Spearheaded by Jordan Mechner (of Prince of Persia fame), The Last Express was a critically acclaimed adventure game that bombed at retail. Many blamed this on sparse — or non-existant — marketing, but I don’t think the lack of ads was the sole reason for the game’s poor sales.
TLE was a time-piece aboard the Orient Express just before the onset of World War 1. It was filled with political strife, conflicting philosophies, and lots of foreign languages. It also had its fair share of stilted animations, static environments, occasionally disorienting camera angles, and the ever-dreaded time-limit. In short, it wasn’t exactly a mainstream-friendly title.
The cast of The Last Express (or at least the majority of it).
Despite the rough edges, though, it really deserved its accolades.
TLE’s setting was uncommon, and, in a way, exotic. The main character could speak different languages, so he understood what was being said via subtitles (an approach that, in execution, is much more berable than just accented English). Even the animations weren’t that bad when the disk-space allowed for them.
As for the time-limit, well, it was a cruicial part of the game’s innovative approach. The adventure was actually a simulation of sorts, with numerous characters moving about the train without any input from the player. This created some right-place-at-the-right-time situations that, unfortunately, also intensified the “panicky” nature of the experience. Still, they did encourage multiple replays, and the effect was somewhat dampened by the player’s ability to rewind the plotline.
The rotoscoped characters were vivid and served the game well, and the writing and acting still stand up. In fact, Robert Mechner made a movie out TLE, capturing a playthrough of the golden-path (albeit not the happiest) ending. It obviously doesn’t have the same structure as a film, but it’s still an enjoyable redux of a very interesting project.
