The Last Express takes place on a train that is twisting and climbing its way toward fate (and Constantinople). Designed in 1997 by Jordan Mechner as a real-time, micro-cosmic adventure, it’s set at the brink of World War I. Something we’ve all grown bored with over the past several years is the systematic construction of plot and assets in video games: talk to Important Person, kill rat, save the world, etc. To alleviate this exhaustion, we discussed The Last Express as a possible entry into our Graveyard. Its immediacy and hand-crafted plot and characters set it apart from more paint-by-numbers games, and it has several other qualities to recommend it to an erudite group of virtual explorers. I’m sure we will discuss most of these qualities with pleasure in the following month or so.
We begin playing on January 1st, 2012, and the game can be gotten at GOG.com for $2.99, provided one purchases it before January 2nd.