New game: "Loco Motive"!

New game!

I've started playing Loco Motive by Robust Games and I'm 1 hour into it! This made Adventure Game of the Year for Adventure Game Hotspot and also won the AGOTY Award for best adventure game of 2024. So, it has a lot to live up to! And indeed, it doesn't take long to see the quality behind this title.

Speech! Speech! Speech!

Lady Unterwald, wealthy owner of the Orient... I mean Reuss Express, has a big announcement to make concerning her last will and testament. At the moment of her speech, with all of her associates and family gathered together, the train goes through a tunnel, all lights go out, and when power is restored the Lady lies sprawling in her own blood, a knife deeply embedded in her back.

'Tis him, Herman Merman!

Luckily - or perhaps not - famous detective Herman Merman is on board as well and he already figured out how to find the killer. Just look at the will: the one who benefits most from the Lady's death is the culprit. Sadly enough, lawyer Arthur A. Ackerman - who you play as, actually - lost the will. I tried not to lose it. I swear. I saw what was about to happen and I tried very much to prevent it, but the game just wouldn't let me. So yeah, the will is gone, Herman Merman gave up the investigation and went in hiding for fear of his own life somewhere on Snowpie- I mean the Reuss Express, so it's now left to me to figure out who did it.

I'd love a train voyage with rooms like this...

Loco Motive is a classic style point 'n click adventure. It has great pixel art, beautiful close-ups occasionally, fantastisch music, a brilliant voice cast, and every screen bobs up and down and sideways slightly to simulate the movement of the Darjee- I mean Reuss Express. There's lots to look at, inventory items to collect, many characters to talk to and of course loads of puzzles to solve! I'm not far into it the story yet, but it's already obvious why so many people loved this game. 

Is this like the Fate of Atlantis path choice?

With a clear goal ahead of me, I can't help but examine everything and talk to everyone in every carriage I have to pass through. While I might wish for a fast travel map to change carriages quickly, I'm actually glad they didn't add that feature, since there's so much detail in this train. I did notice that talking to the barman might be some kind of in-game hint system, so I stopped doing that. And there were a couple of twins asking me for my preference to tunnels or bridges, which felt like some kind of difficulty level choice.

Now let's go solve this cheeky murder!

You can find Loco Motive on Steam and on GOG.