LOST: Via Domus

It began with a plane crash and concluded with the discovery of a hatch. It started with a man inside and ended with a woman who discovered his location. It continued with imprisonment and concluded with a realistic hope of rescue. Countless questions were introduced along the way; the more that were answered, the more mysterious the journey became. Lost is more than a television series to its loyal fans – it is a weekly event where, for just 60 minutes, the real world ceases to exist.

This obsession we have – this relentless dedication and continuous speculation on the show's greatest mysteries – makes Lost fans a special breed. We don't come and go as we please because, as anyone who has ever seen the show can tell you, it would kill the progress we've made with the survivors of Oceanic 815.

The master of manipulation.

When ABC finally announced that Lost would make its way to video games, my eyes widened with curiosity then rolled with fears of mediocrity. Licensed games, especially those based on television shows, don't have a good history. Being the fan that I am, it didn't matter. The pre-release murmurs of frustrating puzzles and inaccurate character depictions weren't enough to keep me from seeing an ending that, according to a feature on the Lost Season 3 DVD, was suggested by series writer and co-creator Damon Lindelof.

The big question is: was it worth it? Will Lost fans enjoy playing through an entire game just for a few minutes of intrigue? If Lost is more than a show to you – if it's the kind of thing that gets in your head, that you discuss with friends, and that you absolutely can't miss each week – the answer is an unwavering yes. But those same gamers have other reasons to jump in, and unfortunately, several reasons to wish they hadn't. In the end, Lost: Via Domus is a decent mini-season with a bad game wrapped around it.

 
Not exactly a gameplay screen, but it’s close enough.

Another Survivor

More than any other TV-series-turned-game, the developers of Lost: Via Domus were put in a difficult situation. They couldn't create a new storyline with the existing cast because that would change what we know about them on the show. Hence the creation of a new character, which is both a blessing and a curse. He bumped his head during the plane crash (shown during the intro with new computer graphics) and suffers from a severe case of amnesia. As the player, your goal is to find out who he is and why he was on Oceanic 815.

Keeping with the show's theme that everyone on board has a deep and interesting past, the man slowly discovers that he's a photojournalist. That's about the only information that leaked before the game's release, so I'll stop there. What follows is a series of semi-interactive flashbacks where the player must snap a photo (at just the right time, from just the right angle) to re-create the memory. The photos themselves aren't too interesting – one involves the exchange of a water bottle, another shows a briefcase with "Hanso" written on the front.

Diehard Lost fans may remember Hanso as being a fictitious foundation ABC used to build on the mysteries of Dharma's experiments and to sell real-world ad spots to Sprite, Jeep and other major brands. That was all part of the Lost Experience (another story-expanding element created by ABC's marketing department), and it appears this game is as well.

Minor Spoiler Warning: Interestingly, there's a recording in one of the main character's flashbacks that indicates the Hanso Foundation was doing experiments on the sixth sense. From the first season of Lost, our beloved cast has seen dead people on the island. Could there be more to this? My gut says no, since this is a story element that most of the show's viewers will never hear about. But I wouldn't count it out completely, especially when you see the ending, which is another take on one of the show's newest mysteries.

 
“Hi, my name is Jack. Care to learn how I got this tattoo? No? Darn, there goes another episode.”

The main character's acting is fair. In flashbacks, he'll interact with others from his past who are also fairly well voiced. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the show's cast – Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Hurley, Locke, Claire, Charlie, Sun, Jin, and Michael – who all sound like they were voiced by impersonators. There were reports that some of the cast recorded voices for the game, but the only one who sounded like himself was Ben. Kate's impersonator is acceptable if you're willing to lower your standards. The rest, however, are pathetic. Sawyer and Sayid's impersonators also try to impersonate their characters' accents. As you can imagine, the results are terrible.

In the case of Charlie, who is no longer on the show, this mistake is somewhat forgivable. But there's no excuse for the rest. 24: The Game is a horrible excuse for interactive entertainment, but it had the entire cast on board to voice the characters. Alias was seriously flawed, but it too had the entire cast on board. There are several really awful movie games that have done the same thing.

Yet for some reason, Lost: Via Domus thought it was exempt. I know this is not a decision developers get to make – more than likely, someone on the TV end made that decision. You could argue that the actors' schedules were too hectic. But that doesn't fit. If a successful and ultra-busy movie star like Jennifer Garner can step into a recording booth to record several hundred lines for Alias, why couldn't Matthew Fox do the same for Lost: Via Domus?

Maybe it's because his story didn't call for it. From the day the game was announced, press releases (and now the game's box) proudly bragged that you'd be able to "interact" with the show's castaways. To describe those scenarios in this game, a new definition of that word is needed. In Lost: Via Domus, "interactive" merely means "walking up to a character, asking him/her a question, and going about your day." The one-or-two sentence answers are far from interesting, let alone interactive. Claire is interacted with twice; Jin, only once! Locke's impersonator is so bad you'll wish you didn't have to interact with him at all.

 
It looks like Kate but don't be fooled: that isn't her voice inside.

Latin for The Way Home

Like everyone trapped on the island except for Locke and Rose, Via Domus' main character can't wait to get off the island. Of course, we the viewers knows that the island is "special" – according to Locke, everyone was brought there for a reason. Regardless, your number-one goal is to escape.

That mission is fought by exploring some of the island's most interesting locations: Swan Station, Flame Station, Hydra Station, Black Rock, and the bus Hurley discovers (you can't use it or crawl inside but you'll find beer, a tradable commodity, nearby). The show didn't reveal enough of the Hydra or Flame stations to confirm their accuracy. But the familiar rooms look great. Fans will love exploring each area of the hatch, which has every feature of the show plus a couple more. Push the button, shut the blast doors, and turn on the black lights to view the map created by the station's previous tenants.

Minor Spoiler Warning: During season 2, Michael used the hatch computer to communicate with his son. Upon finding him, Walt tells his father that they made him take "tests." Within this computer – as well as the one in the Flame Station that Locke used – are various tests that must be completed in order to end the mission. Most involve a sequence of letters or numbers. Ex: D-F-H-J-? In this sequence, you should notice that each letter skips one in the alphabet. Hence, "K" does not come after J – it skips to "L."

These minor tests may be nothing more than a mini-game. Or they could be a hint as to how the Others tested Walt to confirm his "special" status.

Other mini-games use voltage ratings to test the player's basic knowledge of math (very basic). Roughly 10 broken fuse boxes are encountered. Each is a quest-blocker that must be fixed before you can progress. You'll fix them by placing new fuses to connect the wires and supply a specific amount of juice to the system. Four-way fuses are negative 30 volt, three-way fuses are negative 15, and two-way fuses are negative 5. It won't make much sense until you play the game, but rest assured that it isn't difficult so long as you remember that it's always a numbers game. A word of advice: when fuses are available to collect or purchase, gather as many as possible. The time spent gathering them now will save you hours in backtracking later.

 
One of many familiar locations.

Item shopping provides another element of gameplay, if you can call it that. Familiar castaways will trade items (torches, lantern, lantern fluid, handgun, spare ammo) for valuables (fruit, beer, food box, and Apollo bars). The lantern was a waste of a trade. I didn't use it once throughout the entire game. The handgun is just as useless – you'll use it once to shoot an enemy or two in an end-of-game gunfight. Actually, "gunfight" is too strong of a word to use. I ran past most of the gunmen and probably could have ran past them all. Why not go back and try it out? Because Lost: Via Domus is not like the TV show. It's not the kind of game you'll want to experience more than once.

A big part of that stems from the absurd navigation system. The jungle is one large cluster of trees. Arrows are carved into some of the trees, but they're very hard to spot. If you run in the wrong direction, the game asks if you'd like to re-start the mission – do that and you could end up having to repeat objectives that occurred before entering the jungle. Save spots are area-specific, so there's no way to remedy this ahead of time. But choosing not to re-start will leave players feeling truly lost; you'll have to turn around and stare at the tall grass and trees, and try to differentiate between plants in order to find your way.

Navigating the Dark Territory – the area where the Black Smoke lives – is even worse. The smoke is an instant-kill enemy that can't be fought. Your only defense is to hide in one of the five or six tree groves found within the area. The smoke can't enter, will gradually float away from the area, and return as soon as you exit. Black and red flags are posted at various areas to indicate where you have to go next, but the only way to know for sure is to walk up and touch the flag, prompting a first-person view that points your eyes in the right direction.

Doing this takes time – time you don't have. If the smoke hasn't returned before you touch the flag, it'll be there when you're done. Since there aren't any defining symbols within the jungle that can be seen without interaction, confusion is inevitable. I ran between the same two tree groves four times before realizing that I was walking in circles. Up until the moment came, I thought I was making progress. The island misled me.

As a die-hard fan of Lost, I couldn't overcome this frustration without thinking it must be what Jack and Kate go through every time they enter the jungle. Luckily, just as the show advances past some of its jungle exploration scenarios, the game does as well. After navigating through each area a couple of times, the game will let you skip ahead to where you need to be (a huge improvement since backtracking occurs so frequently).

If you like to be tortured, you'll love the caves. They're the dark places that forced you to purchase a bunch of torches. Without them, you wouldn't be able to see a thing. And without pointing the camera down at all times, you won't be able to see any of the pitfalls. Every drop leads to death. The main character, while designed to look rugged with his scruffy appearance and plane crash scars, is barely capable of survival. Even the once-paralyzed Locke knows how to grab a ledge. But not this guy.

Other than two running sequences (where the only gameplay element tests your ability to press two buttons, jump and slide, at the right moment), that concludes the journey of Lost: Via Domus.

 
Kate is one of the few characters you’ll interact with frequently.

Beauty and the Beast

Can a game be gorgeous and ugly at the same time? The real-time eye close-up looks really good. When standing completely still, the jungle details, while nowhere near the quality of Crysis, are very impressive. But if you move, subtle flaws (mainly clipping) tend to ruin the experience.

The crash site is also worth a jaw-drop or two, featuring multiple lighting effects for different times of each day. The survivors of the crash, however, are not worth equal praise. Kate looks decent. Locke is acceptable, if you're willing to lower your standards to levels below Mass Effect and Devil May Cry 4. Michael and Jin's eyes must have suffered trauma in the crash because they look like they're ready to pop out. Hurley looks bloated, which sounds appropriate but looks unrealistic.

None of the characters have the quality of animation and facial expressions you'd expect from a Lost game. Though game developers could use the "technology isn't there yet" excuse for titles like Alias and 24, that claim is no longer valid. If you need proof, just look at the work of Image Metrics – they're the studio behind the facial capture effects of Metal Gear Solid 4 (and more than 20 other games).