The Last Express is a 1997 adventure game designed by Jordan Mechner and published by Broderbund for PC. Players take on the role of an American who accepts an invitation from a friend to join them on the Orient Express, days before the start of World War I, only to become involved in a maelstrom of treachery, lies, political conspiracies, personal interests, romance and murder, upon boarding the train. The game is unique in how it was created, its non-linear story, and in how events in the game are conducted within real-time.
The game was a commercial disappointment following its release, but received highly positive reviews and a positive post-release response. A Sony PlayStation port was in development, but was cancelled before it was finished. The game was later reacquired by Mechner, who worked with DotEmu to make portable versions of the game for iOS and Android, and later released a remade version for Steam, entitled The Last Express – Gold Edition.
Gameplay
The game operates primarily from a first-person perspective of the story's lead character when they explore the train, with cutscenes being conducted in the third-person. Gameplay takes place almost entirely within real-time, albeit accelerated by a factor of six; – with the game using a non-linear approach of story-telling, in which the player's actions or in-actions, affect how the story plays out; the game's many events led to its script being around 800 pages long.
The story features multiple endings, depending on the player's actions. Around thirty of these are game overs, involving the main character being killed or arrested. Four are alternate endings; only one of these is the "true" ending.
Story
Setting
The game's story takes place in 1914, between 24 and 27 July, aboard the original Orient Express route between Paris and Constantinople (modern Istanbul), prior to the outbreak of World War I. Much of the game occurs within the train itself - consisting of the locomotive, two baggage cars, a restaurant car, two sleeping cars, and a private car. The plot written for the game, while a fictionalized idea regarding the last journey of the Orient Express in 1914, includes many traditional elements of a murder mystery, including secret plots and deals, lies and personal agendas, as well as featuring notable references to political climates in Europe.
Plot
Robert Cath, an American doctor on the run from the police in regards to a murder in Ireland, is invited by his friend Tyler Whitney to join him on the Orient Express. Boarding the train whilst it is moving through the outskirts of Paris, Cath finds Tyler dead in his sleeping compartment, apparently murdered. Dumping the body from the train during the course of the night's journey, Cath assumes his friend's identity and goes to greet the other passengers travelling on the Express. Amongst the passengers he meets several people of interest: August Schmidt, a German arms dealer; Anna Wolff, an Austrian violinist; Vassili Obolensky, a Russian count travelling with his granddaughter, Tatiana Obolenskaya; Alexei Dolnikov, a Russian anarchist and a childhood friend of Tatiana; Miloš Jovanović, a Serbian travelling with a group of associates; and Kronos, a mysterious art collector travelling in a private car with his African servant Kahina.
Cath discovers, through the course of investigating Tyler's death during the journey to Strasbourg, that his friend was arranging the purchase of weapons from August and supplying these to the Black Hand, a Serbian rebel movement whom Miloš and his associates belong to. To facilitate the deal, Tyler was supplied with a Serbian national treasure called the Firebird - a mechanical music box that transforms into a bird, accompanied with a whistle shaped like a scarab beetle - which he intended to sell to Kronos for the payment August was to receive. Cath finds the Firebird treasure is missing, and is left in the difficult position of finding it to complete Tyler's arrangements. During the night, Cath discovers that Anna knows he is not Tyler, leading him to suspect she knows more about his friend's death. However, Vassili suffers a mental breakdown in his compartment that interrupts their conversation, while forcing Cath to do what he can to treat him. Following the incident, Cath overhears Anna asking Tatiana to look after something, but cannot determine what it is.
The following morning in Munich, Cath witnesses an Englishman named George Abbot board the Express, whilst August oversees the loading of his merchandise, and finds him inquisitive about Cath's treatment of Vassili. Whilst the train is en route to Vienna, Cath finds a French boy in possession of the Firebird's whistle, and recovers it with a small trade. He also has a meeting with Kronos, who himself knows he is using Tyler's identity, and slowly distrusts him, especially as Kahina begins snooping around the sleeping cars. When Kronos invites Anna to perform a concert with him for the other passengers, Cath uses the opportunity to search the train. He soon finds the Firebird itself in Tatiana's washroom, but hides it within the kennel for Anna's dog Max in one of the train's baggage cars. After this, he breaks into Kronos's compartment to borrow his payment in order to ensure August keeps his weapons on the Express. Following the concert, Cath encounters Anna in the baggage car while he is examining August's weapons, and learns from her she took the Firebird, but that Tyler was dead when she did so. She also admits to serving the Austrian government as a spy, but does not specify her mission.
In Vienna, Kronos and Kahina leave the Express without the Firebird. After the train departs, Tatiana consults Cath over deep concerns she has for Alexei, fearing he plans to kill her grandfather for the injustices he served upon his father. On the evening stretch to Budapest, Alexei attempts his plan, but is killed by Vassili, traumatizing Tatiana, while Cath is forced to defuse a bomb Alexei had planted on the train. Abbot shares a drink with him following this, confessing that he was investigating rumors concerning Alexei, while also noting he believes Cath, whom he recognized, is innocent of the murder in Ireland. Visiting Anna in her compartment, Cath becomes romantically involved with her, but the pair are shocked when the train doesn't stop in Budapest. They swiftly are captured by Miloš and his associates, who have hijacked the train. After freeing himself, Cath fights to free the passengers and railways crew. To protect them, Cath detaches the rear carriages from the train once everyone has returned to their compartments; only Anna and her dog, Vassili, Tatiana and Abbot remain on board the Express. Cath regains control of the locomotive, after Anna shoots Miloš to save its engineer, but refuses to let the Express stop within Hungary and keeps it going on into and through Serbia.
As the train makes its way to Turkey, Anna reluctantly accepts that she cannot stop Cath's plans, while Cath himself admits he felt powerless to discovering who really killed Tyler, assuming that one of the Serbs was involved. The pair embrace each other in the moment, and sleep together in the dining car. After a stopover upon crossing into Turkey, Cath is shocked when Kronos turns up on the train with Kahina, intent on claiming the Firebird. Cath is forced to provide it, as Anna is held at gunpoint. But when demonstrating its functions, Cath uses the whistle to activate its hidden function as a living weapon, causing it to kill both Kronos and Kahina; in the process exposing how Tyler died. In the confusion, Cath and Anna jump from the train with Max in tow, as it pulls into Constantinople's Sirkeci Station. However, an unhinged Tatiana finds explosives amongst the weapons in the baggage car, and, wishing for no more war, detonates them with Alexei's lighter, destroying the baggage car and killing herself, Vassili, Abbot and the driver. In the chaos after the explosion, Cath and Anna hear a Turkish boy proclaim that war has broken out in Europe. Forced to return home, Anna leaves Cath with Max, kisses him, and promises to see him again when the war is over. The game ends on a time-lapsing map of Europe, showing the change in borders between 1914-1994.
History
Mechner founded Smoking Car Productions to create The Last Express. The company was located in San Francisco from 1993 to 1997 and at its peak had sixty full-time employees.
Mechner derived inspiration for The Last Express from Myst and Infocom's Deadline. He saw The Last Express as an opportunity to create a game with a complexity of story and depth of characters comparable to that seen in a film, something he felt he could not accomplish with his games for the Apple II due to hardware limitations. He said of the game's approach to storytelling: