[Terramax]

Looked up this game on Wikipedia as one of the biggest gaming disasters! 5 years, $6 million to make and stalled when on sale.

What was the game like? Does it work for XP? I'm sure the game was for sale at one stage at Amazon.co.uk, but I can't find it on there anymore.

[Junkface]

Unique gameplay coupled with excellent writing, art direction and atmosphere make it one of the best games I've ever played - Jordan Mechner's greatest achievement. The game works on XP for me, though I get an error message on startup it still appears to run normally.

[Stain]

It is also on GameTap. That gets around that whole "does it work on XP?" problem as well. A good game. It was quite cools that the game world continues on whether you are there to see it or not, but I found if you stray from the path you are intended to take, the game becomes quite hard to follow and more or less unsolvable. So, stay on the beaten path and you will be fine (which kinda defeats the point of an open-ended game IMO).

Cheers

[Crapstorm]

The real-time concept was cool in theory, but dreadful in practice. The gameplay consists of little more than wandering around trying to be in the right place at the right time. The first two times I played it, I had bad luck and missed vital plot developments. I realized I had to start over after hours of uneventful wandering. Even if you happen to be present for all the key scenes, you still have to wander the same locations ad nauseum and endure long lulls in which nothing happens.

Broderbund should have tested a low budget version of the gameplay first before investing a fortune in the grandiose production.

[Fien]

Originally Posted by Crapstorm

The real-time concept was cool in theory, but dreadful in practice. The gameplay consists of little more than wandering around trying to be in the right place at the right time. The first two times I played it, I had bad luck and missed vital plot developments. I realized I had to start over after hours of uneventful wandering. Even if you happen to be present for all the key scenes, you still have to wander the same locations ad nauseum and endure long lulls in which nothing happens.

Broderbund should have tested a low budget version of the gameplay first before investing a fortune in the grandiose production.

You've complained about TLE before and I decided to sit on my hands. Not this time. It's fine with me if you hated TLE, but this bit about hours of uneventful wandering if you happen to miss vital plot developments is simply untrue. From the moment you board the train, people approach you, they want things from you and it's up to you to find out what's going on. You have to think about what to do and yes, it involves replaying some parts, that's the whole point of the game, but HOURS of uneventful wandering?? Impossible. Fail to deliver to the various parties and you've had it. If you don't talk to X before the train stops at A, or if you don't show Y to Z, it's game over. Meaning you're killed, arrested, thrown off the train... and then you don't need to start over, you let the GAME take you back to a point in time where you can still win!

I can only conclude that something technical went wrong with your game disks, installation, a glitch, whatever.

PS: Tell us how far you got. Tell us about the things that didn't happen.

[Crapstorm]

Originally Posted by Fienepien

I can only conclude that something technical went wrong with your game disks, installation, a glitch, whatever.

PS: Tell us how far you got. Tell us about the things that didn't happen.

I can't tell you what didn't happen, because I don't know what was supposed to happen. I glanced at a walkthrough before giving up, and I was blown away by the quantity of things that I missed. It was like I was playing a totally different game.

But yeah, the first time I played the game was ruined by what was probably a technical bug. I looked around, met a few characters, solved a couple of puzzles and then wandered for about 2 hours with literally nothing happening except a series of train stops. I asked in this forum for a bit of help, and I think you clued me in to a character that I hadn't met yet

Spoiler:

woman in red dress

. I agreed that it was some sort of bug, reinstalled the game and started again. Second time I met that character right away and made it all the way to

Spoiler:

Munich

, but I got very bored with the slow rate that I was discovering new things.

[Nautilus]

Originally Posted by Terramax

What was the game like?

Despite the bad sales results (mostly caused by very bad distribution/marketing), "The Last Express" is one of the most fascinating games of all times. Play the demo and see for yourself.

The Last Express including official DEMO
http://lastexpress.markmoran.net/

[Fien]

Originally Posted by Crapstorm

... but I got very bored with the slow rate that I was discovering new things.

Slow rate??

Okay, I was wrong, it's not a glitch at all, you simply wandered around for hours instead of getting some sleep, like all the signs are telling you. TLE is not your cup of tea.

What always gets me, is that people are unable to see that games (books, films, plays, music) they don't like can still have QUALITY written all over them. Don't like 1st-person adventures without dialogue and inventory? Rotten Mystians which don't deserve to be called adventures... Don't understand what you're supposed to do in a real-time game without any *traditional* puzzles? TLE wasn't tested properly... Didn't you even notice the terrific voiceacting, the wonderful setting, the great writing, the intriguing story?

Crapstorm

[Terramax]

Originally Posted by Stain

It is also on GameTap. That gets around that whole "does it work on XP?" problem as well.
Cheers

<<<<<<< UK

Where is this demo BTW? It's not at Gamershell?

Also, people say the real time in this game is an excellent idea, but wasn't this the same concept as 'Night Trap' - often said to be one of the worst games of all time?

[Fien]

Originally Posted by Terramax

<<<<<<< UK

Where is this demo BTW? It's not at Gamershell?

Also, people say the real time in this game is an excellent idea, but wasn't this the same concept as 'Night Trap' - often said to be one of the worst games of all time?

You've said it... Night Trap is one of the worst games of all time (the acting had me in stitches). TLE isn't.

Fortunately Night Trap is not an adventure game, it's about spotting and trapping, killing, eliminating as many black baddies as fast as you can.

[Fien]

Originally Posted by Terramax

Where is this demo BTW? It's not at Gamershell?

Don't you know how to use Google??

http://www.fileshack.com/file.x/1513

and elsewhere

[Nautilus]

Originally Posted by Terramax

Where is this demo BTW?

The Last Express - mirror of the official game site, including the original game DEMO
http://lastexpress.markmoran.net/

Mark Moran is one of the programmers of Last Express.

[Crapstorm]

Originally Posted by Fienepien

What always gets me, is that people are unable to see that games (books, films, plays, music) they don't like can still have QUALITY written all over them. Don't like 1st-person adventures without dialogue and inventory? Rotten Mystians which don't deserve to be called adventures... Don't understand what you're supposed to do in a real-time game without any *traditional* puzzles? TLE wasn't tested properly... Didn't you even notice the terrific voiceacting, the wonderful setting, the great writing, the intriguing story?

Crapstorm

I know what you're saying. I've tried to read War and Peace too, and I can never get past page 100. It's not because it's poorly written or a bad book. A lot of people say it's the greatest novel ever written, and maybe it is. I just can't get into it. I loved the book Shogun, which is equal in length, so it's not a matter of page numbers. War and Peace just defeats me every time, I think because the character interactions are full of important subtleties that are beyond me.

I acknowledge all the great things about The Last Express that you point out: the great acting, wonderful setting, superb dialogue scripting, it's all there. What isn't there is fun gameplay. For me, anyway. I won't belabor the point any further. Some people really enjoyed it, and I envy them. I didn't get it. But then again, I don't get a lot of adventure games.

[Terramax]

actually, the one thing that won't let me rush out and buy without trying this is the visual style. The characters have the look of a 1970's Christian cartoon.

But Im downloading the file now. Thanks for the links. No, I don't always google for demos as half the time I end up with sites you hve to sign up to in order to get the demos.

EDIT: Also, I liked Night Trap.

[Fien]

Originally Posted by Terramax

The characters have the look of a 1970's Christian cartoon.

Also, I liked Night Trap.

Maybe you should buy Gothos instead of TLE.

[Terramax]

Originally Posted by Fienepien

Maybe you should buy Gothos instead of TLE.

Sorry, Gothos? Is that another American term?

[Melanie68]

Originally Posted by Terramax

Sorry, Gothos? Is that another American term?

I believe it's a game:

http://www.quandaryland.com/jsp/disp....jsp?index=610

[Terramax]

looks quite good actually lol

[Fien]

Yeah, it's a game, it's an adventure... you like vampires, don't you?
After the civilized, lovable and classy werewolves of your avatar and the ordinary, comfy and homely vampsies in Night Trap, it's high time you turned into one of the really wild, bloodthirsty and batty beings yourself. The acting in the wonderful FMV adventure Gothos is even worse will make you laugh even harder than the Night Trap vampsies.

So find yourself a nice pair of fangs to keep your very own Blood Bar filled with blood from innocent (hopefully Christian) bystanders.

But please remember...

"...better get the serious toothpaste!"

[seebaruk]

Last Express was interesting, but i found it hard to get into as well - like Crapstorm, there were periods when I wandered up and down the train looking for something to do, then resorted to a walkthrough where I discovered I had missed out on all sorts of conversations, or had to do something random like

Spoiler:

trap a mouse in a matchbox

. The story was pretty interesting though, from what I could make out of it, and the character development was great. I stopped playing when I hit a glitch which made progress impossible (rewinding time never got rid of it) -

Spoiler:

It was when the weird bad dude invited everyone into his room for some delightful music. His henchman kind of got 'stuck' and ended up floating creepily in the air, and the dog never got removed from the woman's room, so I couldn't nab the key.