 With the all-out bluntness of a fanatic, Lost is the best damn television show I have seen. Anyone that agrees can finally begin showing
this reality-show world what having taste is all about. I have a soft spot for
Dexter, choke on Weeds, and adore the smugness of House. Still, I feel like NOTHING
compares to Lost. This show is so hot that it melts faces. It is so good that
if I ever became President of this country I would write a bill requiring every
man, woman, and child to be capable of reciting every line of every episode
like some sort of cracked-out robot. Very soon after anything revealing happens
in this show I often want to jump around screaming in a maniacal fit of joy,
and watch another episode until my eyes can no longer stay open without
incredible amounts of pain.
Lost: Via Domus is the first console game based on the series,
and it does not stray far from the style and the fundamentals of the show. It
takes place on the hellish island, where the Oceanic Flight 815 survivors
struggle to stay alive in the strange wilderness. It features many of the
show’s primary characters, and even some of the real-life actors for voice-over
purposes. It introduces a new protagonist; a photojournalist named Elliot
Maslow, whose past is just as scattered and confused as any. Bits of storyline
are added here and there in flashbacks, and clues can be found around the
island, revealing more details about Elliot.
It is a common stereotype that video games based on
television shows generally fall as hard as, if not harder, than games based on
major films. With that in mind, some might apprehensively approach Lost: Via
Domus, perhaps even die-hard fans of the show. However, Ubisoft Montreal had
their hands on this one. This is the same studio that handles high-profile
games like Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, and Far Cry. Surely it
should come as no surprise that they could manage to create a good video game based
off of a fantastic show, right?
Hit the jump and be ready for spoilers if you have not seen
up to or beyond the second season.
The producers of the show collaborated with Ubisoft Montreal
to recreate seven “episodes”, each serving as a single “level” in the game. The
episodes chronicle major events from the show, or at least contain a new event
that distracts Elliot while important events from the show occur in the
background (like Locke finding the hatch, for example). Elliot will run through
the jungle, interact with other survivors on the beach, visit the Black Rock, investigate
the Swan Station, and avoid The Others and the black smoke monster. Each
episode begins with the “Previously on Lost…” filler and ends abruptly with the
same harrowing sound effect as every episode on television.
Now that I have finished explaining facts about the Lost
game, I will begin sharing my opinions. Unfortunately, they are nothing like
those feelings of bliss I have toward the show. The first and most
immediately-apparent problem about Lost: Via Domus is its length. There are
seven episodes, and each one lasts…you guessed it…around an hour, just like an
episode on television. This is a really big issue, mostly because video games
that cost $60 and last seven hours are a crappy deal. A Lost DVD boxed-set can
be purchased for almost the same price and enjoyed forever.
In fact, buying a Lost DVD boxed-set might actually involve
more interaction with the characters and the entire series than playing the
game! I will say this: Via Domus is the best video game I have ever played on
the Xbox 360, at least when considering games that ask you to run forward throughout
75% of the game. After all, it only asks anyone who plays it to watch boring
conversations and press a single action button to do everything between the
run-forward sequences. Yes, I said boring: the very element of excitement that
makes Lost a special show is destroyed in Via Domus, replaced with the most
dull fetch quests and picture-snapping sequences I have ever had to sit through.
Remember, Elliot takes pictures. Since picture-taking is the hottest thing
since BioShock last fall, I suppose I can let the game off easily simply
because using the camera isn’t difficult to do and is not forced on the player
throughout most of the game.
This is basically a visual strategy guide for Lost: Via Domus. Hint: just run forward.
Talking to characters would be more interesting if their
conversations panned out a little bit or actually featured some personality,
but for the most part, the characters respond in a robotic way. Their tidbits
of information are almost as worthless as those stupid NPCs in RPGs that ask
you where their husband ran off to. Since forward is the general direction most
of the time, gathering information through the other survivors is unnecessary.
Still, the only thing that could have made this game easier to play is a big,
fat arrow pointing which direction to go.
Lost is a game that Achievement whores like me will
absolutely adore, because flying through the game and doing everything is
actually an incredibly easy task. Without any trouble whatsoever I ran through
the game without stopping until my rented copy of the game stopped working
(damn Blockbuster!!) and I had to proceed later. The only distractions from
running forward and pressing the A button include taking pictures of all sorts
of iconic parts of the Lost series, like Kate’s toy airplane, and trading
valuable items with other survivors. The only item you will really ever need,
though, is a torch. That makes this trading system pretty worthless.
There are a few other scattered, random flaws. There is no
multiplayer and the only incentive to play through Lost: Via Domus twice is to
earn Achievements that you may have somehow missed on the linear paths through
the forest. Although everything looks beautiful, the voice acting is not
actually authentic for most of the characters. Not only that, but some of the
stand-ins are just hilarious, plain and simple. At least Desmond sounds right,
with his real-life actor playing the part. Finally, I was very upset that
characters like Charlie, Michael, Walt, Boone, and Shannon have only a small
role or are completely missing from most of the game. I would have enjoyed more
flashbacks involving other characters, not just Elliot. Lost is all about the
character development and exciting twists and turns. Via Domus replicates the
twisty story well enough, but it does not capture the spirit of the characters
or deepen their personal stories.
Lost: Via Domus will probably disappoint everyone who plays
it in some way, but die-hard Lost fans might inevitably pick up the game just
for a virtual tour of the island. It certainly is a beautiful game to play, and
it is far from being terrible—it just does nothing to really innovate the
genre, fails to capture a lot of the show’s very unique essence, and earns
itself a spot alongside early sports titles, Cars, and TMNT as one of those
games that anyone caught playing will be targeted as an Achievement fiend. At
the very best it is a game that gets away with being more or just as
entertaining to watch as it is to play relatively well due to the fact that it
is based on Lost.
Final Score: C-
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