Good Old Oldie Of The Week

The Good old oldie of the week is a new weekly series where I play an old game I purchased from GoG.com. I think they have a great service and I want to support them. In doing so I will share a game a week that I think people should play. Let’s get started.

This weeks game is The Last Express. It was developed by Jordan Mechner and Smoking Car Productions. It takes place aboard The Orient Express in the days leading up to World War I. You play as Robert Cath, an American doctor who is wanted by French police. Once aboard the train you’re expected to sift through lies, political conspiracies, personal interests, romance and solve a murder. I really don’t want to give too much away about the story, just know that the second you board the train you need to utilize all of your sleuthing abilities.

The fascinating thing about the game is that it’s the first to try and simulate real time. To better explain this I went to Wikipedia. Real time is a method of narratology wherein events are portrayed at the same rate that the audience experiences them. That is to say if you hear a conversation you should pay attention to the dialogue as you won’t hear it again for that play-through. The aim of the game is to eves drop on conversations and stay alive. You can fail and be required to start over.

The atmosphere and voice acting are superb. I don’t use that word often so that’s how you know I mean it. You’ll hear conversations ranging from politics to what the person in the next cabin was heard doing. This is the sole reason I have yet to finish the game. I get about half way through and restart. I spend most of my time listening to the world around me. If you wear headphones and kill the lights you can spend an evening on a real train, or something eerily similar.

If this sounds like something you’d like to play, it can be bought for $5.99 (₤3.77). For those of you without a PC, the game is coming to iOS devices this year and is being developed by Mechner and french studio DotEmu.

Download it now.