The Last Express

The Good
Last Express invites you to experience a unique adventure: a well-researched, convincing historical detective drama with exceptional presentation and far-reaching gameplay ideas.

The first thing that strikes the player is the game's innovative time concept. Unlike many games claiming the same, Last Express truly runs in real time. It doesn't have a faster-paced internal clock like many RPGs; nor does it have time zones triggered by the player's actions. Its time flows just like in real life: each second that passes does so not only for you, but also for everyone else on board the train where the game takes place.

The characters in Last Express act according to their own schedules. Nobody will wait for you in a certain place, because nobody is "supposed" to be there until you find a way to solve a puzzle or just want to take a break. There can be no breaks taken in the game - just like in real life. This seemingly simple concept needed a good execution, and the game delivers it. The behavior of the characters is strikingly realistic: they walk around, talk to each other, react to your presence, etc. The train is never the same: things keep happening. Much of the gameplay is dedicated to exploration, and the dynamism of the game ensures that you'll always encounter something of interest and be surprised more than once.

Last Express is therefore a significantly more flexible, open-ended game than the vast majority of adventures. Completing an objective relies on what you, the player, have achieved during a specific time segment, rather than figuring out what the designer wanted you to do. Instead of formal logic conceded to the pre-established rules of the game, you follow common sense that wouldn't have been out of place in the real world. If you fail, it will be due to realistic reasons pertaining to the situation your protagonist finds himself in - not because the developers have erected a puzzle on your way and nothing will budge until you solve it. It is needless to say that this concept could have worked wonders and revolutionize adventure game design if it gathered enough attention.

Last Express has outstanding sense of style and presentation. It is set in 1914, shortly before World War I broke out, and the atmosphere of the time is perfectly recreated in the game. The designers did a fantastic job researching this concrete historical epoch and making it as believable as possible through fitting characters and environment. The game's visual design is quite unique: real actors were filmed and then modified with hand-drawn style to match the lush backgrounds, avoiding the usual artificial look that comes as a result of actors moving over still pictures.

The story of Last Express is suspenseful and deals with serious topics such as the political situation of the time. Simultaneously, it never forgets its job as a background for a criminal investigation, nodding to popular Agatha Christie detective tropes with its closed setting, a list of multi-national suspects, mysterious wealthy exotic foreigners and equally mysterious attractive women with an unclear past, etc. The complex main plot involves many characters, each playing a certain role in the mystery, and is accompanied by some very interesting sub-plots regarding various less important figures. It is interesting to learn more about every character in the game, even though it may be irrelevant to the story. For example, you can discover the diary of a young girl written in excellent stylized language, with surprisingly mature and even controversial themes - but you may also miss it, as well as a lot of other material, during your first playthrough. Thus the structure of the plot contributes to the replay value of the game.

A whole chapter should be dedicated to the game's unusually high educational (or, should I say, cultural) value. It is not an educational game that throws facts at you and demands you to remember them, in the sense of Gabriel Knight games. Last Express doesn't require you to learn anything, it simply contains a cultural lesson as part of its environment. Allow me to illustrate this with a few examples. All the passengers on the train speak their native languages when talking to each other, with English subtitles appearing on the screen. How many games you know even bothered to create a truly multilingual society? How many movies you know actually bothered to research the languages and invite foreigners to record authentic phrases instead of using broken English with funny accents?..

Now think of the game's characters. They are not only interesting and convincing: they are detailed up to the point of reflecting the typical mentality traits of their nationalities, without resorting to stupid and cheap stereotypes. Take the young Russian revolutionary as an example. He is a passionate young man, obsessed by his political ideas and the contrast between their cruelty and his own vulnerable, romantic nature. This is a whole type through which we learn a lot about Russian culture, society, and political situation before World War I. Imagine a game full of those characters, and we get a story wrapped in an authentic historical report that gives it so much additional weight and credibility.

As a final example, I must mentioned the live performance of Cesar Franck's Sonata for Violin and Piano in Kronos' department. You can stay to listen to the music, or leave at any time, and then come back. In any case, Anna and Kronos will continue performing the entire sonata (four large movements - about forty-five minutes altogether). I don't know any other game that contains an entire classical masterpiece seamlessly integrated into its story and gameplay at once. Listening to this music was decidedly one of the most unforgettable gaming moments ever for me.

The Bad
The interface of Last Express is similar to that of graphical Zork games: you jump between screens in first person and click on whatever can be interacted with. You never have a full view of a room and have to turn around quite a lot, sometimes in a rather awkward fashion, in order to notice something lying on the floor or hanging down from the ceiling. A real 3D engine - or at least full camera rotation - would have been more appropriate in a game that aims for realism and dynamic exploration rather than focusing on exotic imagery. Somewhat choppy animation and inconvenient angles diminish the game's dramatic impact.

The main weakness of Last Express, however, is its puzzle design. It offers a paltry amount of inventory-based tasks, and no real logic puzzles. The real-time investigation is exciting, but after a while you begin to crave for more solid adventuring. There aren't enough spots available for real interaction, and the game is confined to just one location - the train itself. Admittedly large, it still consists of similar-looking areas, and the absence of a strong puzzle system with varied options leads to eventual repetitiveness of gameplay. There is much to discover here, but not really that much to do besides wandering around and eavesdropping on conversations. These flaws, inexcusable in most other games, are countered by the sheer uniqueness of Last Express; but the game doesn't really excel at following the established canons of adventure-making.

The Bottom Line
Last Express is one of the most original adventure games around, and probably also the only one that actually keeps the promise of true real-time gameplay. Puzzles aren't the game's forte; but its great concept, strong writing, and wonderful artistry make up for the lack of traditional challenges.

The Good
The characters appear to be real actors made to look more atificial. This is an older game so the graphics are not like todays graphics. I enjoyed the change and went back in time with it. The game has many things happening all the time and some at the same time. You don't have to save game. It is controled by a running clock that you can rewind to replay a certain part. You seldon see yourself unless you are personally interacting with another passenger. If you are captured or killed the game automatically rewinds to just before that time. This allows you to make a different decision. Certain things have to be done for completion of each section but there is no specific time to do them in each time period. You can change the sequence of the way in which you interact with the characters. Sometimes this will change the way they treat you. If you don't like the way things are going, rewind the clock a little at a time to place yourself back to where a certain event happened and try another method.

The Bad
There are a few parts where the main character has to fight and I'm not good at that. I did manage to get though after many trys.

The Bottom Line
I would highly recomend it. It has a true historical background. The train, itself, is modeled from a real train of that time period. It is exciting and very well done. You can learn from your mistakes and change at any time.

The Good
How innovative can an adventure game be? We had it all, hadn't we: Point 'n Click, real actors, 1st perspective. And yet the Last Express is so very much different from other games, that it is no wonder it didn't get very good reviews. One needs some time to realize the depth of the game.

This adventure is the one and only real time adventure I have encountered so far. Not like Blade Runner, where the label reads real time, but the story development still focuses on your progress. The train offers the designers a closed area, where the time really runs through your fingers. The other passengers lead a live of their own, walk through the coaches, talk to each other, eat and sleep. I played through the game four times and still I encountered some new stuff.

The graphics are interesting, too. Real actors have been caught in stills, repainted and integrated in the game as "cartoon" characters. This works much better than the usual blue boxed personnel in front of a rendered background. Last Express looks very different from other adventure games. This is of course also due to the first person perspective.

The Bad
The main character is, well, no one you would go out on a beer with. He is a terrorist, a killer and his arrogance adds into the picture. This makes it kind of difficult to identify yourself with Robert Cath. Unless you're a terrorist yourself, I guess.

Unfortunately has the graphics style also a big minus on the other side. While adding to a great atmosphere, the pictures are stop-motion. Meaning that the game blends over from one still picture to the next one. Much like movement in the ZORK graphic adventures. Only important scenes are completely animated. I guess this is due to the high amount of data. The Last Express already eats up three CDs. But boy would I be happy about a DVD Rerelease - with smooth animation all over. ( I know this is less than probable)

The Bottom Line
The Last Express is a great adventure with an impressive, luring story. You'll need some time though, to get into the plot and to become familiar with the strange stop motion first perspective view. Try to buy the game with the packaging. At least the German release had a great double cover with some beautiful pictures and printing on the inside.

The Good
The atmosphere is second to none. The storyline is deep, tense and interesting. The voice acting is superb - best I've ever heard.

The Bad
Some of the fight sequences are a little unintuitive. The stop-motion animation might put some folks off. Sometimes the time drags as you wait for events to unfold.

The Bottom Line
This game had a hard time being widely accepted, as it came out at a time when the gaming industry was hyping cutting edge graphics, and more thoughtful (but less graphically exciting) games like this were basically ignored.

This is a beautifully crafted game that takes the player back in time to an earlier era. The story takes place in the last days before the Great War changed the face of Europe forever. You are a rogue American adventurer named Robert Cath, and all the action takes place aboard the Orient Express on its final trip from Paris to Constantinople (modern day Istanbul).

Players will first notice that the game uses a sort of stop-motion comic-book style of animation. This is the game's only serious hurdle. Some folks dislike it, others don't mind it at all. I thought it added to the game, as the Art Nouveau style of the graphics lent the requisite old-fashioned air to a game set in Europe in the early years of the 20th Century. Had it been made using a more modern style, I feel it would have lost something. As it is, the visual choice that the developers made seems perfect for the period and serve to draw you deeper into the story.

Another choice the developers made was to make all the game action take place in real time. Again, this choice may be disliked by players who want fast-paced excitement all the time. At certain periods you have time to just drink in the atmosphere of Europe on the brink of war. This is part of the game's allure. It's a game for people who like to change into a robe on a winter's evening, set a roaring fire in the fireplace and curl up in an overstuffed armchair with a well-written historical novel.

The game presents players with a traditional adventure story, and a rich and deeply involving one at that. The action starts in a Paris train station, and you are soon aboard the Orient Express. As you board the train you have no idea what the next 48 hours will bring, but you will be called on to perform deeds that will determine the very future of Europe. As the story unfolds, you are torn between your allegiance to yourself and your responsibility to save Europe as it plunges into chaos. You will experience adventure, the temptation of riches, love, and tragedy as the Orient Express takes you inexorably towards your destiny.

This game is probably the best game I have ever played. I have owned it for 8 years and I think I've had it on my hard drive all of that time. In terms of atmosphere and story it is unmatched. I am not ashamed to say that it is the only game I've ever played that has made me weep for the characters. Emotionally engaging, deep and ultimately unforgettable, for me this is the perfect game.

If what I've written above appeals to you, you will love this game. Although it was written for Windows 95 it plays perfectly on modern Windows XP systems.

The Good
Where do I begin? The Last Express has so much going for it, it would be easy to miss something. I picked this up based on Jordan Mechner's involvement, the highly positive reviews I've read, and of course the $9.99 price (August 2000). I would have gladly paid the original retail price for this title, if I'd only known how spectacular it is. Jordan Mechner tried a lot of new things with this game, and on almost all counts he was quite successful. The first thing you'll notice is the wonderful graphics system - it's almost, but not, full-motion video. Actors were filmed heavily made-up, to look like cartoons. The pictures were then converted to black and white scetches (probably using a filter like what you'll find nowaways in Paint Shop Pro or the like), and colors were filled in manually to create a cel art effect. I can't rave enough on how great this system works. Still screen captures do NOT do this game justice. You really must see the game in action to appreciate it. The characters are expressive in a way that traditional animation can rarely accomplish, but because you aren't watching a movie, you concentrate on the game rather than the performance. Since we've entered the age of 3D graphics, this system may never be used again. That's a shame. The vocal performances, by the way, are superb. They were also well recorded - I only noticed one technical mistake, but that can be overlooked. The characters are intriguing, as is the game's story. Characters will begin to draw emotional responses from you almost immediately, and the overall plot is most fascinating. It has plenty of twists, including a few that you might not expect. And the entire process is quite non-linear. The game sacrifices puzzle quantity for a high amount of explorational freedom. Events will happen with or without your presence. You can't be everywhere at once. While this may be frustrating for some, it goes a long way toward creating a sense of realism. More on puzzles in the "bad" side of this review! Kudos to Jordan Mechner for picking a setting that hasn't been over-used. This pre-war Europe scenario has something for everyone; romance, political intrigue, action - it's all there. Adventure games are notorious for having painstakingly rendered, 20 minute epics for opening sequences, and then leaving the gamer high and dry when it comes to the ending. The Last Express is quite the opposite - The ending (there are multiple endings, in fact!) is actually the game's high point. I had to watch it twice. The game even avoids the boring ending credit sequence present in most games; The final credit roll in The Last Express is the best I've ever seen, bar none. Also worth mentioning is the save system - there isn't one. The game is automatically saved in the form of a "clock". You can rewind and fast forward the clock at will. If you die, you can simply go back in time to wherever you made a mistake. Very elegant. If you want atmosphere, The Last Express has plenty. I obviously wasn't around in 1914, so I can't comment on accuracy; but boy, for a little while I really felt like I was a part of the last journey of the Orient Express. That, my friends, is what adventure gaming is all about.

The Bad
The game's box claims 40 hours of playing time. I'd say 20 would actually be a high estimate. Granted, that's 20 hours of pure enjoyment; but I'd still call The Last Express a "short" game. It is my heartfelt belief that an adventure game should have good characters, a strong story, and be a total experience - not a collection of puzzles. Even so, I believe that the game's puzzles ought to be addressed so you know what to expect. I spent probably the first half of the game feeling that I was being led, not controlling the action. When the puzzles finally did begin, I had grown so fascinated by watching the story, that I was momentarily jarred away from it. Furthermore, none of the puzzles are of the caliber you'd expect in a good adventure game - especially not one of the quality of The Last Express. With all of these great and well fleshed-out characters, I was a little disappointed that the game never really told me about the person I was supposed to be. While most (Western) role-playing games encourage you to make your character into whatever you want him or her to be, when I play an adventure game I want to "become" someone else. I never really got that chance in The Last Express - the game doesn't tell you much at all about his past, his personality, or his motivations. I didn't begin to understand him until the very end of the game, and by then it was all over. Was this intentional? The Last Express suffers from the lack of a truly compelling soundtrack. I have to admit that my background may make me place a little more importance on a game's music than most might. There's a really spectacular concert sequence about 2/3 into the game, and the main theme is well-written, if not entirely memorable. On the other hand, because much of the game is played without background music, you are drawn to the ambient sounds that exist all over the train. It's a give and take.

The Bottom Line
The Last Express is marketed as an adventure game, but I can't call it a traditional one. It feels like something different altogether. While its uniqueness is a testament to Jordan Mechner's continued innovation in the field, it's a shame that there isn't anything else like The Last Express. The game represents a new direction for computer games that was never fully explored. Given that The Last Express has been re-released by Interplay for a price tag of only $9.99 US, it is, more than ever, worth your money. Go out and pick it up - I don't think you'll be disappointed.

The Good
Great setting and characters. Historical fiction, yay!

The Bad
Since characters have their daily routines you can miss pivotal moments. I'm fairly sure I softlocked my progress at some point. The silver lining here is that I managed to do completely different things on my second try. Talk to different people, witness different events, etc.

The graphics while distinct aren't that great, nor have they aged well. They are fine for most of the conversations, but would benefit from a remaster, especially for the more involved cutscenes.

Unfortunately the story jumps the shark in the later half of the game. It becomes all mystical and fantastical, where it starts so down to earth and grounded in historical fiction.

The Bottom Line
The Last Express definitely isn't a perfect game, but it's so unique that you'll forgive it all its faults.

The Good
If there’s a rare compliment in the gaming business, it’s this one: this game has style. Last Express has deserved it in many ways. To film footage of live actors, then turn it into beautiful Art Nouveau graphics – that’s style. To make the locations, the wardrobes, the conversational topics historically accurate – that’s style. To let the multicultural passengers of a train talk in their native tongues and use subtitles – that’s style. Jordan Mechner and his crew manage to create characters that are not only credible, but also interesting; and that’s the foundation of the whole game. Slowly uncovering the background and motive of every passenger on board of the Orient Express proves to be considerably more exciting than one expects at first. I know very few games in which the actors, locations and places have been picked with that much care. Unfortunately, I know many an example in which the actual gameplay doesn’t live up to the look.

The Bad
Beneath its artistic veil, Last Express is a disappointingly simple game. You can count the puzzles on one hand, and they are not the “think”-type, but the “search” one. Not “How do I distract the conductor to search the rooms undisturbed?”, but “When is he going to leave at last, dammit?” Even worse, the puzzles obstruct the plot; you want to progress, but can’t, as something has to be done first. I wouldn’t have needed puzzles in this game. I would have enjoyed it as much, probably even more, as interactive movie. Yes, I know this term is dreaded. Rightfully so due to bad experience, but not because the concept wouldn’t work. Last Express is the best hint we’ve received so far that it would work, and be astonishingly thrilling. Because it is fluent like a movie, yet involves you like a game; it’s not the actors of a film that unravel the mystery – it’s you! Last Express has learnt from the movies how to fill persons with life, how to create atmosphere, how to tell a story. All it would have needed to learn from games is the freedom of choice, nothing else. Forget about puzzles; trust in man’s strongest drive, curiosity. Discovery means satisfaction; give him things to discover! Why annoy him with stupid action sequences when an exciting animated fight alone would be reward enough? A truly excellent interactive movie does not need to force challenges; it should be a challenge in itself.

The Bottom Line
The Last Express is weak as a game. That said, it is a milestone of computer gaming, as it marks an attempt at style in a business that’s uniform, at development in a business that doesn’t get ahead. As close to a truly thrilling interactive movie as anything, it fails only because it tries to be too much game, when it should have been more movie.

The Good
What I really like about this game is the fact that I feel that I AM a character. Unlike any other game I can think of, the character actually means something and interacts perfectly with other characters. And it's not like other games where time doesn't pass by unless you do something. No, just like in real life, time passes by regardless of whether you do anything or not, and characters just interact with each other. It just feels too real, and the characters are really deep and each has its own story. The train is beautifully remade, and you can just chill out, do nothing, go talk to people, overhear their conversations, listen to a concert by its passengers, steal things, read people's diaries... and most importantly find out who killed your friend who was on the train before you jumped in. 100/100 Job perfectly done.

The Bad
The animations might be a little primitive, but considering the year the game was made they're excellent, and after a while, you'll get used to them.

The Bottom Line
JUST BUY THIS GAME!

The Good
Note: this review if for the Gold Edition release distributed on Steam. No noteworthy modification from the original game intervenes.

The Bad
(review is below)

The Bottom Line
One can not really see Jordan Mechner's self-assigned mission with The Last Express as unambitious. This adventure game is a videoludic reinterpretation of Agata Christie's masterwork Murder on the Orient-Express. A work realised in the end of XX century, based on a book from ---- narrating events and intrigues taking place on a train in the 20s. If porting works of art from one media to an other one is always a risky enterprise at least, porting a masterwork is risky all the more, specially since the source book belongs already with contemporary art, that which is conscious that reality is not reality. Mechner's adventure finely fulfils subtle surrealism, yet this is not going to be what the player notices firstly, for sure. More likely, that will be the environment, the inside of the train, with that visual, bodily narrowness that feels like a minacious cage. Controls reveal to be simple once getting accustomed to them, which, because of the introductive tutorial's inadequacy, does not occur much early. One feels constrained, and surrounded by peril. Relaxation and relief are to be waited for: they'll come once the time-manipulating mechanism that is the core of the gameplay becomes familiar. At any time in the game it is possible to move back to any time in the past and change the course of the story: by there, game overs though many are all painless.

Meanwhile, the train proves as spatially limited as dense with facts, words actions emotions purposes passions, and of course deceit mystery, and murders: it takes it not long to stop looking small. Like life, and the book, it houses many lives, or rather many games, as parallel as to seem one, in reality each alternative to the others. To play The Last Express naturally implies not to see all what happens, not to hear all what is said: conversations, happenstances, take place simultaneously, and everywhere. The perplexing clock, on the user interface marks fundamental moments with its heart-beat; many other ones flow free, unknown. One can subvert this realistic logic by replaying several times each section prime gameplay innovation, moving back and forth in time at will. And then follow the actions and speeches of each of the characters for the entire trip. It is a different way to live the game, as right and wrong, if less natural, as the opposite one.

Graphics are exquisite in animation, drawing, technique; the relatively narrow spaces are represented with the subtlety of a mosaic: the hands of a clock, the feather of a hat, the texture of a leather chair, everything is given the richness of a painting. But there is no invention, no alteration, no addition to reality: just faithfulness to the source: just an authentic portrait. Which requires of the author respect and courage. Drawing is that of an animated film, joined with a vivacious Victorian palette, having an aristocratic scent. One actually feels on the Orient-Express, a train of a gone time for an aristocratic class that is not there anymore, which goes along a route that is not covered anymore. In regards with the gameplay, it is proficient in design. Puzzles, the range of possible interaction with the environment and the non-playing characters: all is no less than well designed, less for the initial tutorial.

The myriad of stumbling blocks and chances for inconsistency threatening a game which deals with a multitude of characters all in action for the whole time is nearly completely prevented. Voicing, most essential here, is on par with that in a serious film, far from what is found in TV series or fiction. Since graphics are the same, shat would elsewhere be cutscenes is an integral part of the gameplay, well-played to the point of asking for repeated watching. The whole game is pictured in a technique similar to full-motion video, animations taken from actors with excellent results.

It gets to unexpected details. See how voices that reach us from nearby are differentiated from those coming from another room or compartment. What about the thunder and noises from rain, coming through windows? This is what tells about a work: that M.me Wolff often changes her dress and if we inspect her baggage we see the one she was wearing before; the whistle of the train stopping, the clatter of the train leaving; a philanderer nervously checking his clock in the wait for a date, a little rascal who turns his curiosity ripe eye on us while going to dine with his parents, the quantity of train staff members and how their characters and appearance differ from each other (even assistant cooks and waiters aren't mistakable for the head waiter and the chef, li they usually are not in reality), while all of them remain easy to distinct from the travellers, as easy as in real life... Notwithstanding a non-negligible part of these will go unnoticed in the standard walkthrough, subtleties are countless.

None of this grants The Last Express its height, instead it does that while it deals with numerous questions one would see as contingent it is a drama about the hinges of human existence. The slavery to greed and even further to the irrepressible desire for power, which make conflict triumphant and endless; the fact that love be a draught promptly secured by the hermetic seals of reciprocal self-centredness. Apart from, of course, the innocent; melancholic shadows destined to fade after the sunset: Alexei, Tatiana... above all Max... that can love and loves, while he obviously finds strange the totality of events around him. This is a trip going to inspire keen passion in the kind of traveller who will notice that, at a certain moment, the slave muslim women have freed themselves from their burka and will be glad to hear, by then, their lively chit-chatting; and to earn no less than appreciation from any player having the slightest inclination for adventure games.