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| All of your favourite |
Torches are pretty |
The player’s character is a previously unknown passenger on that fateful Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 from Sydney to Los Angeles which crashed on a remote island roughly 1000 miles off course. Conveniently enough, this passenger is suffering amnesia, and it’s up to the player to help him piece his memory back together over the course of 7 episodes. Lost fans are likely to be happy with the story, which was constructed by the show’s producers, and will feel safe knowing that the game does nothing to disturb the show’s existing continuity. Most of the storyline occurs in the first two seasons of the show, but characters from the third season are also included.
Early parts of the game focus largely on interacting with the characters from the show such as Jack, Locke, Hurley, Charlie, Kate and the like. Interactions with the characters will trigger flashbacks which will help you piece together your memory, which in turn will give you direction on where to go next, or strengthen your relationship with that character. Flashback sequences are pretty cool – the player is presented with a torn up photograph and a hazy memory of that moment in the main character’s life. From this clue, the player has to snap a nearly exact photo, taken account of framing and focus. After creating the picture, the character’s memory will then clear, and you can wander around inside the memory to find clues to piece the rest of it together.
Much of the rest of the game is painfully simple, however. Most of the time players will just have to navigate their way through the dense jungle to get to a specific location – the game doesn’t provide any opportunities to go off the beaten path, so it’s difficult to lose your way. There is seldom ever any serious threat to contend with – a few guys up in trees with sniper rifles, and the mysterious black fog every now and then, but you rarely ever get the opportunity to fight back. A pair of chase sequences pop up later in the game to mix things up.
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| Don’t trip over any logs |
What mysteries lay |
Lost: Via Domus is extremely restrictive in the puzzle department, especially when considering how the game tries to come across as an adventure game. The major recurring puzzle is a fuse switching mini-game that is remarkably simplistic, yet repeated ad nauseum. The only other real puzzle in the game comes about midway when you need to dodge the black cloud while carrying dynamite (thus making it impossible to run).
Those fans hoping for a Lost video game of decent length are going to be very disappointed, as Via Domus is ridiculously easy, and can be beaten by players of any skill level in under four hours – and that includes unlocking all 1,000 achievement points. There’s not that much in the way of bonus unlockable content, and almost no replay incentive.
Presentation is the area where Lost: Via Domus attempts to make up for the rest of its shortcomings. The game’s environments are absolutely amazing – lust vegetation, nifty water effects and great shadowing effects. The same can’t really be said for the game’s models, which suffer from lip-synching issues, stiff animation and shader errors. The soundtrack is par for the course; it’s not particularly remarkable, but not bad either. Voice acting is particularly disappointing; while the script is quite good, very few members of the original cast chose to participate in the video game, forcing Ubisoft to use some rather unconvincing sound-a-likes.
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| The survivors of the |
The dense jungle |
LOST VERDICT
Lost: Via Domus is a pretty disappointing effort on most fronts. Fans of the show will enjoy the story and appreciate the lengths the developer has gone to in order to fit the story into the show without disrupting the existing canon, but even the biggest Lost fan will be disappointed by the short length and lack of challenge. Those who aren’t familiar with Lost are likely to be confused by the narrative’s finer points, and find aspects of the game (such as the black cloud) to be rather comical. Lost: Via Domus is a rental for all Lost fans, while everyone else can give it a miss.
TOP GAME MOMENT
The flashback sequences are pretty cool. Recreate a photo you previously took to jump back to that time and place, then find clues to piece together the finer details.
