bit worth protecting as Early Access continues.
For the rest of the week’s criminal gaming evidence locker, open This Week in CRIME. We sift through new crime, villain and horror games so you can find the good stuff without personally crawling through Steam’s industrial landfill.
Should You Buy Last Drop in Early Access?
Yes, if you're specifically interested in watching an unusual Finnish open-world game develop and you're comfortable with an incomplete story.
No, if you want a finished crime game today.
And especially no if somebody sold you on "Finnish GTA."
The current version is more intimate, more grounded and considerably more peculiar than that description implies. Its criminal world is currently more narrative than systemic, while its most distinctive mechanics revolve around ordinary life, character development and smashing another man's face using knowledge acquired from VHS tapes.
That might eventually become something brilliant.
It could also spend two years accumulating systems until the whole contraption resembles a Lada with seventeen steering wheels.
That's Early Access.
For now, Last Drop has enough game to be interesting, enough personality to be memorable, and nowhere near enough finished story to pretend the verdict is final.
Buy the construction site if you want to watch them build the pub.
Everyone else should wait until they've installed the roof.
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