From
the Bargain Bin:
Lost: Via Domus
for XBox 360
Editor's note: some of you may have heard
the return of Mario Anima in the midst of last week's podcast.
We started talking about getting his excellent but terribly
undone Lost coverage back up to speed, and he mentioned having
played the videogame. So even though this has been out for
a while, it seemed like we still need to acknowledge it as
a piece of the Lost puzzle -- and a link to gaming, which,
hey, we do try to cover once and a while!
Most
entertainment tie-in video games are a total bust. Sure,
you could drudge up a few that have “gotten it right,”
but for every one franchise that found a way to be suitably
adapted for console gamers, there are a great deal more
that suffer an untimely death for cited reasons varying
from “lame” to “this was supposed to be
an adaptation of [insert franchise here]??”
The
problem usually boils down to a decision – make the
game for the fans of the franchise, or adhere to the laws
of hardcore gaming and adapt the concept to suit that market.
Trying
to hit middleground could result in monstrous profits, or
epic failure – simultaneously pissing off both parties
and placing your franchise in harm of becoming strikingly
less popular with the ever-rabid fanboys on either side
of the fence.
We are, after all, a fickle bunch.
Usually,
the decision is made to skew the franchise in such a way
that will translate well in the gaming world, and while
that makes sense on some level, it usually leaves fans of
the series wanting more. Then there’s Lost: Via
Domus.
Basically,
Lost: Via Domus boils down to pure, unadulterated
Lost-fanboy rapture. As games go, there is very
little interesting here. The gameplay is rather dull compared
to today’s “run and gun” market, but the
choices made make total sense in context with the Lost-iverse.
You
play as an unnamed passenger on Oceanic Flight 815. You
crash with the rest of the cast on the mysterious island,
and you interact with events that have transpired through
seasons 1 and 2. Yes, that means hatch discovery, Black
Rock, the numbers, everything.
As an
added bonus, and to avoid too much re-tread, the developers
pit you as an unnamed Oceanic survivor, so for fans of the
Lost podcasts, you are essentially taking control
of one of the socks on the island. This particular sock
has amnesia, so part of the game involves piecing together
memories, and delving through flashbacks to get the full
picture.
Sounds
remarkably like the show, no?
The
manner in which you do this is simple, your character was
a photographer, and certain events on the island trigger
a memory, which is most often represented by a ripped up
photograph. You are then subjected to a hazy reenactment
of the events depicted in the photograph, and you must use
your camera to capture the exact framing and pose of the
original “memory” photograph. If successful,
you are treated to viewing the full memory in typical Lost
flashback fashion.
So the
bulk of the game comprises of talking to people on the island,
rummaging through stuff, chasing down ghosts from your character’s
past, and then playing through the photo memory game –
which oddly resembles a real-world version of Pokemon
Snap.
Never
mind that last part.
Lost: Via Domus
