I have nothing but respect for a designer who, in this era of twitch-reflex gaming and short attention-span consumers, labors so intensely over a game design to create a setting that can truly enchant the player. Jordan Mechner, creator of the Prince of Persia games, went against every conventional thought of design theory, in an almost kamikaze attempt to do something that had just not been done before. The setting of The Last Express, the resulting product that both began and ended Mechner’s Smoking Car Productions studio, is nothing short of sheer brilliance. The idea of riding a train through Europe in the midst of a heap of political drama is exciting enough in itself. This isn’t just any train though; it’s the famed Orient Express, running from Paris to Constantinople. And the time isn’t just any era; it’s late July of 1914—the week that World War I began