The Last Express: A New Trip on an Old Ride

The Last Express:

Time to Beat: Don't know (played it on GOG instead of Steam), but How Long to Beat says the average is 11 hours.

The last few video game articles, I've briefly, or at length (depending on your tolerance for such things) discussed the process of note taking involved while playing the latest feature. Brigador inspired too few thoughts, while Oxenfree prompted a compendium for all the wrong reasons. Yet, neither compared to the lengthy book The Last Express engendered. Twelve pages of rough notes, condensed to seven for the final write-up, but not containing not a single wasted impression, for this game deserves a proper, deliberative rumination. As one who normally confines themselves to thousand word articles, it seemed like quite a feat (Unwisely, in my haphazard style, I'd failed to number the pages, and determining the proper order consumed a considerable amount of time).

Published in 1997 by the venerable Broderbund, The Last Express is another adventure game released during the golden age of the genre. Though a critical darling, it was an expensive commercial flop, and probably contributed to the company's descent into defunctness the following year (bought by The Learning Company). Despite selling fewer than a hundred thousand copies, it quickly became a much sought after treasure, and was finally re-released by Good Old Games in 2011 to great acclaim. In spite of its age and competition, The Last Express still attains a spot on those, best of all time adventure game lists, popular on the major gaming websites (though I can't speak to their taste: Her Story, To the Moon, and Gone Home make these lists, but I'd strongly discourage playing them).

A quick summary. This article will cover a broad outline of The Last Express without spoiling the plot, and will examine some of the core mechanics. Other articles will follow, as this game is worthy of a four day trip.

In The Last Express, the player controls Robert Cath, an American doctor planning to meet his friend Tyler Whitney aboard the Orient Express in Paris. He is unable to board the train in the station, wanted as he is by the French and British police for an altercation in Belfast, and uses a motorbike to entrain after the engine has departed the terminal. Entering though one of the carriage doors, the movie ends and the game proper begins.

The Last Express departs Paris on July 24^th 1914, a month after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Its boarders represent the communities of Europe, already picking sides, like school children at play, for a war which seems inevitable. Aboard the train, which Cath never leaves during the game, the player encounters the thirty or so guests, conductors, servers, and mechanics, all expertly voiced and beautifully constructed. In an attempt to render the characters both realistic and classically old fashioned, the designers experimented with a (then) state of the art procedure. The actors worked for twenty-two days with the developers, during which live action footage was recorded for each action of each character. The video was digitized into black and white frames, after which the designers reinserted color. Using something called rotoscoping, a limited number of frames were used to give the illusion of movement to the characters. In appearance, the characters move like a slow motion flip book, each frame clearly delineated from the next. The effect is surprisingly pleasant, distinct, and blends with the older feeling attached to the setting and the train itself.

Before continuing any further discussion of The Last Express, one would be remiss for not mentioning its key mechanic. All events in The Last Express occur in real time, which passes regardless of what the player compels Cath to do. The other guests of the Orient Express move about the limited space according to their own schedule (though the developers insist the characters' actions change depending on Cath's choices). At any time, the whole train is in action, but Cath can't possibly witness it all. Part of the player's knowledge and even success are composed of luck, being in the correct location to hear the necessary information. Should Cath be in the dinning car listening to Herr Schmidt speak to Frau Wolff, or standing outside Alexi's compartment to eavesdrop on his conversation with Tatiana? One thought might arise among the reader, that time passes too slowly for this game to remain interesting. Correct! The minutes and hours slip by at six times the normal speed, but the character's do not notice their temporal aberration.

As an adventure game, The Last Express, is part of a expansive tradition. Older adventure games fall into two distinct categories, focusing on either plot or puzzles, while newer games under the Telltale model emphasize choices (even if they are superficial). But The Last Express was ahead of its time, expertly combining the first two, and even allowing three good endings for the player to choose from, depending on Cath's actions.

The Last Express stand apart, because it is able to draw the player into Cath, and to draw Cath into a series of petty personal difficulties, intertwining mysteries, and deadly conflicts. The thirty cast members, drawn from all aspects of European society are strongly reminiscent of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, not least because someone commits a murder. The ability to convey the atmosphere of 1914, to entertainingly embroil the character in international intrigue, and the interlocking parts each of the characters play, is classic Christie, so much I'd be astonished if the developers weren't intentionally reinterpreting her story. Fortunately, Smoking Car Productions re-imagines her work by readjusting the lens, and pulls Cath deeper into the conflicts of Europe.

The Last Express employs a number of techniques to string Cath along. Investigating numerous mysteries requires constant paroling of the the Express. Fortunately, the wooden walls of the Orient Express are as thin as tissue paper. Listening to the troubles and joys of the other guests is enjoyable, but also an exercise, trying to divine the relevant facts from the everyday gossip. In their compartments, in the hallways, smoking car, and dinning car, guests speak freely. The only difficulty occurs when two conversations overlap. The characters of The Last Express speak the many languages of Europe, but Cath can understand more than you or I. Subtitles scroll across the bottom of the screen, but when multiple conversations are occurring concurrently, the game only illuminates one conversation. While adding a layer of difficulty, one can hardly complain about this realistic rendition of life on a train. But while the conversations are realistic, the player is unrealistically prohibited from starting conversations with other characters except at rare, prescripted scenes. One realizes it would be impossible for the designers to have created a process where a conversation is always available, but one can still express disappointment. Though there are roughly thirty characters, Cath will only speak face to face with about ten throughout the entire ten hours.

Like most adventure games, The Last Express does include an inventory and puzzle solving though the two are not strongly connected. Most puzzles are solved by speaking to the correct person at the correct time, evading unwanted discovery, or moving objects about. Cath's inventory is used to store the various notes, papers, and scraps Cath collects. It's not that items in the inventory are never used to solve puzzles, but its rare.