Puzz-3D Orient Express

Puzzle lovers will eat this one up with a spoon; adventure fans will be disappointed by the weak second half

For many years, the most lavish way to experience Europe was aboard the Orient Express, a special train service offered by the Paris-based Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. At the height of its popularity, the Orient Express stretched from Paris to Istanbul, shuttling pampered passengers from Europe to the Near East in just over three days. With its wood inlays and Lalique glass fixtures, sumptuous sleeping cars, gourmet meals and attentive staff, the Orient Express was frequented by the wealthy and aristocratic who wished to travel in style.

The original opulence of the Orient Express is, sadly, long gone, but Wrebbit Interactive has given us a glimpse into the past with Puzz-3D CD: The Orient Express from the Twenties. Like all Puzz-3D CD-ROM titles, this game has two sections: the virtual jigsaw that allows players to put together the engine and two cars of the train, and the exploration phase that gives players a chance to go inside the cars and try to solve a 1920s mystery adventure.

The virtual jigsaw
Puzz-3D titles are designed to be easy to use, with simple, intuitive interfaces that let you get right into the game. After the opening cut-scene, you are immediately brought to the main table, a semicircular table covered with random puzzle pieces. You can navigate around this table by dragging the mouse in any direction. To get a better look at the individual pieces, there are three magnification levels; you can pull in close to study a detail or pull back to look for similar pieces to group. Click on a piece and drag it to any location; rotate it by right-clicking. When you think you have a match, just drop two pieces next to each other with the right edges matching up; if you've got it right, they'll automatically latch together. To make it easier to sort pieces, you can create up to seven puzzle trays; just right-click and drag over a collection of puzzle pieces to create a tray for them. If you want to put the pieces back on the table, click on the arrow button in the upper left corner of any tray. When you have a completed section of puzzle, you may drop it in the special gold box for transfer to the construction site. Once the pieces are all in place and the puzzle is complete, you will be able to enter the train itself and explore the various compartments.

There's a special section that I, the trivia geek, really enjoyed: a small book in the upper right corner of the screen that has tons of multimedia clips about the history of the Orient Express and the people behind it. As you make progress on the construction of the jigsaw, you will get more media clips in this book to encourage you along. There are also some rather bad acting segments introducing several characters on the train: more on this in a moment.

The exploration phase
This was a really cool idea: give players the chance to construct the train cars, then let them explore inside when they've finished. The folks at Wrebbit even had a better idea: a mystery adventure set aboard the train, with the characters introduced in the jigsaw section as the participants. If only this idea had worked better in execution...

One of the characters aboard the train is a fortune teller whose medium of divination is Mah Jongg tiles. (Hey, it takes all kinds.) She urges you to find the tiles hidden on board the train and use them to discover the identity of the mysterious passenger who is said to be coming aboard. There are some nice period references to T.S. Eliot and the jazz age, but the passengers you meet are pretty much stock characters—the educated flapper, the wealthy-yet-bourgeois tennis player, the jazz singer, etc.—and the scenes with them are painfully over-acted. It's really too bad; you get the distinct feeling a lighter directorial hand could have yielded some good performances.

In addition to solving the overall mystery with the Mah Jongg Prophecy game, there are several other puzzles in the various compartments: a sliding square puzzle featuring a beautiful marquetry peacock design, a broken encoding machine that will yield several clues, a piano roll game that requires good memory and music skills. These run the gamut from fun to frustrating. Further, if you get stuck, you can't pass these up; they are required in order to finish the game.

Overall, Puzz-3D CD: The Orient Express from the Twenties is a great jigsaw puzzle and an average adventure game. It's well worth checking out, especially if you're a puzzle fiend, but if you're buying it only for the adventure section you'll probably be disappointed.

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