The environment is a bit hard to navigate. Bot in the sense that it is hard to move, but hard to know which sleeping car you are in. I know that I went to the wrong room several times despite knowing which room I wanted to be in. I don’t know, they were going for matching a real train car, but some indication which car you were in may have been nice.
I did get stuck in the bathroom of the one train car for a bit. Kept cycling between looking under the sink and up at the ceiling. Couldn’t figure out how to turn around for about two minutes. It does show the weakness of adventure game movement styles, especially in first person.
It’s just the lack of continuity when you change position combined with the sameness of the train car environment. The two sleeping cars actually have different color schemes, but it takes awhile for the differences to settle in your mind and to get a sense in your mind of which characters’ rooms are where.
I seem to recall they very carefully modeled the environment after real historical train cars of the period. I think I saw that in a making-of documentary. Wonder if that’s around somewhere online?..
(Of course it is! – but there are some spoilers, not really of the plot, but of certain fun scenes!)
So starting up today in the morning of Day 2 and playing into the afternoon, I have somehow gotten things in a real messy timing situation. Characters are sitting on top of each other in the same seats, people talking about an event before the event has occurred… Not sure where I futzed it up, but I’m afraid I’ll have to rewind way back and maybe try doing some things in a different order.
One of the things I really love about this game, and didn’t notice until after a number of playthroughs, is that very minor choices can have a long-term impact. For example, on the first night, if you speak to Anna right away in the dinner car, her attitude throughout the game will be different than if you wait to interrupt her while she’s speaking to August. If you do that’ she’ll believe you’re working together with August and a great deal of the dialogue changes–if only slightly.
One minor nitpick that has stuck with me after so many times through the game: when you first speak to August Schmidt in the dining car, you refer to him by name without it having been mentioned previously. I know you can grab the passenger list before this and could infer his name from that, but is there something else I’ve missed where you learn his name?
Hm. Does the waiter say his name when you come into the car? This could certainly be a writing oversight, but one thing about this game is how they let the protagonist pick up on a lot of what you’re probably not going to pick up on until you’ve played a few times.
There are several ways to hear his name. For example if you go into the room of ‘the American’ the conductor will knock on your door saying that August Schmidt is looking for you. It is also possible to get a manifest with the names of who is in which room. Also if you sit and listen the wait the wait staff will say his name, and he says he is waiting for someone.
I managed to finish this last night. I had to look up a walkthrough at one point, after being stuck for a day or so, but otherwise the game wasn’t too hard (although I did die an awful lot before reaching the end).
I think we’ve been playing this for long enough to allow spoilers, but for all those who haven’t finished there will be spoilers below.
SPOILERS!!!
Okay, so I’m a bit torn on this game. I really did enjoy it but it just leaves so many unanswered questions, although I suppose some of those may actually have been answered in the game and I just never saw that answer. My main issue is really with the protagonist. I’m playing that guy and yet I have no idea what his motivations or goals are. He’s apparently going to Jerusalem, but I don’t know why. He doesn’t seem too concerned that he’s wanted for murder by the British and French police. There are just so many questions about him that are left unanswered, which is kind of a shame since that makes it harder to figure out what you’re even supposed to be doing on that damn train.
Still, I absolutely love the fact that the people on the train are so alive. The way you listen in on bits and pieces of their conversations and try to piece together who they are is just great. At one point one of the two young ladies traveling together insults you in French, assuming that you won’t understand her, and I think that’s where I realised how much personality these characters have, even though you will only ever see a little bit of that personality in the game (much like in real life, where you probably wouldn’t get to know your fellow travellers on a similar train ride very well).
On the subject of those two young ladies, I listened to the podcast mentioned upthread after finishing the game, and they mention an article that Rob Zacny wrote a few years ago, called The Women in Compartment E. It can be found here in case anyone is interested. I think it’s a great article, and it really says a lot about the depth of the characters in this game.
All in all, the game left me feeling a bit disappointed, not so much with the game itself, but with the fact that I’m probably never going to find out who the protagonist is or what he wants. Also, it isn’t a very happy ending, but I guess that’s kind of the point.
The protagonist is definitely trailing loose plot threads for the whole game. I wonder if they intentionally did that to help you inhabit the character (then I wonder if that really has the effect they wanted). His motivations are never crystal clear, but I guess I’m less mystified by them than you are. Cath is on the train because he’s fleeing Ireland/England, because his pal Whitney asked him to come, and because Whitney implied there was some kind of deal going down that was Cath’s “kind of thing.” Then Whitney’s dead and, having assumed Whitney’s identity, Cath at least wants to know what IS going down. So, basically, Cath is an adventurous, seat-of-his-pants guy with a taste for radical politics and no compunctions about a little crime now and then. What I’m not sure of is whether he’s motivated by the chance to make a lot of money, or if he’s more motivated by helping folks like the Serbs fight the power.
I’m only part way through the game, so there may be hints I don’t remember. Does he mention at some point that he’s specifically going to Jerusalem? I wonder if that’s just because it’s the end point of the Orient Express line…
Well, that was my take too for most of the game, but a bunch of stuff happens in the second half that really makes me wonder. You may not want to read the spoiler if you haven’t finished the game, as I really think this is a game that benefits from being played spoiler-free:
SPOILERS!!!
[spoiler]I can’t remember if it’s after the concert or at the very end, but at some point Kronos asks you if you’re not going to Jerusalem, and you say that you are. Then there’s a segment with Anna where she asks Robert about his medallion and he kind of brushes her off, but I think it’s clear that there’s something special about it, and that maybe it ties in with why Robert wants to go to Jerusalem. In the same segment Robert laments that he wasn’t able to catch the murderer, but apparently still wants to continue his journey.
Regarding the Serbs, I think it’s pretty clear that Robert doesn’t really give a crap about them, and the only reason he helps them is because he’s being threatened. All in all, I think his motivations are very sketchy. Sure, he wants to help his friend, but he clearly has another overriding goal, which sadly is never really explained. I read through a walkthrough after finishing the game, which has a segment on some of the unanswered questions. Apparently, the developers were planning to make a prequel, set 5 years prior to The Last Express and featuring Robert and Tyler. The game was never made, but supposedly there’s a script. I don’t know if it’s available online, though.[/spoiler]
Just got through the first night myself. As much as I love the atmosphere I have no bloody idea what I am trying to do. I constantly feel I am missing something, and am dreadfully afraid I am going to miss something critical. Soldiering on, but the urge to resist some kind of walk through is waning.
The knife fight though, who here got it in less than 4-5 tries? Cause I sure didn’t.
I feel kinda bad for swiping the passenger manifest. I’d return it if I could, because the kid conductor got torn a new one by his uncle. Sorry kid!
Nicolaj I guess if there was a prequel it would have taken place in Cuba. Though I like not knowing what that was. Implied rather than explicit background, often it is better that way.
It’s supposedly set in Paris. According to the guy who wrote the walkthrough, the plot is very similar to that of The Da Vinci Code, although it predates the release of that book.
Interesting. Though on further thought even this game starting in Paris doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Tyler Whitney is selling a Serbian treasure, so why go to all the effort to go from Belgrade to Paris, only to get on a train back from Paris to Belgrade. Especially since his dealings occur mostly in Germany. Small detail, just an observation.
Anyhow playing some more yesterday I both admire and dislike how open the game is. I have no bloody clue what I should be doing. It is an interesting choice to leave the player in much the same mentality of the player character, but the time pressure element makes it a bit stressful. I know my time is limiting, am I going to miss something important because I don’t know where I am going? I constantly feel like I am. So I’ve broken down and started looking at a guide. Nothing narrative, and I only look at the current segment, but I don’t want to screw up and not find out for some time. I’m plenty adept at screwing up on my own, thank you. So far I’ve also attempted to figure it out first.
It’s interesting. The game is both wide open and strictly on rails. For as few places as you can go you have a lot of freedom in how you approach situations. So far there hasn’t been any puzzles that are illogical, though they sometimes can be hard to suss out. The police bit was particularly interesting. Basically I love everything about this game except how I never have any clue how close I am to screwing it up.
That’s the nice thing about the “rewind time” system. If you really feel you missed something or want to try a different action, just set the clock back a minute, five minutes, an hour… whatever you like.
Oh sure, the time pressure is somewhat illusory, still always feel like I’m going to miss something. Guess it is the completionist side of my brain complaining. Honestly most of my criticisms are more like ‘criticisms’, basically things that are not problems with the game, more problems with my head space not matching.
Oh, I totally agree. In a lot of ways, I feel The Last Express asks a lot of traditional game players and our expectations. We want a clear goal, and a sense of what we’re doing moment to moment is right. And if it’s not, what went wrong and how do we fix it. The Last Express doesn’t play by those rules. I completely get the love/hate relationship with this game.
It is so incredibly hard for me to overcome this that I shut the game down within 1/2 hour. I’m trying to push myself to simply consider the first few games to be “scouting missions”, and play it like a roguelike.
Also, this game requires a different set of skills from me, like listening (with no subtitles) and remembering names and randomly poking people, stuff I hate to do IRL!
[EDIT]This game is on sale in GOG for $1.49 for the next 5-10 minutes! what time is it now…04:23pm UTC.
Yeah, I was a bit annoyed by the lack of subtitles for conversations in English. Between some of accents and the (sometimes too loud) background music it can be hard to make out what’s said. That said, I aabsolutely love the fact that conversations in a language Robert doesn’t speak aren’t subtitled. I think that’s a very neat touch.
I’ve had this sitting on my gog shelf for who knows how long, so thanks for picking it and giving me an excuse to play it.
Now that I have played it, I’m not sure how I feel about it. Lost? Yeah, that sums it up well. My natural adventure game aspects lead me to that Vienna ending mentioned above. I’m not really sure what I would do differently to change things from the rewind point it gave me after that. I did have trouble understanding the dialog in those last few conversations before the end so maybe there were nudges there I missed. It leaves me with more of a feeling of muddling than modern adventure games do. It’s pretty free with the clock and multiple save states, I should probably take more advantage of them. And just accept the feeling of muddling along my first few attempts.
