If you are a Lost fan, there will be something undeniably exhilarating about being able to walk around the familiar parts of the island from the first few seasons, and to interact with the characters you've grown to love and hate. That's about all this game has to offer. In this story you play a new, non-canon survivor of the front section of the plane who has been stricken with amnesia, and you must piece together your past via a series of flashbacks reminiscent of the television show.
What is different is that the flashbacks here are interactive. In each flashback you must unlock key details of the plot via a clumsy attempt to draw you into the game. You must point your camera at the right person or object and take a picture. For an (unnecessary) extra challenge, you have to be careful to focus the camera just right before snapping the shot. Once you are successful, the rest of the flashback is unlocked for you to interact with. With clockwork reliability, every flashback will have 3 items that you can interact with, each giving you back a bit of your past. The first time it's clumsy but intriguing; by the third it will have lost its flavor and become nothing more than a chore.
The present (on the island) is where the rest of the game play takes place, and where it's the most painful. Lost: Via Domus plays like a quarter-hungry arcade game, where the developers looked for any excuse (non-sensical as they occasionally are) to kill your character and give you the delightful "You have died" screen. Depending on where you die, you may be able to jump right back in to where you were, or you may be kicked back several puzzles. This is exacerbated by the fact that each "episode" begins with a "Last time on Lost..." segment that shows you what you just did 5 minutes ago. If you die near the beginning of an episode, you will quickly get tired of seeing this recap. All in all, the challenges on the island (including the controls that only a developer could love) are tedious, monotonous, and overly difficult. It appears not to have been designed to be "fun" but rather to turn 20 minutes of content into 5 or so hours of drudgery.
The handful of actors from the show who provided voice acting for the game earned this game a point, but only barely since all of their characters (Claire, Desmond, and yes -- even Ben) are just token characters thrown in for fans. Their role in the game is forgettable, insubstantial, and they could all have been easily written out of the plot (yes -- even Ben).
Finally, there is the main story arc that reveals all of your favorite pro- and antagonists to be utterly unlikeable. Due to your inability to remember your name and past, you appear to be the only survivor required by Jack to prove your loyalty. To uncover your past you need an item that Locke has. Instead of giving it to you outright, Locke sends you on a (tedious, overly difficult) soul-searching mission through a cave (fraught with challenges that have no anchor to the TV show). He does this ostensibly to prove to you that your past is not important, which he later contradicts for no apparent reason. During your lengthy journey to recover your past, you are frequently reminded how Jack and Sayid are growing more suspicious of you by Losties who have little interest in helping you solve your problem that could have been solved in a day or two with some cooperation.
Ultimately, in your endeavor to uncover your history and redeem yourself to the amazing duo (Jack and Sayid), you discover that -- whoops -- you actually are a bit of a jerk, and possibly the most unlikeable character in the game.
If this weren't a Lost game, I would just barely give this a 2.
What is different is that the flashbacks here are interactive. In each flashback you must unlock key details of the plot via a clumsy attempt to draw you into the game. You must point your camera at the right person or object and take a picture. For an (unnecessary) extra challenge, you have to be careful to focus the camera just right before snapping the shot. Once you are successful, the rest of the flashback is unlocked for you to interact with. With clockwork reliability, every flashback will have 3 items that you can interact with, each giving you back a bit of your past. The first time it's clumsy but intriguing; by the third it will have lost its flavor and become nothing more than a chore.
The present (on the island) is where the rest of the game play takes place, and where it's the most painful. Lost: Via Domus plays like a quarter-hungry arcade game, where the developers looked for any excuse (non-sensical as they occasionally are) to kill your character and give you the delightful "You have died" screen. Depending on where you die, you may be able to jump right back in to where you were, or you may be kicked back several puzzles. This is exacerbated by the fact that each "episode" begins with a "Last time on Lost..." segment that shows you what you just did 5 minutes ago. If you die near the beginning of an episode, you will quickly get tired of seeing this recap. All in all, the challenges on the island (including the controls that only a developer could love) are tedious, monotonous, and overly difficult. It appears not to have been designed to be "fun" but rather to turn 20 minutes of content into 5 or so hours of drudgery.
The handful of actors from the show who provided voice acting for the game earned this game a point, but only barely since all of their characters (Claire, Desmond, and yes -- even Ben) are just token characters thrown in for fans. Their role in the game is forgettable, insubstantial, and they could all have been easily written out of the plot (yes -- even Ben).
Finally, there is the main story arc that reveals all of your favorite pro- and antagonists to be utterly unlikeable. Due to your inability to remember your name and past, you appear to be the only survivor required by Jack to prove your loyalty. To uncover your past you need an item that Locke has. Instead of giving it to you outright, Locke sends you on a (tedious, overly difficult) soul-searching mission through a cave (fraught with challenges that have no anchor to the TV show). He does this ostensibly to prove to you that your past is not important, which he later contradicts for no apparent reason. During your lengthy journey to recover your past, you are frequently reminded how Jack and Sayid are growing more suspicious of you by Losties who have little interest in helping you solve your problem that could have been solved in a day or two with some cooperation.
Ultimately, in your endeavor to uncover your history and redeem yourself to the amazing duo (Jack and Sayid), you discover that -- whoops -- you actually are a bit of a jerk, and possibly the most unlikeable character in the game.
If this weren't a Lost game, I would just barely give this a 2.