Game Review: Lost Via Domus
Release: Feb 27, 2008
Genre: Action Adventure
Developer: Ubisoft
Available Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3,PC
Players: 1
MSRP: $59.99(Xbox 360 and PS3) $29.99(PC)
ESRB Rating: Teen
Website: lostgame.us.ubi.com/
Let me start off by saying that I am a huge Lost fan, I absolutely love the television show. So I went into this game with really high hopes and expectations of what i wanted due to the story line that I am familiar with. You start of the game really on show one of season one. Now I know what your thinking, damn, I do not want to play the story that I have already watched, but Ubisoft has you covered on that because you actually play a new character. You play a man that has suffered amnesia from the plane crash and spend the first few levels trying to find out who you are and thats really all I am going to say about that because I do not want to spoil any of the storyline for you. So the game itself takes place over the first season of Lost and kind of ends there as well, but lets just get right into the scoring of the game.
Graphics: 7
The island as a whole looks nice but when you start playing the game you start noticing all the little imperfections in the graphics department. While the character details look real nice the animations especially during the game play really suffer. The cinematics are done spectacular but this is not a movie nor television show, this is a game and thats why I really did not bump up the graphics score because of this. Once you start playing the game you will notice clunky movements, blocky characters during the game and just nothing really spectacular.
Sound: 8
Ubisoft did this right by getting the same people that did the score for the television show to do the score for this game. The music in Lost Via Domus ties in with the show perfectly and it adds a lot to the game. What adds even more is the fact they they had several of the stars of Lost lend there voice to the game as well. I believed that the sound was one of the strong points of the game. The only reason that this did not get an even high score for this is because not all the characters voices are in the game, and the ones that they used voice models just did not seem to work for me, as I am a huge fan of the show and I know what they are suppose to sound like. Other then the music and the character voices, the ambient sounds are not bad either, they are not great, but they are not bad.
Gameplay: 6
Lost Via Domus is an action adventure game and most of the time spent in this game is running around and talking to people on the island. This became boring very quick for me. It felt like I would talk to everyone at point A, solve some type of puzzle at point B, then I would run back to point A because the puzzle was solved, and then I would finish off at point C for the episode; this just was not my cup of tea. There puzzle games mostly consist of taking photos of certain objects, like in the flashbacks, fixing some circuit board with fuses and talking to people. In this day and age of gaming there just has to be more then that for the game to be enjoyable.
Controls: 8
This is the controls in a nut shell, left thumbstick moves you, hold right trigger and you sprint and A is to talk. Now you will use all the other buttons in this game but really, thats it. Thats not a bad thing, this game is not complex but there really is not that much to do so it does not need complex controls. You definitely can pick up this game and dive right into it the only awkward thing I really noticed was having to hit up on the d pad to pull up my inventory, this could have been done in a different spot but it works I guess.
Replay: 5
After you beat the six missions there is not really much to do in Lost. You can go back and work your way through the levels just exploring the island which, by the way, is actually ok because if you know the show it just adds a little bit more into the mix. But other then that all you would really do is try to unlock all your achievement points by completely the flashbacks that you might not have done fully or taking pictures of special moments of the game which will unlock achievement points.
Value: 5
Lost Via Domus costs 59.99 and honestly I do not know how they can feel they can charge this amount other then because its just affiliated with the television show. The replay value just is not there, and the games itself us inexcusably to short. The only thing giving this any value is on the Xbox 360 version you at least get easy achievement points, unlike on the Playstation 3 version. I just feel the price tag for this is way wrong, the console versions should have been 29.99 just like its PC counterpart.
Overall: 6
While the controls were easy to pick up and play, the visuals of the game were not bad and the game audio was done quite well that did not save this game from all its pit falls. The length of the game was way to short, and the majority of the game was spent in cut scene (which were done quite well), talking to people on the island and running around. Which, by the way, was awful, you were running in dark caves, running away from the black smoke as well as running away from the others while they were shooting at you. That right there was by far the worst part of this game, it was done to often and it was very frustrating when you failed and that happened quite a bit. I can not recommend spending sixty dollars on this game, a thirty dollar price tag would have impacted my overall score slight bit but still not enough for me to tell you to buy this game. Rent this if your a fan of Lost or an achievement type of person, otherwise stay away.
Source: Platform Nation
