CGA-2025-09 🕹️🚂 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ The Last Express
Flames flicker as the once mighty Orient Express lies on its side in pieces, bodies in cartoonishly thuggish costumes scattered all around. After a long three days full of murder, deception, concerts and romance, its final journey has come to a fiery end.
From the inferno, a single figure emerges in a scorched trench coat, dark hair ruffled by the breeze. He brushes off the coat with one hand and smoothly extends the other, and a solid gold bird swoops down from the sky to perch on it. Red flames flicker along its wings and back, but his sleeve remains perfectly untouched.
He walks away from the burning wreckage, arm still outstretched with gleaming golden bird atop it. Sunglasses descend from the sky and land squarely on his nose. A second smaller pair studded with jewels descends and lands on the bird's beak, managing to somehow look cool instead of ridiculous.
“Time to kick some Nazi ass,” the man declares, and the bird caws.
The train explodes behind them and the air reverberates with a “Yeeeaaaahhhh!”
Note: the above scene may not be 100% accurate or canon.
So concludes the first leg of the Colossal Game Adventure!
We hope you enjoyed your time aboard The Last Express. For anyone who missed the initial boarding period... Well uh, luckily this game involves rewinding time, so you can just rewind here to the Insert Cartridge topic when the train was intact. Feel free to post there if you're just starting the game, or you can post here after finishing even if you're only finding these topics months later.
That said, presumably most of you boarded earlier and had a chance to play the game. As such, this post will not require spoilers to be hidden in dropdown blocks. So if you don't want to be spoiled, please adjust your clock and rewind to the previous post.
Use this post to share final thoughts and impressions, post fun little secrets or easter eggs you found, ask questions if you had to abort your playthrough for whatever reason, link video clips, discuss if you completed any of the meta challenges, etc. Or you can share and express admiration for the very nice official Colossal Game Adventure splash screen made by @Boojum which I meant to link last time on "Press Start", but accidentally pasted the wrong link. I have since fixed it, but that was two nights ago so you probably haven't seen it. And dang it this splash screen is too awesome to go unappreciated!!
Otherwise, we can consider this leg of the journey to be complete. That said, the adventure is only just beginning! Wouldn't be a Colossal Game Adventure with only one game, now would it? You can find the current schedule here. Our next destination will be Chrono Trigger with @ali stepping up as the next host. As for me, my time as conductor has come to an end and I will be joining you all as passengers.
If you intend to continue this journey, you can just grab your luggage from the—uh... *glances at the flaming wreckage* ...Well hey, it'll be a little easier to travel without all that extra weight, right?
Onwards to Chrono Trigger!
The Last Express far exceeded my expectations. I hadn't played many adventure games up to this point, but something about the premise and the graphics really intrigued me. I'm very happy I played it.
My first experience with the game after setting it up was reading the introductory section of the official strategy guide. I loved how it described the environment and political temperature leading up to WWI. It was really well written and helped me connect with the world the characters are living in while I was playing the game.
From there, I began my train ride and was immediately hooked by the game's presentation. The train car is beautiful and brought me back to a train trip I took a year ago with a sleeper car. The sound design for the train further heightened the environment for me. I loved how you could hear when the train was in motion or pulling into a stop. What tied everything together was the character design. The rotoscoping worked really well for me. The characters feel a touch more realistic despite the older graphics and are genuinely well designed. Having the trainmaster come down each car to announce dinner or that the train is arriving at the station really makes the train feel alive. The conductors further the immersion. I love their interactions with each other. When you steal the manifest and the older conductor chews out the younger conductor, the game really feels real. The game really does a good job of having the environment respond to your actions, and that's the major thing that kept me hooked throughout the game. The final thing I want to bring up for the overall game design is the voice acting. It's top notch and really pushes the quality bar to the top. The voice acting makes the game as exhilarating as it is. The characters feel real when you talk to them because they sound real. Nobody comes across as robotic. The scripting of characters talking to each other in their compartments or even over each other in the dining room or parlor car makes the world feel alive.
Moving onto the gameplay itself, I really enjoyed this type of game, which was great having never played it before. The mystery hooked me, and I loved the real time exploration. There's something about learning the schedule of every character and planning out a route to accomplish a task that brings me joy. Knowing when a character will be gone in combination with when a conductor will be distracted makes for a rewarding experience sneaking into the absent character's car. But sometimes the carefully crafted plan doesn't work because the conductor is seemingly onto you and is diligently monitoring the car from his post. It's times like these where I had some fun with the game. I would stop and think, "Ok Trainmaster Verges is gone from his post, so if I head to the front of the train and release Anna's dog, that will distract Conductor Coudert long enough for me to sneak into Rebecca and Sophie's room." As I was releasing the dog, I noticed that the kennel looked large enough to fit the golden egg, so I ran back to my car, grabbed the egg, and placed it inside. Little did I know that this was actually the correct move for later down the line. When that moment came, I felt so rewarded for understanding the subtle game design at play.
There was only one part of the gameplay that tripped me up, and that was in Chapter 4: Munich to Vienna. I was convinced that stealing the golden egg and handing it over to Kronos was the right move. However, I quickly learned that my character was a selfish man and would exit the train with a large sum of gold if I did that. Interesting insight into Cath. So I knew that was the incorrect state, but I couldn't figure out what the correct one was. For the only time during my entire playthrough, I decided to crack open the official strategy guide for guidance. As it turned out, I had discovered the correct car to investigate, and I had correctly looked over the jewelry box, but I completely missed that there was a secret compartment to explore and find the master key. That was a touch subtle even for me when I was normally good at diligently looking over every little detail in a room. If this were a game my friends were also playing, I'd probably ask one for a hint next time I saw them. However, no one else I know has ever played this game, let alone heard of it, so I turned to the strategy guide. And I actually liked that. It served its purpose to help me get unstuck, and I never relied on it again. I used to do that all the time back in the day when I was playing games. I really appreciate a well written strategy guide that can be leaned on.
Aside from gameplay, I think it's worth mentioning some of the other moments of the game that gave me a smile. Drunk dancing with August Schmidt was hilarious and gave me the biggest smile. Everything George Abbot said was great. Particularly the line that @Wes pointed out:
Absolutely hilarious. The game really nailed the dialogue. Every conversation was interesting and felt rewarding to listen to, even if it wasn't an essential part of the game and you should have probably been in another section of the train at that point in time. I also enjoyed the daily newspaper that brought the events of the outside world into the train. The multiple complete articles about various topics displayed an attention to detail by the developers that really impressed me and is indicative of the craftsmanship of the entire game. Finally, I really enjoyed the rewind mechanic. The fact that everything is playing out live means that you'll inevitably miss something happen at a moment in time when you're supposed to be there, but you're foolishly eavesdropping on Rebecca and Sophie instead. Like a well-crafted run from the campfire to the boss fight in Dark Souls, The Last Express has a certain rhythm and cadence to the execution of what the player is required to do in order to achieve success. Inevitably you mess up because of something that would be tough to know the first time around. When this happens, you rewind back to a point in time where you can still accomplish your goals, and you try a new strategy. I found it fun to revisit my steps and discover what misstep I took. Once you placed all of the pieces correctly together and orchestrated the successful ending to a chapter, all of the rewinds and experimentation felt truly rewarding.
There were only two things about the game that I was slightly disappointed in. The first is no fault of the game and purely my own hope coming into the game. As a Greek speaker, I was really hoping the game would have someone that could speak Greek on the way to Constantinople that I would have an extra edge in understanding. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, but it's understandable in the context of all the characters. The other disappointment was based on the one thing I knew about the game based on trailer footage I saw before playing. It showed Conductor Mertens juggling three of his heads. I absolutely loved that! Unfortunately I never saw that in game. I imagine it took place during a dream. I loved how the dreams dipped their toes into surrealism with events such as the head juggling, but I wish it took it a step further. I would love more fleshed out, surrealist dream sequences that become very psychedelic and trippy. However, that's more because I really enjoy surrealist ideas and art. Something about an unexplained yet bizarre side of a story really does something for me. All that to say, that's not really a knock against the game itself. Just something that would have increased my enjoyment of the game slightly more.
Lastly, I am a bit surprised some people fell off of the game so hard. I thought it was fairly approachable and never had issues controlling it with a mouse. Perhaps the original version on GOG controlled better. However, not every piece of art will be enjoyable by everyone, so I think it's fair that we all have differences of opinion. I'm really glad I played this game and thought it was one of the best games I have ever played. The Last Express is clearly a labor of love, and its attention to detail in the construction of its world is beautiful. I'm almost a touch melancholic that there isn't a sequel. As a fan of the history around WWI and WWII, I want to continue exploring these more personalized stories that navigate the war. It falls in line with movies such as Indiana Jones that scratch an itch for me with fictionalized events set during real events. There's also something I really enjoy about a journey. Whether that's an epic such as The Lord of the Rings (which I read the first book of on a sleeper train) or the smaller scale journey we experience in The Last Express, I love the feeling of arriving at the final destination and being able to look back at the daily cycle that took place over the journey.
The Last Express is one of my favorite games that I've ever played, and it has me really excited about The Secret of Monkey Island. I'm happy that I cast two winning votes for games I would have otherwise never have played because I already have had so much fun!
CGA Announcement: We have officially ejected the cartridge for The Last Express. Use this topic to share parting thoughts and experiences. Please be aware that spoilers are not required to be hidden in this topic, so be careful if you have not finished the game!
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When this game came out, I was, well, that weird kid who was super into
trainsThe Last Express. I didn't know anyone else who played and loved games like this. Hell, as an adult, I still don't know anyone else who plays and loves games like this.It is my favorite game of all time. I think it's highly unlikely that it will ever lose that title. It's not just my favorite -- if I were making a list of my top five, it's probably in slots 1 through 3 at least. I cannot overstate just how much I love this game.
So, being able to be part of a group of people who all dove into this love of mine together is a genuine, bona fide delight for me. Every time I run an event on Tildes, I'm a little worried nobody's going to participate. I'm glad that I was so very wrong in this case! I obviously enjoyed replaying The Last Express for the nth time, of course, but I really, REALLY loved reading everyone's comments on it.
Every time the Insert Cartridge topic had new comments, I was thrilled. I'm going to feel the exact same way (probably even moreso) about this topic. I can't get enough of hearing about other people's perspectives on it -- the good and the bad. As much as I love the game, I promise I won't be offended if anyone hates it!
As I was replaying the game, I was playing with the question: why does this game mean so much to me?
I came up with three different reasons.
I had never played a game like this before. It feels weird to say this about a game so firmly set in the past, but this game felt so far ahead of other games in creating a living, breathing digital "world". Its environment felt real. Its characters felt real. Its verisimilitude was unmatched.
It's impossible, however, to recapture how all of that felt back in 1997. I cannot stress to you enough how innovative, interesting, and ambitious this game felt. This was back when "multimedia" was still a buzzword and people were talking about how interactive audio-visual entertainment was the future. This game felt like a completely novel experience; something that had happened for the first time in humanity. I was playing the future.
From a 2025 perspective, all of the above sounds a lot more quaint, but I do have to say that I am impressed at how some of their decisions from back then still hold up today. The rotoscoping on the characters still looks good. Going with slideshows instead of full animation stops the game from having awkward animations or physical acting. Once you get used to it, it feels quite natural and lets the game's quality voice acting shine through. The voice actors really do carry the scenes.
Also, the "illusion" of the train traveling is still convincing. Outside of a few cutscenes, you never really see the train in motion. Instead, you get the sound of the train moving, the conductor calling out the next station, the sound of the brakes as the train stops, characters mentioning upcoming destinations, etc. It's all fairly simple smoke and mirrors, but it still works quite well.
In teaching, we talk about how kids like to "read up," meaning they like to read stories about characters that are older than them. I'm sure there's some developmental or psychological reason for this that I've long forgotten, but I don't think it necessarily has to be too complicated: I simply think it's exciting for kids to step into an older role, and fiction is a safe way for them to do that.
The Last Express was a way for me to "read up." I was, of course, a kid, but in the game I was as an important adult on an important transport at an important time in history doing important things alongside lots of other important adults. I felt SO grown up and SO mature. It was utterly enthralling.
This game made me feel older than I actually was. Not a lot of other games did that.
I don't remember exactly how old I was when I clued into Rebecca and Sophie's relationship. It definitely wasn't my first playthrough, probably not in my first several.
But I remember one time I was reading Rebecca's journal and the word "seductress" in reference to Sophie jumped out at me. I remember being taken aback. Up to that point I'd assumed they were just gal pals, traveling together. After all, they did gossip about guys, and that felt to me like a very gal pal thing to do.
But I couldn't wrap my head around "seductress" and how that fit in. It was too intimate, too direct to be anything other than an admission of romantic, possibly lustful longing.
I played this game before I knew I was gay. Before I really understood what being queer meant. Growing up in the strictly religious and extremely homophobic environment I was in, I wasn't given the models or language to understand myself or people like me.
But I loved the characters in this game. Each and every one. They all felt real to me. And that included Rebecca and Sophie.
There's an article about the game that I love called The Women in Compartment E. It captures so much of what I felt about this game:
Even after sitting with that "seductress" word, it still took a long time, far too long, for them to click with me. It wasn't that I went "oh, they're queer!" and that was that. It was more that I felt drawn to them in a way that I couldn't explain. The two of them are essentially inconsequential to Cath's story in The Last Express, but on every replay I would still check in on them, eavesdrop on them, read their journals.
It sounds creepy when I say it like that, but for me it was a tender, thoughtful thing. I was examining the boundary of something I didn't understand. They were inside of it, and I was, I don't know, at the perimeter maybe? I was looking in or looking around or looking out -- I wasn't sure -- all the time wondering where exactly I stood and if I would ever know.
It would take me a long time for the boundary to become clear and for me to see that I was inexplicably drawn to them because, well, they were like me. (Er, well, Rebecca with her reserved, plaintive yearning was like me. Sophie, with her self-assuredness, was definitely NOT like me.)
There might have been other queer representation that I witnessed as a kid that escaped me. Although, again, given the circumstances of my upbringing, this is highly unlikely (or, if I did get representation, it was explicitly negative). This game is the first of any media that I can remember having queer characters. I think it's especially valuable because I think it was (and remains) so thoughtfully done.
As much as I emphasized point 3 above, I don’t want to give the wrong impression. It’s not simply “queer characters + queer me = fulfilling experience.” Instead, it’s more that the queer characters and their intersection with me is indicative of the care with which the game was made. I love the WHOLE game, not just Rebecca and Sophie’s story. I was able to have such a rich connection only because the game itself has such depth and resonance.
So, point 3 is less about queerness specifically and more about the world that queerness lives in.
I said it earlier, but this is my favorite game of all time. For me, the game itself is inseparable from my own connection to and experiences playing it over and over again. @vili said it really well here:
I guess if there were a 4th item to my list, it would be that this wasn't just a game at the time, it was the game.
I'm now drowning in titles. I can choose from literally thousands of games I own. But back then, this was one of maybe three or four games I got in a whole year. I didn't play the game and move on. I lived and breathed this game, all the time. It's a lot easier for a star to shine when it's the only one in the sky.
I love The Last Express. I don't think I'll ever not love it. It was formative for me. I remain completely connected to it. Replaying the game felt like revisiting old friends. The train felt like a childhood home for me.
I don't want to get too sentimental, but it's genuinely heartwarming to me that so many people in a community I love took the time to try out this little game that I love. It's hard to put what I'm feeling about it into words, so I'll just say that it feels like my heart is getting a warm hug from y'all.
Thank you for that. Genuinely.
Okay, with all that seriousness out of the way, now it's time for: what was my playthrough like from modern eyes?
I jotted down some bullet points in my notes app:
Unintentional comedy: popping in and out of cars repeatedly. The dinner diners were probably like "why the hell has the American come and gone six times in ten minutes?"
Love ladies in big hats. Bring back big hats for ladies.
You hear Anna practicing her violin at THREE IN THE MORNING, and Mme. Boutarel complains about the dog instead of that?
Lots of cross chatter in the game, to the point that some voice lines get lost. Annoying from a game-minded perspective, but absolutely perfect from a real-world eavesdropping perspective.
The game is really good about responding to player actions which makes it feel more real (e.g. the conductor searching for his passenger list after you steal it)
Weird plot point 1: Vesna tries to kill Anna, and then... nothing happens between them? They just go back to sleeping in adjacent compartments.
Weird plot point 2: Tatiana warns you about a bomb, and then you just... go to sleep?
Weird plot point 3: Max getting out at the end. Great from a "the animal doesn't die" perspective. Feels hokey from an "actually taking the game-world seriously" perspective.
Forgot that the ending is a downer but in a really well-executed way. Feels like the game really emphasizes the idea that people are loyal to their countries (and what those countries represent), so Wolff chooses Austria over Cath, while Cath remains the same disconnected American abroad that he was at the beginning of the story.
The FUCKING End Credits. Get me every time. Chills. Watching the map change over the years is so much more resonant because of the game you just played and the people you just spent your time with.
Thanks for sharing a very heartfelt comment, and for kicking off this whole thing to begin with.
First, I love that quote by @vili. It really illustrates just how differently we view games today. There is now a glut of new titles which constantly vie for our attention. Gone are the days where scarcity drove us to explore an individual game so deeply that we knew its every detail. The variety is great, and I don't think I'd want to go back, but it does feel that we've lost some personal connection to these games, as you've expressed so well above.
To your comments on the game, I also noticed the lesbian relationship in the journal entries, and thought that was quite forward for the time. Obviously the game takes place in the 1910s, but even during the game's release in the 1990s, gay relationships were still not that openly discussed (and were more often used as a punchline in media). So it's nice to see some positive representation.
Putting that information in a journal was an interesting way of making the relationship explicit, while also sidestepping the use of gay tropes or being overly-blunt about it. They're just a normal, happy couple, and it's only by digging through their personal things that you learn of their relationship. In that context, it makes you feel like you're the odd one for snooping, and they're just regular people going on a trip. Indeed, Sophie and Rebecca seem like the only two regular people on the train, while everybody else is either an assassin, spy, or some other player with their own agenda.
On "unintentional comedy", I felt like the conductor must have been barely keeping his cool as he reminded me for the 30th time that "This is not your compartment, sir". I apologize as I move one step forward and try the next door.
On "weird plot point 3", I noticed that Max disappeared for the last chapter too, only to reappear in the final cutscene. I looked for him a couple times after disconnecting the sleeper cars, but decided he must have been left behind. It might've been a nice detail if they'd shown him hanging out in the kennel, even if his "plot relevance" had ended by that point.
You're making me want to dive back into it and see if I can get over the hump I came to. I should hopefully have some time in the coming week here when I'm back home and I also have barely cracked my strategy guide, so maybe I'll have another look before the end of the month..
I found this game very charming. This was the first real time adventure title I've played, so I found it quite novel in execution. I played the Gold Edition on Steam, and spent 14 hours with it.
I both liked and disliked the tension that real time added. It makes you feel like you should always be doing something, and that keeps you moving. I'd often "do the rounds" and check each car to see what was going on. Often though, I'd replay a section and find something I'd completely missed just because I wasn't there to see it the first time.
Occasionally, there were periods of dead time where I needed to wait. Usually this happened when I'd already reached a fail state, rewinded, and needed to wait to try a different approach. As far as I could tell, there is no way to accelerate time.
I found the game a little challenging, mostly around Vienna (chapter 5). That was the only time I had to seek external help. I'd completely missed the secret compartment in the jewelry box which granted the master key. I also thought I was supposed to swap the egg for the gold, and it took me way too long to cop on that I could steal the gold myself.
Otherwise, I used the in-game hint system on just a couple occasions. At one point, I missed a hidden button on Kronos' painting, and later used a hint to learn that you needed paper to defuse the bomb. Everything else I managed to work out through trial and error.
One example of this is when Kronos' goon kept stealing the egg. After realizing it wasn't a mutual "swap" like I thought, I'd tried multiple hiding spots, as well as locking my compartment, before determining that I really needed to use the dog kennel. I knew that was an option early on, but avoided it because it was often difficult to access. Sidenote: is there a way to distract the trainmaster? I started writing down his schedule just to keep on top of it.
Later, when Alexei was killed, I tried a bunch of different things to save him. I tried warding him off, waiting in the room, and distracting Tatiana, but it seemed destined. So long, Alexei. At least he had some pretty badass dying words: Long live anarchy!
Overall, I thought the story was great. It was packed full for its runtime, and offered enough hints and foreshadowing that you could pick up on story threads even early on. I spotted Alexei building his bomb on day 1, and kept checking up on him as a result. I thought I was being clever when I stole the detonator from him, but the cheeky bugger just found a different clock to use. It led to this hilarious dialogue:
The characters felt rich, and they interacted wonderfully. Everybody had a role to play in the end, and even unimportant characters got some backstory. I love the conductor that draws what he sees, including this loveable scamp.
I wasn't sure how to feel about the art style at first. In some ways it felt a little crude and stuttery, and yet totally unique and authentic. I gave it a chance and found that it quickly won me over. The low framerate makes a lot of sense if every frame needs to be drawn (or at least arranged) by hand. It also had some lovely environmental art, such as when you're outside of the train. Though I would have preferred if those scenes showed a little more motion, as it wasn't always clear when the train was actually moving.
Probably my biggest hang-up was the controls. I struggled with them from beginning to end. Eventually I got a handle on what the icons mean and where to click, but even after 5 hours I found myself getting turned around. I liked that you could double click to speed through a compartment, but I seemed to have a bug where this would sometimes activate with even a single click. As a result, I kept accidentally shooting out of the car when trying to move just one or two positions. A very frustrating bug!
The combat added another layer of challenge -- especially when it picked up around chapter 6. I must failed that final sword fight a dozen times. It never felt unfair though, and I liked that combat gained depth and additional challenge in the later chapters.
I finished the game, and got a rather bittersweet ending. We survived, but Anna left as WW1 kicked off around us. Tatiana, embittered and still in shock, destroyed the train with the guns and herself inside. I suppose there never was a happy ending here.
I had a good time with this game, which surprised me a little. I really don't have a lot of experience playing point-and-click or adventure titles. I find the genre is often quite frustrating, at least until you crack your current puzzle and feel a sense of exhilaration with the "a-ha!" moment.
I was glad this one wasn't heavy on "pixel hunting", and most of the click zones were quite large. Instead it was more about observation and knowledge gathering. Though there were a few specific clicks needed, like in the case of the jewelry box. I did at least disconnect the train completely by accident in chapter 6, so that was a freebie.
This game was a great nomination and pick. I enjoyed the deductive-style gameplay, and hope everyone else had fun too.
Going forward: I don't know if I'll consider myself a member of the CGA Club exactly, since this was all a bit impromptu, but I'm certainly going to take a look at future picks and see what else strikes my fancy. You did a great write-up as our very first hostess, @CannibalisticApple.
Great writeup, Wes!
Nope! You have to wait for him. He announces stops and meal times (including first and second dinner service), so he's out of his post somewhat frequently. On the second day, he also leaves his post a few times to talk to the red car conductor.
I do agree this is one of the more frustrating things about the game. The game gives you a VERY CLEAR spot to put the egg, so it's baffling to the player when that's not the right place to put it. Not only can you lose it to Kahina stealing it, you also lose it if you unhitch the cars and it's still in your compartment.
Also, the notch in the back of Max's cage feels kind of cheap. It's a perfectly convenient hiding place for the egg that seems to have no other purpose except to exist as that hiding place? My best effort at an in-universe explanation is that it's a little door that opens from the other side to let someone put food and water into the cage. This is somewhat satisfying, except for the fact that, when you go into the baggage car, you can see that where it would be is blocked by crates. So, it really does just feel like a cheap hiding place that exists for its own sake.
One of my favorite endings. Abbott is such a great character! Or maybe I'm just partial to fast-talking dandies?
LOVE this. XD
She absolutely CRUSHED it! Incredible work.
This 100% happened to me. It was a little sad to watch the game rewind half the train route to fix my mistake, but the matter-of-factness of it was funny. "Did you forget the Firebird?". Why yes, yes I did.
I found you can actually place the egg in both the carrying case in your compartment, or hide it under your bathroom sink. Both result in the egg being stolen, but it's interesting that the game actually gives you those options. It makes it feel like you have a little more autonomy.
I do agree that the notch in the kennel felt a little cheap. I will say that it helped draw my attention to it, so I was able to guess it was a hiding spot without having to try any Monkey Island-style logic. But there likely could've been a more subtle way of pulling that off. Maybe to give the cage an open back, and push it against a natural wall with a deformation. Or even something a little silly like having a water bowl that happens to be in the shape of an egg pedestal.
I found this behind-the-scenes video really interesting: The Making of The Last Express
Very interesting! Thanks for the share.
I have not yet finished the game, but I completed the play on a train achievement by playing a bit on the White Pass and Yukon train. It made me appreciate even more the sounds present in the game. I've enjoyed the immersion and puzzling out what to do. I was glad to be warned about the many failures, so I've tried to take them in stride. I have had UI difficulties, and found things like the fight and capturing the beetle to be super frustrating. I've played it on Android and steam, and each has different limitations. I'm almost through with it, and an going to complete a second playthrough with a guide before the month is out. Despite some frustrations, I've enjoyed it a lot.
I'd be curious to hear about everyone's relationship with Cath, the protagonist of The Last Express.
Personally, I don't consider him to be a very good person. He has a problematic past, many of his actions during the game are questionable, and the basic manner in which he interacts with others is full of underlying self-absorbed arrogance. Or so it comes across to me.
In short, he is not someone I would like to be. Yet, as the person playing the game, I am him.
This creates tension between me and the game. I can partially resolve it by taking the view that I am experiencing a pre-set (if not entirely linear) story from one character's point of view, as opposed to playing an active role in the way many games allow you to customise your actions and approaches to people and situations. But in a way, I am still playing an active role here as well. I don't have to do those things. I don't have to be Cath. I could always just quit playing, or accept a premature narrative ending when I don't want to do something that bothers me.
This has made me think about how I play games in general. On a fundamental level, I tend to prefer to explore my own personal behaviour and morality in safe spaces offered by game worlds, rather than taking on an entirely new identity and acting as someone else. How about you? When you play games, do you easily go against your own moral, ethical or behavioural compasses? And if you do, do you specifically seek that experience, do you mould your behaviour to fit the character you are playing and the world they exist in, or how does it happen? And why?
Did "being" Cath bother you at all?
This is actually a topic that we can probably revisit in December, when we play The Secret of Monkey Island. There, I would argue, you play even more of a total and utter jerk. But to me at least, it feels very different in that game. Probably because of the way the game presents itself. Or maybe for other reasons.
A little bit, yes. In the beginning, you're put in a bad situation and need to take action by dumping the body of your friend. It's heartless, but necessary. Later, stealing the gold and working with an arms dealer also feel like unavoidable steps in the moment.
However, towards the end of the game, you are finally in control. You direct the survivors to safety, and set the course for the train. Instead of choosing to de-escalate the situation and defer to authorities, you still choose to continue on to Constantinople and reach the final confrontation. It suggests that Cath isn't just being blindsided by all this, but is an active player and wants to win the game.
That said, I don't think Cath is all bad. I'd believe that his trouble with the police may have really been a misunderstanding. But he's clearly no stranger to being on the wrong side of the law, and seemed familiar with both manipulation and taking what he wanted.
He struck me as a flawed character with a mix of scruples and avarice.
Since both you and @datavoid have used the word "bad" in your responses to my question, I feel I should clarify that I wouldn't call Cath a bad person. Like you write, Cath very much is a complex individual.
In fact, I would fully agree with @kfwyre's beautiful post elsewhere in this topic about the complexity of characters included in the game, and would go on to argue that the greatest achievement of The Last Express is that it gives us this ensemble of fascinating characters who all feel complex, realistic and alive, rather than one-dimensional entities that you could place along a binary good/bad division. They all come across as people, not story devices. So much so that for me the adventure plot itself feels like a secondary matter, subservient to the game's exploration of a range of geopolitical and human-level complexities that existed at a very specific moment in time and history.
So, when I described Cath as not being "a very good person" in my eyes, I could probably have worded it better. What I meant is that he is not the kind of person that I particularly like, in fiction or in life. This doesn't make him a bad person, just like me not liking Brussels sprouts doesn't make Brussels sprouts bad vegetables. I just don't personally like them, or Cath, very much. I can understand Cath's actions and the way he carries himself, but I don't agree with them. And this bothered me a little while having to "be him" in the game.
Yes, I forget where I read/heard it. I think it was a report from an acquaintance of Kronos that you can read in his bedroom after breaking in through the roof of his car. Or maybe a newspaper clipping that you can read in one of the compartments. It was implied that someone killed his friend and the police were asking for him because they saw them together.
HOWEVER, I definitely felt like you felt (and I still do feel). The impression that people get that the protagonist is flawed TOTALLY outweighs a small newspaper clipping that 3% of players might accidentally read--it may as well not exist. I think the point is that it is a mystery: you're finding out who you are as you play... but some of the character dialog is really... out there. In this way it is much less like an RPG... it is more like reading a book.
In a late-game conversation with Abbott, he mentions that Cath, the doctor, attempted to save the police officer, and that Cath's implication in his death was a mistake.
I genuinely don't know if this is actually true, or if this is Abbott's way of doing a wink-wink "we can make this go away" suggestion in an attempt to recruit Cath.
Unfortunately I don't think I made it far enough in this game to notice that Cath was a bad person.
Generally speaking, I enjoy playing bad characters to a certain extent, and definitely have a history of laughing hysterically when realizing it is possible to do something absurdly awful in a video game.
There has only been one game that truly made me feel truly dirty, and it is possibly the best one I've ever played. There are parts in Red Dead Redemption 2 that can make you feel absolutely ashamed of yourself and have you questioning how you were capable of doing something so horrible. However, the level of character development the protagonist experiences over the game is so good that it's worth fighting through the disgust. His (your) actions wear him down substantially, to the point where he can't stand himself. Such a beautiful game, can't recommend it enough.
Actually, maybe two games... Blade and Sorcery VR is a wild ride. This one doesn't even have a character, it just puts your own brutality on full display.
It's interesting that you should mention Red Dead Redemption 2, as it's another game where I really didn't like the protagonist or care about his situation and consequently never progressed very far. As soon as I could ditch the main story I did so, rode around for a while looking for gambling opportunities, then switched to the multiplayer mode where I had one of the most memorable, if short, experiences of my gaming life, and called it quits. I have tried to go back to the main story a couple of times since but I just don't want to be that character, so I always quit pretty quickly.
Have you ever played Spec Ops: The Line and if you have, how did that one work for you?
That's totally fair, none of the characters in RDR2 are exactly good people. There are a lot of redeeming qualities however, and the focal characters want to get out of the gang life as soon as possible. I imagine you haven't made it to the epilogue, but it is pretty powerful stuff - a real emotional roller coaster.
I never played Spec Ops, but I have watched a video essay on it at some point. It definitely sounds interesting, but I don't know if I'd love it consider it claims on the box to make the player question their morality. I did play Modern Warfare II back when it came out, and honestly I feel worse skinning animals in RDR2 than I did gunning down groups of travellers in COD. Maybe that's an unfair comparison though!
I had this same problem with RDR2, as well as GTA V...and Breaking Bad for that matter. The characters are so shitty and unlikeable, I have no desire to spend my time with them and ended up dropping all those different media, in spite of how great I hear they are.
Exactly the same here with any of the GTA games I have tried. Breaking Bad I watched through although I actively disliked pretty much all of the characters. I suppose I can tolerate it a little better with a passive medium like TV but not so much if I have to actively be or pretend to be one of those people as in games. Still, I can't say that Breaking Bad is among my favourite series.
Did you ever give Better Call Saul a try? For me, it was a much better experience in just about every way and that one actually did grow to be one of my favourites.
Never did see Better Call Saul; Breaking Bad left such a bad taste in my mouth that I just never wanted to bother with it.
I'm curious about how many different hardware/software/on a train setups we used to play this game.
Share yours in a reply (or vote on a reply if it matches yours).
ScummVM running on Windows, streamed via Moonlight to Linux
(I originally planned to play it directly on Linux but couldn't get the ScummVM daily build to run, so I had to add the extra hop)
disc images of the original release, via DOSBox on a desktop PC (did not finish the game)
The Android release from Google Play Store.
It may actually be my favourite version of the game as every screen always displays icons for all of the available actions. And interacting with the game through a touchscreen felt very natural.
Steam Deck GoG release running via DOSBOX-Staging.
Though I do keep thinking about trying it out on my Android tablet.
Desktop PC running Linux Mint. I used the original CD files included in the GOG version (and some of the included config) inside of the Lutris DOSbox runner.
Dosbox on a handheld console (anbernic rg35xx h)
I wanted to play the gold edition on ScummVM but could update to the daily build (the only one that supports this game) so I played regular on dosbox.
I won’t write as much as others here because I’m on my phone and I’m nowhere near as eloquent.
I was amazed at the concept of the game. The illusion of full motion, time advancing in real-time, the writing and the sound design.
But I couldn’t get into the game. I’d always get lost because the transitions were fading images rather than an actual animation so I could never understand which way I’m facing. I also really struggled with figuring what to do and had to follow an exhaustive guide to the game… which sucked all the fun out of it. I dropped the game quite early in the story as a result. I considered watching a play though because I think the story is well written but didn’t find the time unfortunately.
Overall I think it’s an interesting game because it’s from 1997! Technically, it’s amazing how they pulled off the real-time mechanic and the animation. But I really couldn’t get into it and I feel it was wasted on me.
I actually finished the game! With a guide, of course
At first I thought it was a walking simulator, walking back and forth to see the different events pop up... how wrong I was! I liked it though, in spite of the few stressful moments
The one part I never figured out, was how to get the train head conductor to leave his seat, it felt totally random to me, I kept rewinding until it happened.
I feel like this game is okay for replayability, given how short enough it is, it has a convenient save and rewind system, and there are enough times I felt rushed when reading, if I wanted to dig into each character, I could go back and read their notes carefully
I don't have anything interesting to add on top of the great comments here. There are too many games out there, so I'm lucky to have the gems like this picked out for me!
I believe he does all the meal announcements at set times, something like noon for the lunch first service and 1:00pm for the lunch second service, and a bit after 7:30pm for the first dinner service and at 8:30pm for the second dinner service. He also announces arrivals before stations. That's how I timed my infiltration into the front of the train. Additionally, I think he is also called out to handle a couple of situations with passengers, but those you can't really plan for ahead of time (unless you rewind).
For next months CGA:
@venko let me know that Chrono Trigger is on sale on both steam, iOS and android at the moment. The steam version ends in 29 hours from this post though. @CannibalisticApple - maybe you can decide if this is worth tagging everyone for
Android
iOS - I will likely be playing this
Steam
It looks like this sale was now extended until 6th October on Steam. Which should work nicely for anyone that needs to pick it up once the dedicated topic lands.
I ultimately didn't finish it, which was disappointing to me, as I had high hopes and was eager to play this one. I began to peter out when I got to the concert part and ended-up having to rewind several times and then do a waiting game, which unfortunately usually spells the end of a game for me; I had the same problem with Outer Wilds as I got toward the end of that game and needed to begin waiting for things to happen. I also ended-up going on a long road trip (which I'm actually still on, currently...) and haven't had a ton of time for games, so I've been playing stuff that's more "immediate", if that makes sense.
Anyway, I did quite enjoy what I played and I also bought the strategy guide and I will leave it installed on my Steam Deck and hope that I come back to it at some point.
Oh we're arrived at the station already? That was a quick ride. I thought we had another week. Not that that would've mattered. I think I played for a couple days at the start, then put it down, only to never pick it back up. I have a total of 3hrs of playtime.
Some of the execution in this game is impressive. Watching an NPC move past you in the corridor, then me (or rather Dr. Cath) turning around and watching that NPC continue walking to wherever they're going, even being able to chase after them and keep seeing them, is impressive. I have played modern games, many of them even, where an NPC in one zone "disappears" from that zone when you load into in a neighboring zone. Or sometimes just disappears altogether as soon as they're out of the player's vision. Ie there's no continuity in the world. Whereas in "The Last Express" there largely is. And it's especially impressive in this pseudo-animated method they've used.
But the controls were clunky beyond belief. I feel like even for 1997, it wasn't great. So many times I found myself essentially spinning in place because I clicked too much or clicked on the wrong place on the screen. Then, because of the confined space and similar environments (the sleeping cars and water closets, especially), I was repeatedly momentarily confused at which way I was facing, where I was at, and which way I was going. It got annoying real quick.
Storywise, I don't know if I was ever seriously hooked. Yeah it's a murder mystery, which I do like, but...I don't know if I really cared about Tyler Whitney, or even Dr. Cath himself (myself). We're dropped in the middle of this story, where Cath is already on the lam, but it's only sorta explained why that is, IIRC. And I don't really care.
As regards to the puzzles, some were fairly obvious. But then others I really had no idea. I considered getting a guide or walkthrough, but then again, did I really care that much? I didn't think I did. Which is why I never went back.
Idk. I can definitely see the developer's ambitions here. To elevate the traditional point and click adventure game from 2D to whatever this is. To move it from silly "traditional" video game" to something serious, something closer to film. Which is something that happens in the medium today and can be wildly successful. But maybe because I'm viewing this with eyes from 2025, it just doesn't hit for me. And that's OK.
That said, I'm glad I got to try it out, even if I didn't finish it. It's not like it broke the bank to do so. I hadn't heard of this game before. In 1997, when The Last Express released, I was 10yo and would NOT have picked this game up (was too busy playing FFVII and Warcraft 2). As such, it's nice to see and experience a part of video game history that I missed.
So yeah, thanks for sharing and organizing this!
Looking ahead, I'm seriously looking forward to next month, since Chrono Trigger is a game I'm familiar with and have played many times, starting on the SNES. Maybe I'll actually beat it this time using my own save file, instead of some other random Blockbuster member's save file! Though at the rate I actually finish JRPGs...Umm, no comment.
The remove cartridge thread comes in advance of the end of the month to leave room for discussion before next month's game, but I don't perceive it as a deadline and since there's no requirement to contribute a top-level comment in this thread (I dropped out of TLE so early I won't be posting one, for instance) it'd be totally valid to hold off on this thread until beating the game on the 29th and then post thoughts on the 30th, or not beat the game and post on the thread, or beat the game and not post in the thread, or whatever other outcome is necessary for a participant to engage with CGA on their terms.
I'd actually argue in favor of posting the insert cartridge ahead of the month (i.e. right now for Chrono trigger), so that people can set up the game ahead of time and be ready to enjoy it when the month has started. Helps avoid losing steam from more complicated set ups for certain retro games. This also helps for posting game sales ahead of time if the selected games goes on sale in a period before we start playing it.
And then move the eject cartridge earlier in month. I beat The Last Express during the second week of the month but only posted my thoughts today over a week after this thread was posted because the thread wasn't around when I beat the game. But I can see it being at the end of the month as well. Would be sort of nice to have the thread ready to go for people to post as they beat the game rather than a flurry of activity all at once in my opinion.
OK, I managed to finish the game late last night in one final push, so I'll add my take on everything.
I really enjoyed the game. I tried to make it all the way to the end without guides, but unfortunately didn't succeed. Right around the part where you have to capture the beetle I just got too confused and needed to look some things up. I feel like I might have been able to figure it all out given enough time, but I just don't have the hours to dedicate to these things like I once did.
I did end up getting the "good" ending, if you can really call it that. A lot of the characters end up dead in the end, so it feels pretty bittersweet. I did unravel the mystery of Tyler's murder though, which was nice. Overall I found it pretty satisfying.
Like others have said, the controls were a problem. I did find the "original" (GoG) version to be better overall than the Steam version I started with, though. There were just a lot more cursor clues in critical moments.
I found some of the graphics hilarious at times. There were some genuinely funny interactions, with the highlight for me being dancing with drunken Schmidt. Schmidt in general had a lot of funny expressions. There's an interaction early in the game that I unfortunately didn't screen-cap where you can interrupt he and Anna talking during dinner, and he looks up at you with the funniest expression. I kept coming back during that part of the play-through just for laughs. I also found Robert's expression in this frame really funny.
OK, now to a bigger question:
Does Robert Cath have magic powers??
At several points in the game, the "camera" zooms way in on Cath's intense stare and unusually blue eyes. In every case of this, "something" seems to happen, and 9 times out of 10 the outcome is in Robert's favor. Does Robert have some form of telepathic powers?
Some of the evidence:
There's also a couple of other interactions where Robert is super confident:
While these could just be Robert being a bad-ass, my headcanon is that he's accustomed to things sort of "going his way", which makes him a little more bold where others might hesitate.
Anyway, did anyone else come to the same conclusion?
I don't know where this information exists in-game (if at all), but the strategy guide has this to say about Cath:
So, quite possibly?
Also I love your screenshots. That one from the end of the game is particularly egregious.
Well he can travel through time.... and he traded a bug for a gold whistle. Pretty good salesman.
He... Actually could be, now that you mention it. Because a lot of his actions would be absolutely insane without him knowing what would happen. The guy throws his best friend's body out the train window. That's pretty crazy. Heck, just the opening where he put on Tyler's coat and began casually impersonating him was pretty damn confident! The man had no hesitation.
Then everything else he did afterwards... From an outsider's perspective, all the steps needed for a "winning run" are almost ridiculous. Whose first thought would be to hide an egg in a dog kennel? Who would think to climb atop a train first instead of walking through the restaurant car? How could he survive all that combat when he was so bad at it!? (Joking about the combat system, but still valid in my opinion!)
Some of that could be gleaned from exploration. The second bomb took me by surprise (and I laughed at the "Dynamite?" scene, his reaction was just so funny), but I did notice that the clock in the lounge car was absent. Partially because I had spent so much time in that car in my first attempted playthrough where Robert was trapped on a haunted train, so I'd gotten used to seeing that clock and using it to help orient myself. That said, lots of the knowledge really is gained from trial and error, so the odds of Robert or a player doing everything perfectly on their first run is low.
But I think the biggest point in favor of it: the dream he has of Tyler spitting out an egg and asking "Why don't you make it sing?" That was so random, but it turned out to be a direct reference to the Firebird's egg form, which we didn't see until after the dream. And Kronos himself said "make it sing", so that phrase is directly linked to the Firebird. Maybe Robert knew about it in advance, but... He didn't seem to.
On that note, the Firebird itself opens my mind to the possibility of supernatural forces. You cannot convince me that thing wasn't freaking sentient when it attacked Kronos and Kahina. That attack went beyond an automaton following a very precise movement pattern. Up until then the game was really grounded in reality.
Besides that, ths ending seriously hinted at some big secrets to Robert's backstory. I feel like the reference to the ring around his neck, and Kronos's parting tip to go to Jerusalem and ask about "the thirteenth tribe", were laying the ground for a potential sequel. I'm really curious about all that, and it's a shame we'll likely never know any more details.
I thought so as well, and I take it to be another clue that Robert has some sort of persuasion powers, even over sentient magical beings!
Also, apparently you are right on the money about a sequel. I did some digging today after pondering the story further and came across this reference to a prequel called "Red Serpent".
Huh... I would've expected them to continue the Jerusalem manuscript plotline. Though I also wouldn't have been opposed to seeing Tyler when he was, you know, alive. The little we got to know about their dynamic suggests they were basically just chaos magnets who always got into trouble. By which I mean I'm pretty sure they were connected to two or three revolutionary movements.
I wasn't surif I would participate and I actually managed to squeeze some time into this game.
I got caught like 5 different times, made it just to the fisrt station (where I got caught again), pulled the emergency brake (who didn't?) and didn't make it particularly far.
The contept is interesting though - you wandering through the train and time passing while you do so or maybe semi-passing while waiting for specific thing to occur/that you do.
I think I will come back to this game in the future.
If somebody is going to react, try to do it spoiler-free (explaining game mechanics would be ok, I think; no story and hints though).
I bought this on GOG and played this via ScummVM. I am sad to report that I really couldn't get into this game. It was never my sort of game to begin with, but the enthusiasm of others made me give it a try. It did give me a nice boost of nostalgia just playing a game from this era, so I consider that a win and I hope that keeps happening as we play more games with the CGA.
Side Note: I will revel in the irony when/if we end up playing a game with CGA graphics as part of the CGA.
I hate how much this comes up, but my lovely almost two-year-old occupies most of my time, so finishing this game was more than a bit challenging.
That said, I played the Steam version for about four or five hours (anybody have issues making it full screen?) and I've been enjoying a cinematic supercut of the game on YouTube.
It's very impressive. Like, the dedication to full rotoscoping paired with excellent voice acting and a remarkably mature story has so little in common with what I was playing in '97.
While I appreciate it now, my 13 year old brain would have seen The Last Express as having more in common with a BBC special than a game. That said, CDROM titles like Gabriel Knight were fascinating to me, and despite feeling beyond my Sega Saturn level of narrative comprehension, there was something special about the production of Sierra and similar titles -- a dedication to storytelling and narrative that I definitely see here.
I hope that I'm able to lean a little more into the next game, but as a start, I really enjoyed this and look forward to finishing the supercut video.
Over the years, there has been a lot of talk about a film adaptation of The Last Express. Paul Verhoeven was attached to direct it in the early 2010s and you can actually even download (pdf link) Jordan Mechner's screenplay from his website.
If you were given the job to produce a film based on the game (not necessarily from Mechner's screenplay), who would you hire as the director and who would you see as portraying the various characters? What kind of a film would you make?
I'm mostly an uninformed film consumer, so please take my opinion with a chunk of salt:
I'd be interested in either Bong Joon Ho or Denis Villeneuve taking a crack at directing. I think either one could produce an interesting take on the source material. No real casting choices popped to mind, as I kind of got used to the characters as they were portrayed in the game. Perhaps relatively unknown cast members would be best?
Side note edit: I didn't realize until just now, but I really like the actor who portrayed Cath. I didn't realize just how good a job he did until I started to think about who would replace him and said to myself: "I don't want to replace him!" :D
I feel bad that I wasn't able to do this for the first event. The past month has had a lot of stress and I haven't had much time for games at all. After I dropped some classes, I had more free time, but I needed downtime and could only really do "decompression" games.
Honestly, I tried playing this game and it did not grab me early on, which has lead to me not feeling interested in picking it up more. I felt like especially early on, that I was just a passive observer having things happen to me, and lacking agency. I really should try and give it another go, and maybe use a guide, as that was something more common in this era of gaming