Moses & Plato – Last Train to Clawville Review (PC): Sly Like a Fox

A ghastly murder, a train full of potential suspects, and racing to beat the clock to find out who-done it. A classic setup for a good murder mystery needing to be solved by a crack detective, and also the starting point for developer The Wild Gentlemen’s newest caper. If you want to see how well your Sherlock Holmes instincts measure up in a vibrant world full of great characters, Moses & Plato – Last Train to Clawville is worth checking out to see where the story leads.

The Game is Afoot

Moses & Plato is a straightforward caper, throwing you into the action from moment one as a murder has been committed on The Clawville Express, a train on a three-day voyage with a cast of very important characters as passengers. The game is a visual novel, with point-and-click mechanics used to carry out the investigation. 

As you race against time to find the true culprit, you’ll have access to Moses’ keen fox senses, letting you smell, hear, and notice small details most would miss or want to keep hidden. This adds tools to your arsenal, as you also need to interrogate up to 12 passengers to see who can get caught in a lie, and help lead you to the final conclusion and bust the perp. 

Adding an additional wrinkle, chapters of the story are constrained by time, meaning there could be five people to speak with to gain knowledge, but the clock only allows for three conversations. The game also introduces a Mind Garden, a menu that organizes codex information, character refreshers, and checklists of clues to fill in, a helpful way to keep all your investigation work in one place. It’s a juggling act of finding clues, catching people in lies, and getting to know everyone’s true motives, and it kept me on my toes, hoping I was staying one step ahead of the killer.

Prime Suspect

Being a point-and-click visual novel, the gameplay aspects can make for a passive experience, which works well enough during detective work, but does start to wear thin. Luckily, those thoughts don’t settle in too often, as the story, characters, and art direction carried me along and kept me engaged for the entire ride. 

Our main characters, Moses and his partner Plato, are very much the Sherlock Holmes and Watson parallel, with their banter being delightful throughout. Their voice actors do a ton of heavy lifting to fill the run time of the adventure, and I enjoyed every friendly rib and bad pun along the way. This praise extends to the entire cast, with no character feeling boring or wasted, all amazingly acted and easy to root for or against. 

The mystery itself is well made, with plenty of twists and turns, as well as a satisfying end, rewarding those who did their detective homework. Initially, I was concerned if the visual novel genre could hold my attention long enough for me to see who was guilty, but the strength of the cast and writing made those worries disappear.

Final Verdict

Moses & Plato – Last Train to Clawville is an enthralling murder puzzler, pulled along by an amazing cast and memorable characters. Even though it’s light on deep gameplay mechanics, the animal senses add wrinkles to clue gathering, setting up tense verbal standoffs as you zero in on the true murderer. Fans of Sherlock Holmes, visual novels, and well-executed mysteries are sure to enjoy this caper.

Moses & Plato – Last Train to Clawville was reviewed on PC with a code provided by The Wild Gentlemen.

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