The Last Express

I bought this game based on the review and also because I'm a fan of the genre. Though the game is very beautiful it is also very confusing. The time control is a very cool and interesting feature. The feeling of having a schedule to be aware of is one of the things that attracted me. Though, it doesn't work very well when you don't know what are you suposed to do. At some point in the game before arriving at Vienna, you need to complete a series of actions that in my opinion, makes the player feel overwhelmed by the complexity of it: you need the right items, you need the right timing and you need to have a keen eye to find some items that, in my case, was just beyond my suspicions. ========== GAME HINT AHEAD =========== But the worst part of it is that you don't have a clue of what to do. Just a tip, it might be a light spoiler though, to any player who might read this: (((Do not give the golden egg to Chronos to get the gold))). Although the game basically makes you think you should give the freaking egg to him to get the gold/money and finish a certain transaction. ========== END OF GAME HINT ALERT! =========== But the thing worth mentioning here, is that if you don't do the things the right way or if you're not in the right place at the right time, it's game over, and you need to accomplish a lot of actions you have already done before, again. I had to yield at some point after trying so many times to no avail. I ended up following a walkthrough to be able to pass that part in the game, which for me, is the worst thing that can happen, I really hate having to use this kind of resource to get through the game, it breaks all immersion. So, go ahead and buy it, it's a well crafted game, but gameplay wise I can't praise this game, because it lack in consistency in some points which makes the game feel tedious, boring and making you frustrated in the process.

This is a true piece of art and history, as it is full of both. Visually, the game is a constant marvel. The atmosphere is amazing. The plot is good, I love the characters and while I’m not usually fond of thrillers I did enjoy the story. It is heavily (and smartly) related to the events which led to start WW1. I also find the voice acting to be of very high quality, especially for a game this old. As a european and french native speaker, I am able to enjoy this even more, though you’d need to speak 6 different languages to get the completely full experience I guess, haha. (English, french, german, russian, serbian and arabic are spoken by the passengers, and some dialogues aren’t translated.) There is a lot happening on the train so you cannot actually follow every conversation unless you want to use the rewind quite a bit. This adds up to The Last Express’ depth and replayability. Now, I should note the gameplay is limited and some of the puzzles can be a bit silly, as it is the case in most old Point&Click adventure games. Quite ''tirées par les cheveux'', as we say in french. More importantly, there are bugs that could block your progression (idk if this is due to the gog version or not.) It happened to me once but my second game was fine. Since those last points are obviously annoying this is why I withdraw 1 star to a nonetheless more than worth, enthralling experience.

I cannot recommend this unique game enough. A walk-through by your side is advisable though (even if just to reassure yourself that you haven't missed anything critically important) and there are several excellent freely available guides online. The complexity and the nature of key timing in this game may seem intimidating at first, but the game's mechanic of being able to rewind time results in the player being able to recover from any mistakes or oversights, as well as being able to narrow down what they need to do and exactly when. Lots of re-playability value (to catch the full flavor of events and characters, even non-critical ones), excellent music (even an in-game concert), a beautiful graphics style (that you quickly adjust to), top-class voice acting and the most immerse game-play I've had the great pleasure to encounter in an adventure game. This has become one of my most cherished gaming experiences and one I will play many times again.

What is really, REALLY outstanding about this game is its athmosphere and and the drama. Unfortunately, I can't help but feel that it would have made a better movie. Its 'teal time' feature was a big marketing thing of its time, and it rarely archieves much, except missing plot elemets, which most of the time is not essential, but it leaves the player wondering about motivations. Half-way through the game there is a puzzle section (puzzle understood as a sequence of actions that will have to be taken) that is WAY TOO HARD to reasonable expect players to figure out. It makes sense AFTER you have seen it play out, but most players will not come up with that solution on their own, because it seems counterintuative to everything you learned so far, and there are no hints given of the solution. That particular section of the game, is bad puzzle design.

There was such a glut of adventure games on DOS and early windows back in the day; if you are anything like me, you occasionally want something a bit different. The visual style of the game sets it apart immediately. I love rotoscoped animation, and I find this game a joy to look at. I also appreciate the in-depth and rich world. Even though the whole game takes place on one train, the sheer amount of stuff to do and see is very impressive. The same cannot be said for the gameplay. Adventure games are at their worst when the player has no idea what they're supposed to be doing from moment to moment. The Last Express compounds this issue by placing a hard time limit to every correct action. Fail, and you may die right away, if you're lucky. Otherwise be prepared to experience the dreaded "dead man walking" situation, where your failure in the game is inevitable hours from now, only you won't realize it before it's too late. Even with a walk-through, some of the puzzles are simply too obtuse to solve as quickly as the game wants you to. Unfortunately, this game is probably best experienced by watching a playthrough from an experienced player, rather than actually playing it.