Lost: Via Domus Review - PS3

3.5

Gameplay: 4
Graphics: 5
Audio: 7
Innovation: 2

Introduction

This game is for the true Lost fans, and so this review shall be too. None of that “where did the polar bear come from?” crap that all the newspapers are still rabbiting on about like it’s still 2004 (that’s a nod to the Comic-Con 2007 Orchid video). If you’re reading this, it’s because you like the show, know the show, and want to know whether the game offers enough to fans to make it worth putting up with an experience that obviously cannot compete with the original material.

Gameplay

Lost: Via Domus puts you in control of a man that wakes up on our favourite time-travelling island following the crash of his plane. Unfortunately, he is suffering from that old gaming cliché, amnesia, and cannot remember his name or why there’s a man in a suit punching him in the face and asking about a camera. Thankfully, the amnesia conceit actually offers up something relatively interesting – namely, the opportunity to learn about the character through flashbacks as his memory gradually returns. There’s also the question of the identity of the mysterious female apparition he keeps seeing all over the island.

While the story of this new addition to the mythology is never hugely engaging, it suffices and is woven neatly throughout the chronology of seasons one and two of the show. He even gets himself into situations and locations that parallel events in season three (much like Paulo and Nikki’s adventures in “Exposé”), so you don’t need to groan about reliving all the old stuff. The game is split up into seven episodes (each of which can be replayed from the main menu once completed) that will last you around half an hour to an hour depending on how much conversation you enter into, whether you die and have to replay any sections, how much you explore and whether you suck at puzzles. It’s not a long game, that’s for sure.

Via Domus is best described as an adventure game, and features a few fetch quests and puzzles, some exploration, and a dash of action and shooting. That last one’s a terrible pun, because although you’ll probably fire less than ten bullets in the entire game, photography features quite extensively in the game beyond its significance in your character’s backstory. You are encouraged to take photos of items and locations of importance, like Kate’s plane, or the mural in the Swan, as these unlock impressive art for viewing outside of the game. However, the advice you get after taking a poor photo doesn’t really tell you what you need to do to fix it. You can fiddle with the focus and framing for fifteen minutes without knowing if there’s actually going to be a reward for taking a photo, or if you’re just wasting time.

Here’s where the problems start. For one, the controls are sluggish and the environments are filled with invisible walls. While the forest might at first glance seem to be an impressive, wide location where you could easily get (continued next page)