The Last Express places American doctor Robert Cath aboard the Orient Express in July 1914, days before the outbreak of World War I. Jordan Mechner built the game around a real-time simulation: every passenger follows their own schedule across the three-day journey whether or not Cath interacts with them, and conversations loop and shift as circumstances change. The rotoscoped art draws on Art Nouveau illustration, and the political tensions aboard the train, involving spies, revolutionaries, and a mysterious cargo, mirror the larger catastrophe about to descend on Europe.