The Last Express Gold Edition is a refreshed edition of the iconic adventure game from 1997, which, thanks to many innovative elements for its time, was recognized as one of the best adventure games of the 90s. The creator of the original game was Jordan Mechler, responsible for creating such bestsellers as Another World or the Gobliiins.
Story
The action of the game takes place in 1914, just before the outbreak of World War I, and its protagonist is an American doctor, one Robert Cath. Prosecuted by the French police for the alleged murder of an Irish policeman, the protagonist receives a mysterious message from his former friend Tyler Whitney. He invites our protagonist to the eponymous trip on the Orient Express, which may become an escape from all his current troubles. Aboard the train, Cath begins his search for his friend, entangling himself in a complex network of lies, political intrigues and private interests of engers, as well as love and murder.
The story takes place entirely on the Orient Express, where we will meet a whole gallery of various characters from different parts of the world, representing stereotypical models of characters from the beginning of the 20th century. These included Serbian freedom fighters, a German arms dealer, a Russian anarchist, an Austrian violinist, a mysterious art collector and a Persian eunuch with an entire harem.
Mechanics
The Last Express is a classic adventure game, so the gameplay here comes down in particular to visiting successive locations (in this case different cars of the Orient Express), searching for items, solving subsequent puzzles and conducting conversations with NPCs. The main distinguishing feature of the game is the fact that the plot develops in real time, and the characters constantly move on the train, performing various activities and taking care of their private interests. In turn we can observe their actions, and also listen to their conversations. We can also influence the actions of most characters in a variety of ways, so that - although we are dealing with a typical adventure game - each subsequent playthrough may run in a slightly different firection. However, this solution also has its drawbacks, because often, in order to push the plot forward, we have to find ourselves in the right place at the right time, which in practice often translates into a rather cumbersome need to wait for this one, right moment.
Technical aspects
In of visuals The Last Express Gold Edition does not differ significantly from its original from 1997, thanks to which the game manages to preserve the spirit of the original title, achieved, among other things, thanks to an unusual technique of character animation called rotoscoping (where each frame is created based on a previously recorded body position or motion sequence with the participation of live actors). The creators from DotEmu limited their interference mainly to improving the interface and equipment menu and introducing an advanced system of prompts. The game also included for cloud saves (via Steam Cloud), a set of achievements to unlock, as well as bonus content in the form of successively unlocked biographies of heroes.
