Moses & Plato - Last Train to Clawville Review
A beautiful game with a varied cast that feels disjointed with frustrating puzzles and weak detective interrogations.
You are in control of the 2 main characters Moses and Plato and meet an eclectic cast of characters on a train. It takes inspiration from Murder on The Orient express and similar British detective TV shows.
I played their previous game- Chicken Police - Paint it RED! and wanted to see if they improved on their previous game. Detective games are known to keep you guessing the primary suspect, but there were almost no clear clues given to figure out who the actual killer was.
After discovering a corpse, the duo inspect the crime scene and ask the other characters about what they know. The character interrogations involve asking questions and choosing between 4-5 choices based on facts you collected. After completing, you receive a score based on how many correct choices you gave and can redo it if you want to attempt a perfect questioning.
Moses & Plato - Last Train to Clawville. Credit The Wild Gentlemen Toge Productions
During various scenes, player has access to Moses’s fox senses to collect more clues. Sight, smell, or sound can be used to look at items, your surroundings, or examine other characters.
Moses is the protagonist and a fox detective. He is straightforward and is the brains of the duo. Relies on his senses and knowledge to make decisions. Plato portrays a cat and your cop partner. Likes to make jokes and rely on his cop instincts. Also, he is not afraid to speak his mind and can be easily irritated.
Pros:
Each character has a distinct personality. Also, they hired professional voice actors, which enhances the aura of each character and the performances stand out. Player relies on the voice actor instead of the body language since some scenes are static. The clue system is simple, but player still needs to put the clues together to do well on questionings or character interrogations or questionings.
The background environments and artwork look gorgeous and could fit in an animated movie. The artwork is 2.5D and you can read more about the details in the developer log 4. Several QOL features in the game compared to other adventure games. For example, there is fast travel - move to various carts of the train and auto play chat so player does not need to click to proceed with conversation.
Moses & Plato - Last Train to Clawville. Credit The Wild Gentlemen Toge Productions
Cons:
Detective elements are the weakest part of the game. The clues can be missed if you don’t inspect a certain item or talk to a certain character. Also, clues and facts become an exercise of fill in the blank similar to Golden Idol. Exhaust all dialogue options and move on to the next character. Also, tedious puzzles in several chapters irritate the player such as unlocking a puzzle box. There are hints provided, but most players will use a guide to finish them since it seems like a waste of time trying to figure them out. These would be fine in a puzzle game, but in a detective game, these puzzles felt more like obstacles slowing down progress to the next chapter. Items can be picked up, but random items are barely used or needed throughout the game.
During character dialogue, the repeated typing noises were distracting. I prefer a way to reduce the sound or even turn it off. There is no summary after completing a chapter, which can make it hard for player to get a quick overview of what facts they found out. Too many scenes were limited to the train, which severely limited the ability to explore the interesting locations outside of the train. You get a glimpse of other locations, but are forced back to the train. The main theme was the train setting, but I would have liked more time to check out the other areas. Make better use of the inventory.
Conclusion:
A gorgeous game with vibrant art and voice acting. However, the detective aspects were lacking and boiled down to interrogations with key characters. Several puzzles were frustrating and they felt tacked on as an afterthought. I believed the developers were fixated on the theme of train murders and could have created a vastly more unique experience. Compared to the first Chicken Police game, this is a letdown. I wanted the team to take more risks with this game and build on the mystery, but ultimately this game used a safe script leading to an average experience.
Moses & Plato - Last Train to Clawville
A point and click game that lacks the solid detective elements to be more memorable. Puzzles involve trial and error and hinder the story.