Lost: Via Domus

Conclusions

Of course, all this is kind of ancillary to the real issue I suppose. The reality is that Lost: Via Domus is a licensed game and as such it will divide the gaming audience into two very different groups.

There are those who are fans of the series to such a degree that they’ll defend the game to the death despite all the obvious flaws. Then there’s those who aren’t that bothered by the series and who can be relied on to have the usual reaction of hardcore gamers to licensed titles; disgust and avoidance.

Nevertheless, because it’s my job and because there’s doubtlessly people in the middle who refuse to be polarised into one of the two groups, let’s pause for a moment to assess whether the game is worth picking up if you’re at all an ardent fan of the show.

On the one hand we have a game that is clearly poorly made and designed. On the other hand it ties into a franchise that a lot of people, including ourselves, are incredibly involved in. One is good, one is bad – we need a deciding factor to tip the balance. Graphics is as good a place as any.


The graphics in Lost: Via Domus are unfortunately not much help though as they too tend to fluctuate rapidly between the very good and the quite poor. The environments themselves are very good for example and the look of the jungle sections and Swan station really do show fantastic attention to detail and give the actual feeling of being there.

But then the characters let it all down and in an attempt to get the NPCs all looking as close to the real people as possible, some horrible creations have been wrought. Kate is the only one who manages to look even vaguely lifelike and the fact that very few of the characters are voiced by the actual actors further ruins the effect. Part of me thinks it may have been better to keep the interaction with the core characters of the TV show to a minimum just so that this obviously inevitable effect wouldn’t happen.

In the end then, it’s purely a matter of judgement – is Lost: Via Domus worth a peek from the type of Lost fanatic who might have read this far?


Personally, I’d say probably not. The new story released here is interesting enough if you’re really into the Lost franchise – but it is by no means essential to understanding the greater themes of the show. The dialogue between NPCs and the player is dull and minimal too, so don’t be expecting anything interesting to emerge about them either.

What we’re left with then is a mediocre game at best that is filled with poorly thought-out obstacles, many of which break from the style of game fiction the series has tried so hard to create. It’s a lame cash-in of the most obvious and derivative sort and it’s that which gives me the guts to just come out and say that the game was badly designed.

There was room with the Lost franchise to do something fairly interesting in the spin-off game and a lot of what has been put before players here could have gone towards making a game that would have been worth playing if you’re a fan of the series. Unfortunately though, this potential has been forgotten and what is left is a game that’s broken and mediocre at best.