The Last Express (1997) (VG)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Jordan Mechner

Writers:

Jordan Mechner (writer)
Tomi Pierce (writer)

Release Date:

1 April 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

A clue in every car. A stranger in every seat. Danger at every destination.

Plot:

1914: Innocent fugitive Robert Cath boards the Orient Express three days before the outbreak of WW1 and must stay alive until "the end of the line".

Plot Keywords:

Orient Express | Paris | Murder | Doctor | Innocent Fugitive

Cast

David Svensson	...	Robert Cath
Dunya Djordjevic	...	Anna Wolff
Karl-Heinz Teuber	...	August Schmidt
Mujahid Abdul-Rashid	...	Kronos
Corinne Blum	...	Tatiana Obolenskaya
Mikhail Douniyev	...	Alexei Dolnikov
Chris Murray	...	George Abbot
Dermot Robinson	...	Milos
Eileen Weisinger	...	Vesna
Dick Mallon	...	Vassili Obolensky
Nkechi Emeruwa	...	Kahina
Benny Buettner	...	Conductor #1
Jacques Moyal	...	Conductor #2
Robert Vallerga	...	Trainmaster
David Berkson	...	Tyler Whitney

Country:

USA

Language:

French | German | Russian | English | Serbo-Croatian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

USA:T

Filming Locations:

Cinerents West, San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Smoking Car Productions

Trivia:

To create the "art nouveau" animation style effect the production team was looking for, all of the game's possible paths and actions (over 800 scenes) were filmed with 50 live actors wearing special makeup against a bluescreen. The footage was then input into a computer and, using a specially designed process, was processed and turned into black and white line drawings. From there, the footage was meticulously hand painted frame by frame (over 40,000 frames total) to create the final effect.

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the end credits, the music by Cesar Franck is said to be the Sonata in G. Not only is it, in fact, the Sonata in A, but Franck has never written a sonata for violin and piano in G.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Conductor #2: Ladies and Gentlemen, your attention please. The Orient Express is now departing for Strassburg, Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Sofia, and Constantinople. All passengers should be on board.

The best game ever!

This is the best computer game I have ever played. It's so evocative and you really feel as though you are there in the train, observing everything and everyone! The details are so rich and accurate - I saw pictures of the actual Orient Express carriages in a book and recognised everything! The other characters are all intriguing and the possibility of unrestricted eavesdropping is fantastic. I remember deliberately hanging around Sophie and Rebecca out of a sordid desire to find out all the ins-and-outs of their relationship! And the others were all so well-rounded and complex even though they slotted into what might appear to be clichéd roles such as the Russian anarchist, the doomed Tatiana, enigmatic Anna the Serbian terrorists and the smug little French family heading to Abadan. Oh they transcenced their stereotypes all right. In some ways I'd love to play a game that just involved listening in to a much larger trainload of characters! I have often longed to find a game in a similar style but covering a different set of circumstances - the search has been in vain. "Titanic-Adventure out of Time" makes a fair stab at it but it is flawed compared to "The Last Express".

Anyway thank goodness I bought this game when it was available all those years ago and that I still possess it and the box it came in. I also sent off for the official guide which is a good thick book full of valuable extra information and pictures. I wouldn't sell either for any money!