If you have ever watched ABC's mega-hit Lost and thought it would be 'cool' to hang on the island with Jack, Claire, and Hurley, Ubisoft is here to prove you wrong. Lost: Via Domus puts you in the unenviable position of a first-class seat on Oceanic Air flight 815 from Sydney to Los Angeles.
Fans of the show will quickly realize that the characters they root for each week are not nearly as much fun as they seem. Showing up on the island with a bad case of amnesia is the last thing you would want, especially with a distrusting ex-Iraqi interrogator on-hand, but that is exactly how you start the game. You play the game as Elliott Maslow, a photojournalist with secrets like everyone else on the island; only your memory is on the lam. As Ben Linus can attest, Sayid and crew can be rough on those who are not quick with answers to their questions. Those looking to play catch with Walt, swig some beers with Sawyer, or play Backgammon with Locke are going to be incredibly disappointed. The only people who seem to care for you at all seem to be Hurley, Vincent, and to some extent, Kate.
The game begins with you waking up in the jungle, a la Jack, and finding your way to the beach to help the survivors of the crash. Your real task is one you had better like, because it shows up repeatedly throughout the game. The game provides you with what amounts to the pipe connection mini-game from BioShock, with a mathematical twist. Your job is to use three kinds of fuses to power up the all the gauges on a panel with just enough electricity to make them work. Beat the first one, and you stop the flow of gas so that the jumbo jet engine does not explode and kill half the beach population. Later panels typically open locked doors and drive you insane with their difficulty. The puzzle element, and subsequent computer terminal IQ tests, seem completely tossed in as a way of slowing you down from beating the game in the time in one sitting; which most will probably accomplish regardless.
Outside of the inane puzzle system, the game is comprised of your quest to escape the island and regain your memory along the way. The cure for your amnesia is a clever use of the show's flashback segments. Since you are a photojournalist, your memories start to come back to you as torn pictures. Each time one flashes on the screen, prepare for a jump back in time with your handy camera. Take a shot that resembles the faded, torn picture, and you will see a cut-scene reminding you of some important piece of your past, with some of the survivors showing up along the way. Even though the cut-scenes are mostly well done and interesting, the inability to skip them gets to be annoying when you die before reaching a checkpoint.
A large part of the game consists of exploring the island, which should be half the fun. Unfortunately, the paths through the thick jungle already exist, leaving you no real exploration outside of small portions of it that they want you to see. It is unlikely that you will really see anything 'new' in the game, outside of an extended look inside the since-exploded Flame Station and an up-close look at the DHARMA-branded shark in captivity. In all, those looking for answers will have to keep watching the show.
