‘Lost’ not an adventure game
Publisher: Ubisoft
Reviewer's rating: 2 of 4 stars
Rated: T for Teen
Price: $29.99
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While not being a full-fledged fan of ABC’s hit drama “Lost,” I found myself wondering what the point really is for the new Ubisoft game “Lost: Via Domus.” The main theme of the game isn’t so much adventure as it is story and dialogue.
At the start of “Via Domus” you assume the role of a new “Lost” islander, Elliott, a photojournalist with amnesia. As the game moves through its seven “episodes,” you take part in rebuilding Elliott’s memory, putting fuse boxes back together and running through mazes of jungle.
Most of the gameplay is fairly limited, and I found myself just moving Elliott from one section of the game to another with little actual adventuring. When there was adventure and exploration to be had, it felt very limited and just not very exciting. A good portion of the puzzles in the game have you fiddling with fuse boxes.
The fuse box puzzle that seemed to be everywhere has you trying to redirect a power source to a device by changing around the directional positions of fuses in a small box. I grew tired of this fuse box puzzle after the fourth one, yet there were several more after that. I didn’t find these or the few other puzzles in “Via Domus” to be difficult.
The story and dialogue is the center of attention, and it was certainly hit-or-miss on a lot of it. While a few of the “Lost” actors provided the voices for their game counterparts, the main characters were voiced by soundalikes, including Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Locke. The Jack and Kate voices were OK, but the voice of Sawyer was over the top with the attempted Southern slurry accent, and Locke sounded nothing like actor Terry O’Quinn.
One highlight of the game is the graphics. The characters and locations are well-detailed, and the game movie sequences look good. Everything from the waterfalls to the fire to the infamous black smoke in the jungle all work well visually. The game is a bit of a system hog though, so be careful on the graphic settings if you think you have a good system.
I’m sure for the more dedicated fans there are plenty of Easter eggs to find and extra lore to dig up from the islanders, but if you aren’t one of those fans, this game doesn’t really hold much at all.
It lacks the adventure of an adventure game, it only has about two instances in which you need to use a gun, and the exploring feels very canned.
