The Indie Informer

The client is dead. The detectives in charge of his safety — Moses and Plato — stand atop a speeding train, eyes filled with desperation. And I have no idea how any of it happened. Then, suddenly, I’m safely back at the beginning: A station in the early morning hours too cold even for the fur-covered policemen who are the heroes of Moses & Plato – Last Train to Clawville.

Passengers — and potential suspects — trickle onto the platform, giving me time to gather a treasure trove of information on them and the politically turbulent peace talks that bring many to the train traveling from snowy Stowonia to far-away Clawville. This section had me a little overwhelmed with dialogue.

I spend my time meeting wave after wave of new people, figuring out the mechanics — like the mind palace that holds on to all my observed knowledge and let’s me make connections between suspects or the button that allows me to experience the world via my keen hearing, sight, or smell.

On the train, things get more focused — and dangerous. I’m told a major event will occur in an hour after boarding. This means I have to use my time wisely, as talking to anyone will spill sand from my metaphorical hourglass.

Do I want to speak more closely to the glamorous movie star? She professes to be on this train merely by coincidence, but why does her heart seem to be unaccountably racing? Should I spend my precious minutes digging into the assistant of another unexpected political figure? She acts trustworthy, but is she hiding deeper secrets?

I, being an untrusting sort, decide to interrogate the assistant. The systems for this are creative. I can draw on any information I’ve gathered in my mind palace to confront the story she lays out as we talk. Sometimes, this compels the subject to reveal more than she intended. When this happens, my score grows, and at the end, my efforts earn a four out of five stars. It’s pretty good but means she is still holding something back I wasn’t able to wheedle out.

What that could be turns over in my head as the demo comes to a close. I think about whether I could have figured it all out if I had chosen to talk to different people on the beautifully rendered train. I wonder if I would have even had time for the interrogation if I had.

Either way, I know the next part of the story will involve a murder, and I’ll have to uncover the culprit before suffering the same fate. But you can see if you sniff out different clues in Moses & Plato – Last Train to Clawville‘s demo because it’ll be available to the public May 9 when LudoNarraCon kicks off.