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What is a great adventure game – I'm talking the likes of Monkey Island, Sam & Max, King's Quest – but a series of screens? And what is a train if, in essence, a series of screens? (Look, we all have our ways of dealing with travel stress). It makes the railway setting for Loco Motive, from Robust Games, which takes place on luxury train the Reuss Express, the perfect avenue for throwing coal on the fire of retro-styled adventuring gaming, and the results are a real toot!
Arthur Ackerman provides the perfect introduction to this many-wheeled murder mystery. On the surface, as a lawyer who loves paperwork, this will-penning leading man may seem a little dry – but, almost Guybrush Threepwood-esque, his hapless demeanor makes him the perfect foil for stumbling upon comically complex puzzles aplenty. So single-minded is he on his precious papers, that he carries a real himbo energy for everything else, making getting to grips with the cast of characters and different train compartments a joy.
Investigation derailed
Not only a series of screens, the nature of the train setting that makes up the majority of Loco Motive's environment also means each screen can serve a very clear purpose. One of those old timey-style posh sleeper trains, rather than the commuter to London Paddington, there's a sleeper carriage that offshoots to other rooms; a dining carriage with its own bar; a kitchen where struggling chefs attempt to corral dinner; an entertainment carriage with its own stage, complete with VIP green room; and even a casino full of high-rollers. And, rather than having to worm in and out of buildings, they're only a click away as you move from carriage to carriage – Arthur and company (there's three characters overall) able to run at speed between them.
At times, this can still mean a bit of backtracking as you dash to and fro. Especially as for the most part Loco Motive takes a "more is more" approach to its inventory that ends up stuffed to the brim in no time at all. Yet, a nicely arranged chapter system helps to avoid overwhelm, making the parameters of your objectives between each one quite clear, handing off between protagonists not only refreshing your main goal and inventory but stopping things from spinning too wildly out of control. Because of the enclosed setting, you can even carry an amount of foreknowledge about locations and events that can prompt you on what to investigate as a different character in the next chapter.
But, what's most important for an adventure game to nail, for me, is a sense of character – and every element of Loco Motive feeds into this. Whether it's exuberant animated sequences that have lashings of cartoon 'squash and stretch' movement; dialogue trees with enough silly responses for you to want to hear them all; and plenty of 'aha' moments as oddball ideas for how to smash together inventory pieces to solve conundrums actually pays off. The gorgeous pixel artwork and terrific audio design make it feel like this train has taken me through a tunnel to the past, and I'm right back playing my favorite LucasArts adventure games yet again.
I'm only left wishing, by the end, that Loco Motive was able to go a bit more off the tracks than it does. While early non-train screens are little more than simple tutorials, the ones that come later really showcase some smart design that extends the principles of the connected 'screens' that make up each carriage.
Minor spoiler warning, perhaps, but here at the end you get to play as all three characters at once, able to switch between them a little like in the classic Day of the Tentacle. The puzzles here come from the very limited interactions each is able to perform in their own mini-spaces, and how they can shunt items back and forth, and affect the puzzles active in other characters' areas.
These end up being quite straightforward, perhaps in part because once introduced there's only an hour or so left in the game, but they end up being the ones that delight me the most. With less ground to cover, the characters and the puzzles really come to the forefront, highlighting the areas where the game rocks the most. I'm left wanting more, yet satisfied with the journey I undertook, which is all to say that yes, I'd love to board the Reuss Express for a second trip any time – let's get that puzzlebook passport another stampin'.
Loco Motive was played on PC with a code provided by the publisher
Loco Motive is out now on PC and Switch. For more recommendations, head on over to our Indie Spotlight series. Or, check out our best game stories list for more!
