#9 Lost by name, Lost by nature

So I altered my LoveFilm queue to introduce games back into the mix. I have about 10 games in the "games" queue (how did I ever come up with that name?!), most are to boost my gamerscore with easy achievements and others are games which I've been meaning to try but don't really want to fork out the cash for. Now, what I was hoping to get was the new Civilization Revolutions, but instead I got Lost: Via Domus.

Now, first off this game is unsuitable for anyone who is not a fan of Lost. I will also say that you're got to be pretty familiar with the main events of the story, because this game visits them but does not explain a lot of the exposition required to fully understand how the people in the fiction got from A to B. I'll try and keep the spoilers down but no promises.

So first off, what genre does the Lost game fall into? I hear you cry. Well it probably fits under the RPG category, although part of me wants to be bold and say it's reminiscent of the point and click adventures of yesteryear but more about that later.

Imagine if a secondary school student wrote some really bad fan fiction set in the Lost universe and that is the level of sophistication we're talking here

Speaking of yesteryear, that links me smoothly onto the visuals, and there is something horribly prev-gen about this game. Granted the environments are adequately rendered, nothing amazing for this generation, and technically quite small and constrictive, get ready to meet your old friend, Mr invisible wall.
Moving on, and the main motivation for playing the game is of course the excitement brought about from being dropped into the Lost universe. Want to play Jack or Kate? Bad luck I'm sorry, you play some side character just to ensure that the plot laid out in the TV show remains untouched.
Looking at the characters in more depth, and this is where you would hope the game would excel, capturing the likeness and personality of the characters you've all enjoying watching. Sadly, that isn't the case. To be fair the characters in-game are recognisable against their real-life counterparts, but a lot more work could have been put in, particularly with the animation of the characters; the horrible head bobs and jerky hand/arm gestures accompany every sentence, and don't get me started on the speech. As if I haven't knocked this poor game enough already, the game creators were not able to get all the original voice talent, the actual dialogue in this game is terribly woeful. Imagine if a secondary school student wrote some really bad fan fiction set in the Lost universe and that is the level of sophistication we're talking here. It might be an unfair comparison but the game is similar in pacing to Mass Effect, where there are extended conversation sections and then action set-pieces. Where Mass Effect has some of the most realistic facial animations, sophisticated dialogue trees and genuinely deep and interesting characters, Lost has none. It's pretty lame (but useful when in a hurry), that there is a tab of dialogue options which will guarantee that your progress in the current episode moves ahead. Don't bother with the other crap...

Hilariously there was this interchange where I was asking Sawyer to trade, and he would first go: "Do you want to trade or what? I haven't got all day?" ...to which I cancelled and Sawyer departs saying, "I'm here all day." WTF. Little screwy.

Your character is a journalist, I won't go into any more detail for those who still want to play after how I slated it just, but it does allow for some photo-taking gameplay - the most interesting of which being the flashbacks where you have to snap the correct photo from a torn up photograph. Shame, it is a little too easy, especially when the flashbacks last about a minute and you seemingly have as many do-overs as you need. Other noteworthy photo opportunities are clearly signposted by the object being labelled with a button press and some popup text "...might be worth photo..." - you're right!

The other core gameplay revolves around some action! yeah! The parts in between the hatch, black rock etc involve moving from marker to marker and have them point out the direction you need to travel, so there's no real exploration of the island. There's also the black smoke you come across, and in the tamer moments, you simply hop into the large reeds to hide - it was used like once or twice in the show so that's enough justification to have many of these spots equidistant from each other, how convenient! The action really hots up in the "chase scenes" which actually is very reminiscent of Crash Bandicoot levels I remember from the PS one days. You have the option to either jump a log or slide under a err... log. The only difference between this and Crash is that you're running away from the camera and not into it, so it's even easier, sigh.

I've slated the game, but there are *a few* pluses. If you can get over the bad writing, then this is technically the best Lost game out there (as it's the only one!), so for super die-hard fans that want to absorb anything Lost related, then this is a must have. When starting each new episode, the game offers a flashback FMV sequence, very much like the show, especially with the immortal slow-floating "LOST" moving close and eventually past the camera - the presentation here is very slick so that's pretty cool. The main character Elliot (mini-spoiler) has had a lot of attention, particularly facially, and is therefore arguably the best modelled character, it's a shame that the characters you actually care about haven't had as much care taken.

In closing, The game is pretty thin on the ground, and probably lives up to the low expectations which are given to licenced games like these. Being a fan of Lost, I had to give it a try, again not expecting a great deal. I could go on but in short the writing's a bit sucky, the game mechanics very simple, but look it as a fairly comfortable 900-1000 achievement points as I did and you might actually come away with something from it.