It’s made by Ubisoft; it’s based on a TV show, and its singleplayer only. A true recipe for disaster.

Being a huge Lost fan, I wanted this game to be good. Mostly because of the above mentioned reasons, as soon as the game was announced I had an ill feeling.

Your character, created specifically for the game, is a passenger on Oceanic 815 and crashes on to the island like everyone else. He suffers from amnesia because of the crash and while trying to get off the island, you must also help him remember. You remember things by taking pictures of them with your camera and putting the pieces together. The major events that happen on the TV also happen in the game, but you have no control as you’re usually just observing as your character has his own tasks to complete.

It turns out I was right. Lost: Via Domus fools you with first impressions and is overall, a very sloppy game. It drifts from the TV show and leaves even the diehards in the dark. And it is one of the shortest games I have ever played. Estimated time: 5 -6 hours.

The game tries to go for the TV show format, as levels are called episodes, and with each episode you get a “Previously on Lost…”

First glances and screenshots will reveal this as being the game with the best character models and environments. Each character is the same as on the show, right down to the very last facial hair. The environment within the game, things such as the foliage, the sand, and the water are all seemingly quite magnificent. While in play, the jungle becomes very frustrating as its green everywhere you look. But the detail within the jungle is amazing.

And the detail of some other objects is also something to write home about. Objects ranging from plane debris, tools, pots and pans, shelters on the beach, and bunk beds in the hatch are all done very well, when really details this small aren’t what necessarily make this game visually impressive.

Water effects and pyrotechnics are pleasant and realistic…most of the time. While the torch that leads you through the cave and the many bonfires back at the beach all look great, some explosions seriously were lacking. This probably wouldn’t have been pointed out if the rest of the effects weren’t so impressive.

It’s also worth mentioning that the in-game cinematics are some of the best I have ever seen.

Like on the TV show, the score for Lost: Via Domus is full of suspense, and very engaging. Everything from the floating title screen coming towards you, to the chase sounds that follow you when the black smoke is on your tail, are all done in a way that adds so much to the game, similar to that on the show.

On the other hand, the voice acting is some of the worst I’ve ever seen. The occasional character will have a vague looking face accompanied by a lifeless voice which made some of the voice acting seem very poorly done. Also, in regards to the actual voices that play the characters; I wouldn’t mind if all characters were voiced by different people than ones heard on the show, but a few main characters on the show do voice themselves in the game which lead to confusion on my part. Ben, Hurley, and Sayied all sounded like there supposed to sound, but Charlie and Locke both sounded terrible. I guess you could say it was the inconsistency that plagued this game, from the audio point of view.

The gameplay is perhaps Lost: Via Domus’s greatest fault. With invisible walls at every turn and extremely difficult puzzles, this game has a very restrictive feel to it. The puzzles are a very linear experience in which you have to line up fuses to complete a circuit. And in typical Ubisoft fashion, things such as solving puzzles and taking proper pictures with your camera are never thoroughly explained to you which can lead to serious frustration.

If you’ve seen the show, there will be moments within the game that may have you confused because of the weak plot. For example, one of the game’s leading antagonist’s is left out of the ending, as if forgotten about.

If you haven’t seen the show, you’ll be completely lost.

‘The Others’ are totally disregarded and the game makes it seem as if they’re 3 or 4 unarmed, oddly intelligent people who just so happen to live on the island. Also, people without televisions are lead to believe there are just a few survivors of the plane crash, instead of the real number of over 40.

Whether it was luck, or the makers of the game had inside information to future episodes, but the ending of this game is eerily similar to a segment of a recent episode. Lost fans would love the ending as the conspiracy theories within Lost get another member added to the list. Non-fans would most likely think of the game’s ending as just your generic no-harm-done finisher.

I earned 98.5% of the achievements my first time through, which took around 5 hours. I then went back and got the very last achievement to give me an even 1000, which clocked in an additional 45 minutes.

There is no change of difficulty, no option for multiplayer, and including earning all the achievements, the game takes under 6 hours to complete. And unless you wish to go through and play the exact same thing again, the extremely easy achievements add next to nothing in the longevity category.

For having a weak plot, half assed graphics and audio, and most importantly, being singleplayer only with zero replayability, Lost: Via Domus becomes my worst reviewed game.