Lost is the first and only TV show that I currently faithfully follow.
I love it. I read about it. I'm interested in anything to do with it.
As such, I was skeptical about that game from the start, as any gamer
would be of any kind of movie/TV show that is shoehorned into a
videogame. I didn't buy it on release, but after reading up on some
reviews, I decided to rent it. This was a very good move, and if you
are considering playing this game, before you read any further please
note that I strongly encourage you to rent this game. You will beat it
easily during that rental time, save yourself over $30, and you can
beat the entire game to 100% completion in that time frame to boot.
Now onto the actual review. The main character of this game is Elliot
Maslow. You control him throughout the game from a third-person
perspective. Within the game, he is a photojournalist on flight 815
(this character was created solely for this game and does not appear in
the show) who crash-lands on an island alongside the Lost characters
from the show. He gets amnesia from the impact, and the whole rest of
the game is hinged upon recovering his memory. This is done in a very
linear fashion, as the game is split up into "episodes," with a
flashback taking place at the beginning of each episode. In this
flashback, you use your trusty camera to photograph a special
detail/event that takes place within the flashback in order to advance
to a cutscene which advances you in your quest to learn about your
past. If you miss the detail/event when it happens, the flashback
simply loops until you figure out what to do, which makes everything
run a whole lot smoother.
The flashback segments are interesting and fun the first few times, but
since you can predict it happening very close to the beginning of each
level, it gets to be very repetitive. After you take the photo, you are
allowed to roam in the environment that your flashback encompasses,
looking for three special "hidden" items each time, usually the same
things over and over again. They're easy to find. This is a good
concept but poorly executed. Mostly, it contains little easter eggs for
fans of Lost with mentions of such things as the Hanso Foundation.
As a side note, at the beginning of each level/episode is a cutscene
that details what happened previously-where you left off on the
previous level. Some people have complained about this feature, but I
actually enjoyed it because it is very reminiscent of the show.
Overall, it's not a big deal.
If you are a fan of the show like me, you may have been looking forward
to interacting with the characters from the show. The characters hang
out on the beach for the most part, waiting for you to come talk to
them. As I was playing, I was trying to figure out how the heck the
developers intended for anyone but a Lost fan to play this game,
because there really is nothing to help you understand the plot of the
show. The problem is they just don't have much to say. What's more,
very few characters in the game have the voices of their real life
counterparts. I laughed a lot because of this. Especially Sawyer's
voice actor. I know they try so hard, but it just doesn't work. The
music in the game, however, is noticeably better than the voice acting.
It just makes everything feel like Lost. If you appreciate the music
from the show, you will appreciate it here.
As far as gameplay is concerned, there just isn't much. What's there
would be all good fun if there was variety, but everything that acts as
a novelty early on is rehashed until you can't wait until you are
finished. You'll do a lot more running from the Smoke Monster than you
might expect. I had imagined some epic chase scenes where I'm running
through the forest at a blistering pace, dodging trees and bushes and
such with the Smoke Monster hot on my heels and ripping up trees along
the way. But it was completely dumbed down to "hiding in bamboo." You
go from bamboo patch to bamboo patch, with the Monster seeming to be
hunting you down. There is no reprieve. It's just waiting for you. All
the freaking time. It's annoying. You progress little by little,
looking for markers to guide you to the next bamboo section. There is
no epicness whatsoever.
There is another segment that is frequently repeated where you have to
travel through caves, apparently because this character is too cool to
climb over things like the people in Lost the TV show do. This part of
the game is far more frustrating than the Smoke Monster segments. It's
pitch black in the caves, and you start with just a lighter. Then you
can buy (via trading items such as coconuts. Yea. I was thinking the
exact thing you are now), torches, and eventually a lantern, each of
which have a time limit on how long you can use them before they need
refueling. You have to avoid pits in the ground, tediously put out your
torch at the sound of bats so they don't damage it, and of course put
it out for waterfalls you have to walk under, relighting it afterward
in a longish animation. And if you decide to sit in the dark, just for
kicks and giggles, apparently the Smoke Monster is in the cave with you
waiting to rip you to shreds in the first 30 seconds of darkness. Yea,
I did it just to see what would happen. It wasn't even close to
satisfying. It's just pitch dark, the controller starts to vibrate like
a heart beat, and then the game notifies you with text that you died.
Woohoo. The caves were the worst part of the whole game. A small one
would have been fun once. But they are long, tedious, and frequent.
Locke sends you into one to go soul searching. All he had to do was go
in a tent and sit down (in the TV show), but yet he makes you traverse
a pit-riddled cave without even giving you a flashlight.
The highlight of the whole game is, unfortunately, the graphics. I know
it's cliche, but it's true. The jungle and beach and wreckage all look
wonderful. And the character models, while they by no means stack up to
the likes of Crysis, are much better than they could be. I don't really
expect anything less than this from Ubisoft, which in my mind simply
doesn't release ugly games. I thought it was a beautiful game. Not
nearly as detailed as you might hope (wandering through the jungle is
not fun, it just feels like wandering around in someone's backyard that
happens to strongly resemble a jungle, then you run into their fence
which happens to be an invisible border inside the game telling you
that you have to turn back, or else), but beautiful in the grand scope
of things.
The plot is good, especially so at the ending. It's one of those "What
the crap?!?" endings. So if you like those, then you'll like this. I
still don't know what happened in the story. One main issue with the
game is that everything major in the show is trivialized. The loss of
your memory seems of greater importance than the button in the hatch
that must be pushed every 108 minutes. Imagine that. On a side note,
I'm not sure why they included Michael in the game when there are
other, better characters that didn't make it into the game. All he ever
does is scream for Walt. Yes, even in the videogame. It makes me
cringe. Also, the fact that the game portrays the Others as sitting up
in trees, waiting for the Losties to wander through the jungle so they
can shoot from their perches pisses me off. This is nothing like the
show, and a feeble attempt to spice up the game. They are neither cool
nor mysterious.
Basically, just rent it for the gamer points. You will be hard pressed
to make it through this game in a reasonable amount of time without a
guide. I recommend gamefaqs.com or if you have real trouble, Youtube
for the caves. It's an easy 1000 points. You can get them all in a
rental though. However hardcore you think you are as a fan of Lost,
nothing warrants buying this game as there is absolutely no replay
value. Also of note, I played this game thinking I would learn some
cool stuff about the show, but then I found out that none of it can
actually be counted as part of the real Lost TV story. It's all just
fanfiction, essentially.
All of this is very unfortunate.
Sorry.
