The Last Express: Sale on iOS

I always feel faintly embarrassed when I see The Last Express. It’s a brilliant concept – you’re an innocent passenger on the Orient Express in 1914 when a someone is murdered and dumped in your cabin. No matter what you do, the train journey continues inexorably onwards in real time.

Whispered exchanges happen in faraway cabins, dinners are served, cabins are cleaned and red herrings abound. You need to figure out what’s useful and relevant but miss a crucial conversation and you’ll never learn the truth.

At least, that’s how I understood it when I played back in 1997. My reality was more like this:

• Oh god, a body!
• Oh god, the cleaner wants to get inside my cabin!
• *hides body in fold-out bed*
• *cleaner finds obvious bloodstain on floor*
• GAME OVER

Or, the slightly longer version:

• *throws body out window*
• *scrubs bloodstain with handkerchief* (all gentlemen carried handkerchiefs in 1914)
• *pootles about train for a bit*
• *train is stopped because police found a suspicious body lying next to the tracks*
• *bloodstained rag found in my pocket*
• GAME OVER

15 years later and it still intrigues me, but the thought of sitting at my PC struggling through the same probably-elementary puzzle just doesn’t appeal. The iOS version is on sale for £1.99 at the moment and I hear it comes with hints. Maybe I’ll do better slouched on the sofa with an iPad? On the other hand, the hints would detract massively from the storytelling. Hmm… can I resist clicking on them?

The Last Express is available now for iOS 4.3+ or you can get the purist hint-free version on PC from Gog.com or DOTEmu.