jimmoreno's Full Review: The Last Express for Windows, Mac
The Last Express
PC Game Review by Jim H. Moreno
“One does have the most unexpected encounters on trains.”
- August Schmidt, The Last Express
Intrigue. Action. Suspense. Mystery. All the ingredients for an Agatha Christie bestseller, right? Add romance. A tall, dashing doctor. A lovely fiery-haired concert violinist. Now you have a top Harlequin novel, you say? What if you added a spy, an African prince, and a very large jewel encrusted Faberge-style egg, and dropped them all on board the Orient Express? Now you have the magic that only a Hollywood/Hitchcock movie can portray. Not this time. You’ll be surprised to know you can also find all this, and much more, in a computer game titled The Last Express.
The Last Express is an historical adventure/ murder mystery/ romance novel played out on board the most famous of trains, the Orient Express. The game is set in the summer of 1914, when political anxiety was quickly bringing all of Europe into a boil that would spill into World War I.
The player takes on the persona of one Robert Cath, a former American doctor living the quiet life in Paris. After receiving a telegram from his long-time college friend Tyler Whitney to meet on the Orient Express because he has “come across something exceptional”, Cath makes a grand and illegal entrance onto the train, only to find Whitney dead in his room. Thus begins a players’ search for answers as the questions keep arising.
As a long time student of both history and computer games, I absolutely love it when both worlds collide. There have been many times when it only resulted in a terrible travesty to both genres. However, game designer Jordan Mechner and his San Francisco-based development team Smoking Car Productions brought honor and pleasure to the genres with an excellent attention to detail and beauty in The Last Express. By the way, this was the team’s first foray together in making a computer game.
Regarding the gaming side of The Last Express, it’s a very simple item to deal with, allowing a player to really experience the game. The game interface is noncluttered and movement and environment interaction is but point-and-click. This makes it very easy to get immersed in the game. So much so, that I often found myself nodding to other passengers and shifting my shoulders to one side as I moved Cath down the slim train corridors.
Just because it is such a simple game doesn’t mean it’s any less of a joy to play. The plot depth, character development, and the surroundings all work to make an awesome gaming experience.
The Last Express doesn’t play like other PC games, for example, where nothing happens until a player gets to a certain point, or triggers a certain event. From the moment the player steps into Cath’s shoes, things are happening all along the train. Cath can talk to anyone he meets, or not. His fellow travelers will go about their business no matter what Cath does or doesn’t do. In fact, if a player never moved Cath from the starting point (NOT recommended), the game’s solid unscripted programming would keep moving the other game characters along their own paths, just like in real life.
However, moving is exactly what a player should do. Initially, only a couple of cars will be accessible, such as the salon, the restaurant car, and two sleeping cars. The things a player can make Cath do on these cars, however, are quite numerous. Explore Cath’s sleeping quarters. Stand in the hallway and watch everyone shuffle to and fro. Eavesdrop outside other’s quarters and glean a wealth of information. Climb out a window and spy on a neighbor. Further into the game, Cath can visit the baggage car, and can even sneak a peek into the train’s kitchen, among other things.
As a player progresses through the game, elements of a grand story begin to play out via the passengers and crew, and the player must decide where to take Cath, what to do, who should be talked to, and when. Time is of the essence here, as you race against the clock. Finding the owner of a mysterious scarf and what items did Whitney have in a now empty chest also keep the player and Cath moving at a pulse-quickening pace, all the while knowing Cath is onboard the train illegally.
As far as the historical aspects of The Last Express, Mechner’s team didn’t hold back on anything. According to Prima’s The Last Express Official Strategy Guide, written by Rick Barba, the team spent a month of Orient Express fact-finding in France. They uncovered authentic and original documentation, from a Conductor’s Rule Book to floor plans to an actual menu from July of 1914. They traveled to Budapest and Athens to get up close and personal with two actual Orient Express cars. The game’s 3-D art and animations expertly show the details inspired by these adventures, along with the distinctiveness of art nouveau and Toulouse-Lautrec’s work.
The Last Express was released back in the days of Windows 95, and will work in DOS and with the Power Macintosh, according to the game’s User Manual. I have found that it also works well with Windows 98 and XP, with no tweaking of settings on my part at all.
The game comes on three disks, and includes a ‘making of’ movie of about 12 minutes that is an excellent add-on. I would also highly recommend the strategy guide, not only for the walk-through of The Last Express, but for the chapter on the historical timeline leading up the game’s events. Barba also includes an interview with Mechner and Tomi Pierce, who helped Mechner write the story of The Last Express.
The Last Express holds an original place among computer games. There was not a game like it before, and there hasn’t been one like it since. Find it, and take an afternoon on your favorite computer to enjoy it. When’s the last time you played a good book?
Broderbund Software, Inc.
www.broderbund.com
The Last Express Official Site
www.lastexpress.com
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