The Last Express

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 10 years and 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.

I enjoyed the video game overall , it developp mysteries and some surprises are there to make the story unpredictable . There is suspense too because we know , at the beginning, that the video game will end when they will get to the destination . In the meantime , we need to find some stuff before we get there . So we will succeed or no ? The characters have all some mysteries and we discover the story along with our character and we fight against time trough the video game . Pretty nice game but i found the navigation very terrible . When we need to go straightforward thats good but when we need to examine object or a compartment i found it not appropriate and make the investigation harder that it neeed to be . But a good experience overall .

This is the best computer game I have ever played. It's so evocative and you really feel as though you are there in the train, observing everything and everyone! The details are so rich and accurate - I saw pictures of the actual Orient Express carriages in a book and recognised everything! The other characters are all intriguing and the possibility of unrestricted eavesdropping is fantastic. I remember deliberately hanging around Sophie and Rebecca out of a sordid desire to find out all the ins-and-outs of their relationship! And the others were all so well-rounded and complex even though they slotted into what might appear to be clichéd roles such as the Russian anarchist, the doomed Tatiana, enigmatic Anna the Serbian terrorists and the smug little French family heading to Abadan. Oh they transcenced their stereotypes all right. In some ways I'd love to play a game that just involved listening in to a much larger trainload of characters! I have often longed to find a game in a similar style but covering a different set of circumstances - the search has been in vain. "Titanic-Adventure out of Time" makes a fair stab at it but it is flawed compared to "The Last Express".

Anyway thank goodness I bought this game when it was available all those years ago and that I still possess it and the box it came in. I also sent off for the official guide which is a good thick book full of valuable extra information and pictures. I wouldn't sell either for any money!

This is an excellent PC game set sometime around World War I. I bought the game a few years ago now, it is hard to find. If you are interested in Adventure and war PC games I suggest trying to find this master peice.

Set on the Orient Express in 1914, this game is from the beginning completely different from anything you have seen before.

Through the story, you are led by the young American doctor, Robert Cath, who is urgently contacted by his old friend, Tyler Whitney, to join him on the Orient Express, crossing Europe from Paris to Constantinople. Robert, being assumed as a fugitive and wanted for mixing up in an exchange of fire with IRA in Ireland, accepts his friend proposition for escape. If only he knew then what were Tyler's reasons for going on to that train...

Game starts at Gare de l'Est, East train station in Paris on 24th July, almost a month after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Our hero, to avoid the police, reaches the train in the countryside little after the departure with a help of a young motorcyclist. His first goal is to find Tyler. There's where you step in.

The graphics of this game are unique, process used to input live actors into the games, known as Rotoscope, was used. The results is realistic animation, and the feel that you are on the train. Hand-drawings of train, rooms, made by the pictures one of the last remaining trains, off the track in Athens, which crew visited.

Voice acting is fairly good, there is no lip synching, but voices fit extremely well to the actors, even if most of them weren't given by the people who were used in Rotoscope process. Languages spoken on the train are English, French, German, Russian, Serbo-Croatian and Arabic. Cath understands first four of those languages, so the subtitles appear in the lower part of screen (except for English).

Music, the strongest point of this game thought by many. Original soundtrack was composed and orchestrated by Elia Cmiral, famous Czech composer. Music is mainly inspired by romance, mystery and sadness of the game. Violin play is extraordinary. Music fits extremely well into every aspect of the game.

Story, dialogs - absolutely remarkable. There are wealth of dialogs to be overheard, and the story will surely not leave you melancholic, as by the end you will understand the other part of the story that evoke on the beginning, with many questions and historical lesson.

A game you should definitely play.