ALBOTAS - A Little Bit On The Awesome Side

Alright, here it is, my LOST: Via Domus review. To start it off, I’ll mention that I’m a huge LOST fan so I’m biased already towards the game in wanting it to be good. From a dude that friviously put together every jigsaw puzzle, collected all the action figures, sets his weekly schedule around the show, I was hoping it would be good (or at the very least, playable) and for the most part, it is and met my expectations. It is extremely detailed and reveals some details about the show that although I’m not sure how canon they are to the show, will please most LOST fans. But the game is far from perfect. ::LOST blackout::

You start the game waking up on the island after the plane crash, circa episode 1 of LOST. You play Elliot, a photographer, who develops amnesia after the crash and is forced to put together his memories to remember what happened in Australia before the crash. But after that, the timeline on the show moves on very fast and is kind of hard to swallow (Michael is building a raft by day 2, Locke is already a full fledged island spokesman).

The environments looks very good and is definitely the best part of the game. From the beginning crash, you visit various locations and stations (The fuselage, Dark Territory, Black Rock, The Swan, Hydra, Flame, etc.) but is a great feature because you really get to visit them FULLY. Like every door unlocked, stuff you’ve never seen on the show, etc. (ever wonder what was behind the concrete wall in The Swan, where all that electromagnetism is coming from?). So I congratulate Ubisoft for putting so much detail into the game as far as that goes. I spent most of my time just exploring the island and the show will probably make more sense as I watch back episodes because I’ll be able to map which rooms connect to other rooms when I watch the show, as you now know every angle and turn. At least if you meticulously memorize them in full detail as I felt compelled to.

The gameplay consists of visiting location to location, following a dead chick around the island, unraveling your past so you can convince the fellow Losties to begin trusting you. Most of the Losties are played by sound alikes, some good like Jack and Michael, some truly awful and somewhat embarrassing to even hear (Locke, who constantly calls you “son” in the game for some reason, acts like a wise elder, but sounds like Grimace or Barney Rubble). Desmond (best character) is momentarily in the game but looks absolutely awful. Sawyer has a terrible southern accent, Charlie has the wrong accent, Sayid sounds Italian occasionally. There is also a trading feature where you collect various objects (Dharma beer, Apollo bars, coconuts) and can trade with fellow Losties but seem a little far fetched (5 coconuts and a guava for a gun, why not?).

The game itself consists of 7 “episodes” which also includes the LOST title opening and closeout, as well as a “previously on…” portion which is rather useless because it recaps moments that happened literally seconds before. You use your camera a lot, taking picture of various objects to unlock extras (like Kate’s plane, Locke’s wheelchair, Radzinsky’s blood spot on the ceiling) but ultimately only allow you to view a piece of art from the game so it’s kind of a let down after finding something cool to photograph and you end up with a watercolor of a forest.

Flashbacks are also part of the game, they begin with a ripped up picture of your past and then show a short, blurry, and time looped part of your past where you have to find the right focus and zoom to take the correct picture. After that, more of your part is unlocked. But thankfully are short and get you right back on the island, where you belong, as Locke would say.

The game isn’t very action oriented, as most guessed. I think I shot one guy, once. There were other opportunities but when you die from 1 or 2 shots you don’t spend a lot of time in gunfights. The action is mostly solving puzzles in putting together fuse boxes, messing with the DHARMA computers, and running from the smoke monster. The smoke monster sequences are actually very intense because you hear him constantly but might not know if he’s coming up from behind you or not, so it is very well done. But the ability to quickly run and hide in some banyan trees seems like kind of a silly way to get away from the monster, although it did work for Kate.

From a technical standpoint, the game is hugely impressive and detailed but could’ve been polished a bit more. There are too many minigames and fetch quests to justify the $60 cost that go along with the console versions of this game. A $30 price point like the PC version is a bit more reasonable. I picked it up for the PS3 so I didn’t get to explore the 360 achievements, but I’m pretty sure they just consist of taking the right pictures. And yes, there is a mandatory installation and no, it is not a big deal. I believe it took about 6 minutes.

Considering I started it after I got home from work and was done by around 10:00pm, the game lasted about 6 hours for me. Short as hell, but it was memorable and I’ll probably play a few more times as it does go by very fast with a lot of information to take in. I’d recommend it to LOST fans out there, for at least a rental. Most of the cool shit in the game that explains more on the show will be missed by casual gamers. The ending, spoilers aside, ends in a very jarring moment. At first you’ll think it’s a huge copout but the more you think about it and the various theories going on with the show, it does come together slowly in your head and even got a Keanu Reeves “whoa” out of me. If you have the Season 3 DVDs, watch The Orchid orientation video, it might help out.