Lost: Via Domus Reviews

(Skip to the bottom for a summary of this review)

Plot

LOST: Via Domus (better known to most as 'That LOST game') is a single player adventure, where you play as a 'Lostie', who is never seen in the TV show. He has no memory to who he is, and it is your mission to find out who you are, get your camera and try and get off the island...

Score: 8/10

Gameplay

The gameplay is quite good in places, and very poor in others. The puzzles which you have to do in places are all the same type (pipe puzzles), and get very boring (and annoying if you're bad at them like me), and having to look around for pieces for them only makes it worse. Trading with other 'Losties' for important items can also get annoying, and your chats with them are so wooden you could build a boat out of them and get off the island. However, running around the island, somehow, doesn't get boring, as the 'Others' shooting at you/the black smoke monster going after you keep it interesting. That, and you can skip parts of the island after the first time.

Score: 4/10

Graphics and Sound

The graphics are actually quite good for a game released about 3 years ago, and you can easily tell who is who if you watched the TV show. However, most of the voices are a bit... off. As most aren't voiced by their actual actors (except for Ben, Desmond and a couple of others), they sound different to what they should. Sometimes, VERY different. If you're a avid LOST viewer like me, this will annoy you at first. In the end, you'll get used to it though. If you don't watch LOST, you won't even notice.

Score: 7/10

Soundtrack

This is LOST we're talking about here, so the soundtrack is 99% perfect every time. Sometimes it can change a little too quickly, but this only ever helps you know that danger is on the way. And it tends to set the mood very well.

Score: 10/10

Achievements

If you're on this site, you must love achievements. And as such you'll love this game for it's easy points. At first, the points will come slow, but if you're patient, you can get a large majority of the points for completing the story within 4 hours. If you're not, like me, you'll take 10 hours. The rest of the points are quite hard work though, as the game has little to no replay value, and as most of these are secret, you'll need a good guide. Of course, I think you should the achievement solutions by porschephiliac, as they are far the best, and helped me 100% the game or use the walkthrough on this site.

Score: 7/10

Conclusion

This is a great game for LOST fans out there looking for a fix now that the show has finished, and the fact that it's cheap only improves it. I paid £4.50, and I'm guessing that it could be even lower now. The soundtrack works well for the game, but the voice acting for most of the characters may ruin it for you. The easy achievements will please those looking to boost their GamerScore. However, it's not one to keep in your collection after you have finished, as it has no replay value at all due to the poor gameplay.

Score: 4 stars

Lost: Via Domus, losely based on the TV series Lost, is actually a well rounded game. Albeit short and significantly easy (I finished the game with 100% achievements in about 4 hours), it added a sense of realism to the show for me by being able to somewhat interact with the cast and characters of the show. Sadly, most of the voices were not the original actors, but great care was taken in keeping the visuals very realistic. Controls and menu function was a bit strange, and the constant cut-scenes mingled with 'flashbacks', seemed overly distracting, but added enough mystery that it sort of made up for it. The action highlight of the game is during the interactions you have vs. the Black Smoke, espscially a part in which it chases you and you have an obstacle course ahead of you. Other than that, the game lacks originality after the first 10 minutes, and its virtually rinse and repeat until the final cutscene, which, leaves you asking yourself "WTF?".

Because of it's short playthrough and easy achievements, I cannot recommend a purchase, only a rental. Expect 4-5 hours of play.

Lost: Via Domus Review
While I’ve only seen a few Lost episodes over the course of a few years, I can say I do enjoy the show. I am not a die hard fan like my friends but I do get to into it when I do watch. This game is has a lot of clips and even voices so a fan can relate. While like people like me are not on top of the story line, you can play this game without having to watch the show.

Game Play And Story. 6/10
The storyline is follows the show to a degree. The game introduces a new character that you get to play. You interact with all the characters with the show. It blends in the history of each character of the doomed flight while adding you own history. The game is mainly played from third person point of view and switches to first person view on occasion. The game is broken down into episodes with full reviews of what happened previously. Without giving away too many details on the storyline, the character your play has partial amnesia. The usual goal is to talk to certain other survivors or find objects, help with his amnesia or finding ways off the island. Certain actions trigger a flashback sequence to help fill in the blank spaces in your memory. There are a few weapons and equipment that you eventually find, there is not too many items though. The barter system is limited with you having to find two or three items to trade with and then you usually trade those items for torches or a few a bullets. The maps are smallish in size and the game is linear in terms to path finding so it will be hard to be “Lost” The puzzles are mainly show related and is not difficult to solve.

Graphics 7/10
In general this is a well detail game when playing. Most of the characters resemble their real life actors. The landscape detailed to know where you can walk and where you cannot. There is a few times where the details don’t look 3-D such as plants and trees.

Sound and Music 7/10.
If you’re an avid Lost Fan then you cannot notice that the music score from the show is vastly present here. The game has the actors and actresses doing the voice over for their parts from the show. The music and sounds in the game recreates the suspenseful nature of the show.

Difficulty 1/10
There is no difficulty setting for the game with only a few areas that might give a few players problems. While the player only has the one life that ends his or her game, it is easily overcome by reloading the last checkpoint or savepoint.

360 Achievements
While its easy to say this is an easy game to get the full 1000 in a few short hours, it possible to overlook a few items to miss some achievements. If you do all one has to do is restart the particular episode. So I would rate it about 2/10 on achievements

Summary
As adventure game the game is very short and if you are a fan it leaves you wanting more. The length and the difficulty of the game rate this game in the rental or serious collector category. The overall quality makes this a decent release with very little replay ability factor.

Not the greatest game in the world by any means, but worth playing if you fall into one of the following three categories. 1) You want easy achievements (you can get all 1000 points in an afternoon) 2) You love the TV series Lost, or 3) You can't go a day without bad dialogue and voice acting. Lost: Via Domus (which is Latin for the way home) is full of bad dialogue and voice acting. The pretty graphics are nowhere near enough to make you forget that. They weren't able to get a lot of the voices from the show. The few they were able to get I didn't even need to encounter to complete the game and a few I don't think I ever found. For example, John Locke sounds remarkably like the guy that does the voices for native Americans in The Simpsons. The storyline is mediocre at best, but full of plot holes, especially towards the end. They did manage to do a decent job working this storyline around that of the TV show (Lost: Via Domus takes place from the beginning of season 1 to a little bit before the end of season 2). Overall, it is a decent experience that I will probably be soon forgetting.

Verdict: Free rental (or a Gamefly rental)

TA Note: Gave it 3 because I can not give half scores but I felt I would be generous and give this game an extra half a star because I LOVE the TV series (would have given a 2.5).

I wanted to play this game after playing Alan Wake, and learning that Lost was, in fact, not a Survivor rip off, like I originally thought.

The beginning of the game is a bit slow, and sometimes confusing. As I learned how to play, it became more fun quickly. The gameplay is pretty straightforward and easy to figure out. There aren't many challenges and everything is simple to figure out how to get past.

One of the features that was kind of frustrating was the flashbacks. Sometimes I had no idea what I was supposed to take a picture of. I got past those by either taking a picture of everything, or going online for a hint. Outside of the flashbacks, the camera was a nice addition to the gameplay. Taking a photo of certain things for achievements was fun.

The graphics were pretty good. I could see everything clearly, and it was easy to find whatever I was looking for. I can't say much for the voices, because I don't know what the original characters sounded like. The only issue I had with the conversations were that they sometimes sounded wooden and emotionless, and they would only give a 1-2 sentence reply about anything. Some of their answers were so vague it seemed like a waste of time to even have the option to ask questions.

What redeemed the game for me was the storyline. After the beginning it got very interesting. Each chapter would reveal a little more of the story, and kept me guessing. Even at the end, when I thought I knew everything, the game threw me a big mindfuck. I'm hoping they'll make a sequel to explain it.

The achievements were easy to get, and I got almost all of them during my initial play-through. Since it gave me the option to go back to previous episodes, I was able to obtain the rest of them without much trouble.

In the end, this game is very short, but provides a very good game experience. Fans of the show will probably like this more than me, and people who want a good story should play it also. Hardcore achievement hounds should also try it, seeing as it's short and will give you 1000G without a lot of hassle.

Lost Via Domus is a game based across seasons 1, 2 and 3 of everyone's favourite tv show Lost...

Well, sort of....

Now if you're sitting there looking at the back of the box and thinking "that doesn't look like Jack Shephard" you'd be right to do so! In Lost Via Domus you don't play the hero we all know and love from the tv show, but that of a new character named Elliott Maslow.

The story begins much in the same way as the tv show. You find yourself standing in the wreckage of Oceanic flight 815, there is chaos all around you, blah, blah, blah... and from there on in the plot is Lost (if you'll excuse the pun). The thing about Elliott is that he has lost his memory and can't remember anything about his past (not even his name). You must explore the island and take photos in flashbacks to help try and remember who you are and how it is you have come to end up on the island.

As well as taking photos, you will also have to wander around the rather linear landscape dealing with the mysterious black smoke, fixing electrical circuit boards and picking up and trading in Dharma produce. You will also see some familiar faces as many of the key characters from the series are featured. This being said, the voices you hear may not be so familiar. While the designers have gone to great lengths to make the characters look just as real as in the tv show, they obviously didn't manage to get the real character voices and although this doesn't make the game unplayable it might put some die hard fans off.

Overall the game is much like other games based on films/tv shows...

"A short story, not brilliantly executed and a quick cash in for the developers. "

That being said if you're looking to boost your gamerscore you'll get pretty much the whole 1000 points in about 6 hours gameplay!

Overall:

Graphics: 7
Soundtrack: 8
Gameplay: 5
Replay Value: 2

Total Score: 55%

Even with all of its flaws, Lost: Via Domus still has some redeeming factors.

First, the length really helps this game. Being that it is only 4-6 hours makes you not completely loathe the voice acting and the piece-meal story that they tried to fuse together.

Next, there are a lot of good nods to the show with very specific references and locations that look like they do in the show.

Finally, this is a very easy game that does pretty well in terms of bringing you into the setting and not making you wait around too long for something to happen.

For the price of the game and the length, it is a quick and easy trip through the world of Lost and is actually better than expected.

After reading the reviews, I almost didn't get this game because I thought it would be lame. As a big fan of the TV series, I decided to pick up the game when I saw it was on sale for ten dollars.

I am glad I picked it up as I found it entertaining. The game definately has a LOST sound and feel to it. I found myself interested enough to keep going to see what would happen next. Each chapter starts with a previously on LOST, then has a short scene and the LOST logo as per the show, and seems to end on an exciting part.

As far as game play goes, it is fairly straightforward, as you basically go around and talk to people to find out what you need to do to accomplish whatever your task is. You get a flashback to help you figure things out or recover from your character's amnesia. You generally wind up doing some type of mini game to get to the next part. These mini games might be someting like putting pieces in an electronic board to that the amps are what you need to open a door, following markers on a trail while avoiding the black smoke, finding your way through a dark cave before your torch runs out, or a running sequence that reminded me of Crash Bandicoot sort of. I found the first cave to be a bit frustrating, but the rest of the game was pretty smooth for me in terms of difficulty.

I wouldn't say this is a title I will pick up often as far as replay goes, but it is short enough that if you are craving a little interactive LOST that you could play a chapter or two if you don't feel like putting the series and watching it.

As a big fan of the series, I noticed a lot of elements from the show, and it was cool to go into some of the Dharma stations. As a big fan, I also noticed when the actor voice wasn't quite right for a character since most of the actors did not voice themselves. It would have been nice if the ones you interacted with the most were the actual actors. Visually, I thought the developer did fine, and the characters looked like the real actors. The only exception I thought was Charlie Pace, who had something not quite right.

I have seen a few comments about the story being weak, but I didn't find it that far off from some of the LOST stories, so I found it fine. As you find out about your character, he does belong on the island. I think the story and game would have been stronger, however, if the game had been written now(or at the end of this season) as there would have been so much more to it.

As far achievements go, it isn't that difficult but it helps to be aware of what you have to take pictures of.

Overall, worth a pick up if you are a LOST fan(since it is so cheap now). If you aren't a LOST fan, start at Series 1, Episode 1, and get to at least Season 3 before you play this.

EDIT: Though not related to this game, fans of LOST may be interested that if you have Rock Band 2, you can now download and play a Drive Shaft song (You all everybody) in the RBN section of the Rock Band store.

You had better be playing this for the 1000, because yes it's easy - there's a walkthrough you can follow that will let you get everything in one playthrough. Which is good, because you do not want to play this twice


Gameplay 0/5 It's the worst game I've ever played. And I usually like 'bad' games. You just walk clumsily around, talking to boring people and picking up items like the worlds least entertaining adventure game, with 'stealth' sections against an insta-kill immortal enemy (you have to run from grove to grove of trees, waiting for a full minute for the enemy to stop circling each time), a broken compass mechanic, a handful of combat sections that can be literally walked past and random guesswork trivia/puzzles that possibly require knowledge from the show to get past without a walkthrough. And annoying cave sections where you light keeps going out near bottomless pits and if you're in the dark for a little too long you just die.

Graphics 3/5 Character models that look like PS2 level relics, that only vaguely look like the characters they're based on - cave levels with awful glare and pitch blackness next to each other. The jungle environments look good, but the items in them don't.

Story 2/5 There's a bit of okay plot in the flashback sections - but the rest of the game's story is not well delivered, patchy and incredibly incredibly short.

Overall 1/5 I'll give it One Star overall, because there was a half-minute jumping section that I enjoyed, otherwise this would deserve a Zero. Truly this game is painful to play, and I suggest you avoid it unless you really, really want those easy achievements.

I will be honest and straightfoward. This game sucks, this game eats a bag. I am sitting here watching the first two episodes and comparing sure the graphics are really not to bad. They are almost spot on with the show. But that is were the fun ends.

The voice acting, horrible take B stars and make them add there voice, Horrible, The controls suck I cant even describe whats wrong with the controls youll have to find out your self.

Most of the missions are horrible using markers to find somethig instead of just following a person! And then your alway being shot at in the jungle and there is this "black smoke of death" I am a smoker in life and I have survied more smoke then that. And hey how about not being able to run with DYNOMITE! Honestly this game sucks. There are better games to get a easy one thousand on. Avatar two minutes and no garbage and crappy story.