Last updated on January 15th, 2026 at 12:56 pm
The Last Express – Adventure Game Review
The Last Express is a Adventure/Family game from DotEmu, first launched in 27th September 2012.
It’s rated 12+ and currently has 209+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes The Last Express Stand Out
Step aboard the 1914 Orient Express in this award-winning mystery adventure from Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner, now for the first time on iOS!
JULY, 1914. With Europe on the brink of war, the luxurious Orient Express departs Paris for Constantinople, plunging American doctor Robert Cath into a maelstrom of treachery, romance, and international intrigue.
The Last Express is a complete, faithful iOS version of the internationally-acclaimed 1997 PC classic.
GAME FEATURES:
- 20+ hours of game play
- Interact with 30+ characters who behave like actual people on a train — moving about in real-time and conversing in their native languages
- Eavesdrop on conversations, sneak into compartments, and uncover clues
- Explore a richly detailed, historically accurate 3D recreation of the 1914 Orient Express
- Your actions affect other characters’ behavior, making every play-through different
- Rewind feature allows you to back up to any point in the story and choose a different course of action
- Playable in 5 languages: English, French, German, Italian and Spanish
EXCLUSIVE ADDITIONAL FEATURES ONLY FOR iOS:
- Unlock challenging achievements that test your sleuthing skills
- Dynamic, 3-tiered hint system created specifically for iOS
- 20 unlockable character biographies
- Unlock cinematics to replay at any time
Reviews ! 90% on Metacritic
"The Last Express is just one of those games that adventure fans, or just fans of a good story, need to play." 4/4 – Slide To Play
"A shining example of how deeply gameplay and storytelling can be intertwined" 5/5 – AppSpy
"It's a piece of videogame history and a shining example of what can be done to create an experience so much more immersive than the Heavy Rains of today." – 8/10, Destructoid
“Exquisite design and a literary story. A thrilling ride.” – Newsweek
“The top adventure game… thumbs up by all ages and both genders.” – Family PC
“A masterpiece.” – Computer Games Strategy Plus
“Gripping… amazing… totally unique. The best adventure game I have ever played. Beautiful, skillfully crafted, and worth every penny and hour of your time.” – Games Domain Review
FOR MORE ABOUT THE LAST EXPRESS, VISIT:
http://www.facebook.com/lastexpress
facebook.com/dotemu
twitter.com/dotemu
youtube.com/dotemu
http://jordanmechner.com/
This Adventure game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, The Last Express is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 2nd February 2018
Recent improvements include:
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
- Updated the game for iOS 11.
- Fixed some subtitle issues.
- Fixed a crash.
Download & Availability
The Last Express is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get The Last Express on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Blended media that harkens back to 90s PC point and click, but visually more interesting. Puzzles arent very complicated, but its like being part of a fun interactive story.
Really happy to find this classic on the iPad. It play naturally with touch since its a point and click adventure from the 90s. It used motion capture to animate people and the game plays in real time you have to move the clock if you make a mistake to go back but sometimes you will have too many wrong decisions and need to restart :). People on the train have their own schedules and so you can witness events based on the time in the game. Hope the developer keeps this working into the future.
Love this game. We know and worked with the people who wrote it.
We loved this game 20 years ago when it first came out, and still do. Thank you for bringing it back. Our only wish is the game play itself be updated for 2019/2020 with all new graphics and perhaps even a whole new story. One can hope right.
We are not sure how to do this game justice in a review. How do you adequately praise a work of art? This is the closest thing to time travel Ive probably ever encountered. If youve never wanted to take a train across Europe in the days before WWI, you may not enjoy this game, and thats fine. But if you ever have thought, Gee, that would be neat, this game is the closest youll get. Some of the gameplay is challenging, even frustrating. But this is a big, Art Nouveau astronomical clock of a game, with so many moving partsreally as immersive as anything Ive played. The passengers on the train each have their own stories, and speak their own languages (Russian, French, German, Serbian!). At one point you must have a character translate a golden manuscript of The Firebird into English from Russian. The conversations between the socialist student and the Counts granddaughter, or between the English girl and her Central European companion, are just exactly right. If you love travel or history, if you love art or character, try this game. If these things do not excite you, enjoy the thousands of other games that are made for people with no appetite for the extraordinary. If only there were more games with this much imagination.
Pretty, runs great, interesting stories and characters.
Thanks for bringing this amazing classic to iOS.
We would love to play this again on an iPhone 8 Plus screen!!! Such a delightful game that shouldnt be forgotten! UPDATE we did not expect to see this on our 8 plus, but you guys delivered!!! Cant wait to play this through again thanks!!! (Now get on that LBA sequel Ive been pestering for!!).
There is this bug that is in the game that cause the time in the story to move faster than the actual story this means we cant catch up when somethings happening. For example. During the story when you arrive at Munich. The game thinks you actually at Munich saying that you failed to give the gold august Schmidt even though the concert is still going with august Schmidt in the concert. Thats what we mean. So can you please fix this bug.
We really enjoy playing The last express so bringing this game to mobile is great, so we decided to replay it then we noticed a glitch where Anna wont talk to August in the restaurant car she just stands by the door Can this please be fixed.
There is nothing else like this game, a neglected classic brought back to life, flawed in places because it tried to tell a complex story in a new way. There aren't many places to go but everything around you changes as time passes. It can be frustrating to miss an event by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or neglecting to recheck a location that was empty the first time you looked. But there are clues in the overheard conversations, and if you fail the rewind mechanism takes you back to a point where you can still win. It's a great story, memorable characters and more true emotion than many games. (Thankfully the developer has finally updated the iOS version so it runs on the latest iOS. So this lost classic comes back from the dead yet again.).
Loving the game, but the controls are very difficult. Especially during the fight scenes. Its a bit frustrating.
This really is a good game, but it desperately needs updating. We originally purchased it in 2012 and it was flawless and beautiful and fun. Ive offloaded and reloaded it over the years (it does take up quite a bit of space) and we decided to load it again for something fun to do (you know, Covid and all). We were so disappointed to find it doesnt work with iOS 14. We didnt bother to notice that the last update was 2 years ago. The biggest issue is there is no sound at all. This game relies on listening to the dialogue of the characters. Please please please update.
This is a great classic game, but the software hasnt been updated in a long time so bugs persist. In addition to a clunky fight scene, the concert now never ends.
Are usually dont download games that havent had any updates in a year. We broke our rule, and we shouldnt have. Granted, we are on a iPhone 6S, but we just cant move around in the game. We cant tell whats a door and whats a hallway. Clunky mechanics dont help.
We became absolutely hooked on this game. It has everything we love in a point-and-click adventure game: intriguing storyline, good character interaction, challenging (but not impossibly hard) puzzles, and phenomenal voice acting. The real-time storyline makes it even more interesting. We would give the game itself 5 stars…BUT about halfway through, there is a bug that makes it impossible to complete the game (concert scene never ends, just goes on for hours even though all tasks have been completed). We can only guess that this is a glitch with iOS 12, as the game was last updated for iOS 11. Contacted the developers, no reply…seriously disappointing to not even be able to finish the game after paying for it and investing so much time in it.
If you have any hearing impairment this game is not for you. When you interact with the characters there is no option for captions on the screen.
Which is constantly. Its really frustrating.
Glitchy, and absolutely confusing direction/location-wise. Controls wouldnt work in one extremely slow almost standstill fight scene. We finally deleted.
Id like our money back, this has inappropriate content and should be a restriction of 18+.
Game is excellent and still fun to play today. The only reason this is a 1 review is simply because the game has not been updated to work on iOS15 M1 iPads. It just crashes and becomes unplayable.
This game cant be played in landscape and is quite stuffed in portrait. Refund please.
Save your money. This game is worthless as far as puzzle games go. It could have promise if it wasnt so glitchy. The controls take some getting used to but even then they have their quirks. The most irritating thing in the game is the short time limit that you have to get to the next objective. It would be nice to be able to explore and talk the characters without you getting arrested so quickly.
Critical bug: Concert never finishes so Cath never gets to have his crucial conversation with Schmidt. Our hero is dead halfway through the game. It's a shame as this is a beautiful game.
The app had a glitch so that there was no sound. Much of this game relies on sound. Couldnt play it.
Excellent game, needs to be made comparable with iOS 11, this Awsome game can't be allowed to disappear and be forgotten just because Apple updates their iOS to 64 bit.
We love this game and would hate to lose it when iOS 11 comes out. Please please please update the app DotEmu.
Great story line, interesting characters, very intriguing and addictive. Not too long or short.Can you please make a sequel? We would like to see another ending.
The game takes a while to download but we're sure from everyone's reviews it's going to be awesome.
We loved this game as a kid and now we can play it on the go :D.
It is a really nice game with a great story. Definitely worth about 2-3 play throughs. There are times when we wish the graphics were a little more fluid and higher quality, but everything else makes up for those things.
We bought this game 15 years ago at a media play for $5 out the bargain bin. Never got to finish it because we last the last disk. Can't wait to play it all over again.
What a tribute to creativity! This game made us feel humbled at what can be achieved with great art, story and technology! We noted that after the first 15 minutes, we forgot that this was a game, and felt more like a rider on the Orient Express. Each character has been developed well, and the story unfolds in a non-linear way. This game was way ahead of its time when it came out, and we are so glad we were able to get our hands on it through the App Store. These guys deserve belated awards.
Just as we were excited to find Myst ports, we find this.
One of the best adventure games ever made, and one of the least played. If you pick it up, though, it will be the best five dollars you've spent.
Great old game, brought back from the dead.
Storyline is fantastic. We are a fan of point and click games and this did not disappoint. The only thing is the navigation in the game was a bit difficult and took a while to get used to. Other than that, excellent. We would play it again.
Story heavy, narrative driven puzzles yet puzzle-box light. The real-time mechanics are brilliant and the atmosphere is without equal. A must play.
Superbly captures the romance and mystery of the Orient Express. We hope to see more games like it.
An absolutely splendid adaptation of our favorite game ever.
Perfect except we cant play at work cus theres no subtitles ;(.
This is great, just like it was when it first came out. Only a few iOS glitches (especially when you try to resume game after a break) but other than that no complaints.
Hasn't been easy to find over the years, especially Mac versions. Had to delete all our music off our phone to play but totally worth it.
This is a unique point and click adventure that has a truly engrossing story. It is unique because the other characters go about their business whether or not you decide to take action or not. This is different than most adventure games, where only your actions affect the events going on, but in this game, characters move and events unfold in real time, making it all the more immersive. Definitely worth the buy if you enjoy period piece thrillers.
This is one of our favorite game in iPad and highly recommend this. If you enjoy detective/adventure type of game, you will definitely enjoy this one.
What a classic! We were so happy to see it released again as a mobile app.
A beautiful classic. We love how the iPhone version uses portrait orientation. A beautiful game with beautiful story. It animates as if it is a powerpoint slide show but for us it is a artistic choice. It rarely crashes. Some touch control might be a little quirky. But this is an amazing game. A classic that still holds up well today. Buy it.
The game will appear antiquated in playing style, but remember that this is a remake of an old computer game. This game was and is a masterpiece, and the audio problems others are having is gone of Rome.
One of the best adventures of all times, an 1997 game, which still feels fresh after all this years. A must buy for adventure fans.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.12
- Size: 1,310.88 MB
- iOS: 8.0 or later
- Languages: EN, FR, DE, IT, ES
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity
- Developer: DotEmu
Last updated: 2nd February 2018 | Genre: Adventure, Family | Developer: DotEmu