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Lost: Via Domus
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Graphics & Sound:
I have mixed feelings about Lost: Via Domus. As a Lost fan, I enjoy the way the developers have shown the events of the series from a totally new perspective and introduced a new side-story, but find a few aspects lacking. As a gamer, I feel there are just too many places where it falls short to be ignored.
Where Via Domus (or "The Way Home" in Latin), doesn't lack is in the visual department. This game looks like Lost. Upon waking up on the island in the very Lost way (a close up on the eye), to living on the beach, talking to the main characters and visiting everywhere from the Swan Station to The Black Rock, Via Domus has simply captured what Lost is, visually anyway. Each of the characters you will run across from Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Locke to Hurley, Michael, Charlie and Ben all appear just like they do in the show, including the gradually scruffier style they appear as the story progresses.
At first, the audio felt perfect as well. Music and island sounds are appropriate, and when I met the first few characters, Kate, Michael and Jack, early in the game, I thought the developers were able to get the actual actors to play their parts in the game. Unfortunately as soon as I talked to Sawyer and Locke, I knew this was not the case. While most voice actors were able to imitate their TV screen counterparts pretty well, there were plenty that were just wrong. Locke specifically was the worst of the voices and completely pulled me out of the Lost mindset every time I talked to him. |
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Gameplay:
Lost: Via Domus feels most like an adventure game. While the game has aspects of more action-based genres, most of the time you will be talking to other survivors, searching for clues about your past and solving logic puzzles in the form of pipes-style circuits mini-games. There are times when you will have to travel through the forest and avoid threats like the Smoke Monster or take on enemies, but these aren't frequent enough to change the overall feel of the game.
Instead of playing one of the characters we have come to love in the series, you will control another Oceanic Flight 815 survivor, Elliot Maslow, a photojournalist who can't remember anything before waking up on the island. Introducing Maslow's amnesia seems to be a very effective device in Via Domus since it allows the game to use the series' staple flashbacks in a way that helps both the character and player. Basically, as you roam about the island, Maslow will encounter certain people and situations that cause a flash of memory. As a photojournalist, these flashes of memory appear to him as torn up pictures. You then go into the flashback and try to take the picture that Maslow remembers. If you capture the scene just right, you are then given free reign to explore the memory and try to find out the significance of the flashback.
The game is broken up into episodes, which seem to take about an hour each to play. At first I was happy about this, because the first episode seemed to cover the first couple of TV series episodes, and while I wasn't sure how far into the show the game went, I felt sure this indicated a nice, long gameplay. Unfortunately, the game has only seven episodes, and while it covers events from the show up to early Season 3 storylines, it does it with a very thin coat that will leave anyone not already familiar with the story confused. Basically, the game is really short, surprisingly so in fact, and when you come out of it, you really feel like there is a lot missing.
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Difficulty:
There are quite a few aspects of Lost: Via Domus that can be hard. I found my first couple of treks into the forest difficult because I had trouble getting away from the Smoke Monster (something that seems to plague Elliot more frequently than the rest of the survivors), but as far as puzzles are concerned, they seemed to ramp up in a steady pace as the game progressed.
I will say, though, that this game isn't hard. Accounting for the fact that the actual story isn't all that long, and the ease of the game means it is a relatively quick play, Via Domus can be done across the weekend, and that's with taking ample breaks. |
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Game Mechanics:
Lost: Via Domus has a few mechanics that really add to the game's unique style. One is the flashbacks, and your need to snap a picture at just the right time, and in focus. The first flashback seemed to be the hardest for me because I just wasn't sure what I was trying to do, but when I realized the picture I was trying to get was the one that was torn up just before the flashback initiated, it was all smooth sailing. This mechanic not only adds an interesting problem-solving aspect to the game, but does a really good job of inserting the plot device the show uses into a game.
The other frequent mechanic is the circuits puzzle. This mini-game has been showing up a lot lately (most recently being BioShock). In Via Domus, there are several times when you are presented with a circuit panel that needs to be repaired. You have a supply of plugs that both direct the flow of electricity and alter the voltage going through it. Your job is to take the initial voltage and bring it down to the desired amount given the path laid out and whatever plugs you have on you. These logic puzzles start off pretty easy at first, but get more complex as circuit paths split and rejoin, causing you to consider how the electrical charge will change at each juncture. Quite frankly, I found these puzzles to be one of the more enjoyable aspects of the game.
Now comes the tough part. For serious Lost fans, yes I think you should play this game, but there isn't any reason to buy it since it can be beaten during the standard rental period. Unfortunately, those same Lost fanatics might find the game very lacking since it glazes over many aspects of the series and just doesn't go very in depth. As for everyone else, there isn't much point in playing Via Domus if you aren't already familiar with the storyline, so just skip it.
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-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer |
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