Flashbacks lead to frustrating mini-game
Lost: The Video Game follows the story of Elliott Maslow, a photojournalist who suffers with amnesia after crash landing on the island. He finds himself at the start of the adventure deep in the forest, confused and with more questions than answers whizzing through his head (that's LOST alright). Without further ado, you step into his shoes and head out into the forest in search of answers.The first character you meet up with is Kate and the conversation you have with her triggers a flashback. Flashbacks are a feature throughout the game and they do a good job at building the story behind your character. For this reason, they're certainly a worthwhile inclusion, but the mini-games that accompany them are as frustrating as the Season One finale - you know, when they opened the hatch and we still didn't find out what was down there? Actually, these mini-games are even more frustrating than that.
During flashbacks you're tasked with watching a blurred scene and you then need to take a photograph of something within that scene that in turn triggers off your flashback and allows you to progress in the game. A scene often lasts around 30 seconds or so and involves a conversation with two or more characters. You need to maneuver your character to the correct position on the screen, zoom in, adjust the focus and take a photo at exactly the right time. The problem is that you don't know when the right time is. On some occasions you can make an educated guess, but the margin of error is so small that you'll find yourself just constantly snapping away and shifting around in the hope that you'll take the correct picture at exactly the right time. The flashback continuously loops until you get the correct shot, so you're forced to sit through it again and again, which gets more infuriating each time.
Click for larger image
Click for larger imageIt's a nice idea, but it's been executed poorly, sot you waste a lot of time playing these games and getting quite irratated in the process. It would have been wiser to ditch the mini-game completely and just cut to the narrative.
Nevertheless, flashbacks don't intrude too much on the game and the main bulk of the action involves exploring the island, interacting with characters, solving puzzles and collecting objects. From the moment you step out onto the beach, within 5 minutes of the game's introduction, and you see the coastline and the encampments set up, where the likes of Charlie can be found strumming his guitar or Hurley can be found lazing around resting in front of a fire, you feel the adventure is really going to take-off. It's an impressive scene that the developer has created and LOST fans will undoubtedly be 'wowed' by the detail of the aircraft remains which are littered across the sand and the immense image of the dense forest that borders the beach.
Excited by the adventure ahead and the apparent free-roaming world in front of me, I ran down to the sea, exploring all of the make-shift camps on the way, talking in turn to the characters and picking up coconuts, empty water bottles and any papaya that were lying around the beach. The beach's shore stretches as far as the eye can see, but it's all a big tease. The whole beach area is restricted to a small area where you're presented with logs blocking your pathway if you try to wander off the beaten track. The same goes for everywhere you go on the island. In the forest you do have a couple of pathways to choose from, but ultimately they end up in the same place and even the cave exploration part of the game is extremely linear.
I wasn't expecting total freedom in the game - that would have been too much to ask - but the linearity and the rigid pathways that you have to navigate certainly hamper the overall experience.