henke on 29/3/2009 at 14:31

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Flashback to Febuary 2008
I'm standing in the aisle for X-Box 360 games in my local gameshop when something catches my eye. "Lost: The Videogame". I pick up the box and turn it around. On the back there are pictures of Hurley, Locke and Sayid rendered in 3D and a tagline that says "Find your redemption, find your way home" followed by a short blurb that basically reads like a description of the Lost pilot-episode. Nether the description nor the screenshots offer any idea of what the actual gameplay will be like. Games based on movies are notorious for being hastily put-together cash-ins. Games based on TV shows even more so. Looking at the box I can only imagine that "the gameplay" of will be something along the lines getting to watch pre-rendered animations of characters walking through the jungle interspersed by occasionally getting to click on something or listen to bored actors reading lines that some gamedeveloper with no professional writing-experience has jotted down on a notepad. I turn the box over again and notice the price-tag. 65 euros.

I chuckle to myself and wonder... what sucker will end up buying this?

Flashforward to March 29th, 2009
Me. I'm that sucker. I was standing in the same gameshop again yesterday, looking through the bargain-bin and I come upon this game again, marked down to 5 euros. For that price I just can't resist the temptation of finding out exactly how bad it is. Turns out... it's nowhere near as bad as I imagined. It is, in fact, a pleasantly mediocre third-person survival horror game. First of all, it looks very good, this is dampened somewhat by the fact that there are loadzones and invisible walls all over the place. The characters all look the part, but unfortuanetly they don't all sound the part. Only a handful of the original cast provides voices for their characters. The rest have sound-alikes, some of which are done well but others, like Locke, just sound plain wrong.

Don't even think of playing this game unless you've seen the series. There are continuity errors all over the place. For instance, the first time you meet Sun she's talking Korean and you can't understand a word she's saying. The second time you meet her she's speaking English, and our protaginist doesn't find this shift the least bit strange. Doesn't even comment on it.

The story is split into 7 episodes, all of which follow the familiar Lost formula:

* Previously on Lost... (recap of previous episode)
* Prologue (a few seconds of gameplay or footage that ends with someone saying something SHOCKING)
* Lost-logo (drifting in the darkness accompanied by eerie music)
* game (thankfully there are no commerical breaks)
* flashback
* more game
* The End (Lost logo accompanied by booming sound)


The character you play is a freelance photographer named Elliot. Oh yeah, the game also employs the most overused game plot-device ever; Elliot has amnesia. I must give them credit for this one though, they actually integrate the amnesia into the gameplay in a better way than any game I've played before. The flashbacks are Elliot trying to remember his past. This is done like so: You are show pieces of a torn apart photograph, then you must must try to recreate that photo by snapping a picture at just the right moment, and from the right angle, in your memory. Quite tricky actually, but a nice way of illustrating how Elliot is trying to piece his memories back together.

Another part of the game that stands out is when you have to have to carry dynamite back to the hatch, if you run too much the dynamite will go off, as it is very unstable. Only trouble is; you have to trek through the part of the jungle where the Black Smoke is. You can hide in thick groves of trees so the smoke won't notice you, but the groves are few and far between. There are some genuinely panicy moments when you're heading for the next hiding-spot and you see the smoke come drifting closer but you still don't wanna run too much because it'll set the dynamite off.

[CENTER](http://img244.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cavethumbnail.jpg) http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/7281/cavethumbnail.jpg[/CENTER]

Yet another good part I gotta mention is the first time you enter a cave with only a couple of torches to light the way. When the second torch is halfway burnt out you'll start hoping to see daylight again. The dark is a dangerous place, with bats, pitfalls and God-knows-whatelse. So there are some good moments in the game but it seems the designers didn't wanna risk anyone getting bored as every part of the game is quite brief and you're quickly moving on to something else. The whole game is over in about 6 hours, and the story is engaging enough that you don't have time to get bored.

Still, much like the series itself, by the time the end-credits rolled I felt somewhat short-changed. The game builds up a lot of promise early on but there is no real pay-off at the end. And considering all the coconuts and mars-bars I collected to trade with Sawyer for a gun. I'm kinda irked that I only got to shoot 4 people throughout the game. Call me a psycho if you will but that just bothers me ok.

[CENTER]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p274/GorillaWhat/lost-via-domus-20080123005807746_64.jpg[/CENTER]

Score 5/10
If you're a fan of the show and you find this game somewhere for 5 euros, it's not a bad way to spend the weekend.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRAIqXFoV1o) Trailer

Wow... that was one big ass post. But it's always more fun to write about mediocre/bad games than good ones. :cheeky:

henke on 29/3/2009 at 16:43

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Could you be a bit more specific? :weird:

Do you mean the screenshots or the trailer?

Renault on 30/3/2009 at 02:53

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I recently played this game and also enjoyed it. I'm a big Lost fan, and that's the only way you're going to get anything out of this game at all. It is, in fact, a really bad game, but it's fun to visit all the familiar places like the hatches and the black rock, dodge the smoke monster and interact with all the familiar characters. It's the perfect rental, I finished it up in about 4-5 hours. Oh, and using the same format as the show ("previously on lost") for all the chapter divides was really clever, imo.

Worst part - the annoying fuse puzzles, which have absolutely nothing to do with the show. That, and all the pointless deadend conversation responses that give you no useful information at all.

One cool thing I read somewhere is that the game developers got actual blueprints from the Lost creators on how to construct the reactor that is behind the concrete wall in the swan hatch. I don't know if this is something they were going to use but trashed, of it we'll still see it before the show ends next year.

PigLick on 30/3/2009 at 06:34

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I really enjoy reading your reviews of dubious games Henke, you should do it more often.