Review Lost: Via Domus Developer: UbiSoft Publisher: UbiSoft Genre: Mystery Release Date: February 2008 Platform: (Version reviewed) Review by Randy Sluganski March 9, 2009		Buy this game at Trade for this game at:

Even the best of us are mistaken at times and so it was when a reader wrote and asked if we had plans to review Lost: Via Domus, to which I responded most likely not as it was not an adventure game.

Well, it seems I was a little bit right and a little bit wrong. For while Lost: Via Domus does not really have any puzzles in the traditional sense, it is still an adventurous game. Yeah, yeah, I know my blabbering makes about as much sense as the ABC television series.

Speaking of which, I’m not really a Lostaholic or whatever the fans of the show are called, so one thing I can’t do is vouch for the authenticity of the game as compared to the series. Based on the television series, the game introduces a new character who mainly interacts with recognized characters from the show without drastically altering any established storylines

The game is spread out over seven episodes and incorporates flashbacks to flesh out the backstory. The hero of this particular story – our protagonist – is a photojournalist who is the sole survivor of an airplane that tore apart in mid-air and crashed on a seemingly deserted Pacific island. An island which also happens to be home to The Losties and The Others. As luck would have it, the photojournalist has - here it comes, maestro a drumroll please if you will – !AMNESIA! and cannot remember anything from his past or the plane crash.

His goal is to discover why his plane in particular crashed on this island, especially as the flight seemed to contain so many suspicious characters important to his life. This is done via a series of flashbacks that are triggered by certain events or by speaking to others on the island. The new character fits in nicely and is, of course, treated with suspicion by those who are already on the island.

The game’s major failing is its puzzles. Well, not really, as there aren’t any puzzles. The majority of the puzzles consist of restoring power to various fuse boxes, which quickly becomes boring and tedious. There are also a few awkward arcade sequences that involve shooting a gun and one that involves escaping killer Black Smoke that is extremely, extremely frustrating.

The graphics are honest-to-gosh drop dead gorgeous. It could be that they were enhanced by the X-box 360 and that the game was played on a 36” HDTV. And to be honest, after playing a few games recently on an HDTV everything else blurs in comparison.

Lost: Via Domus is actually not too bad – though I understand the PC version does have control issues which I did not experience with the console version - and there is a nice twist to the ending, but it’s not so much a game as it is an interactive episode of the show. Unfortunately, you could also watch about three or four episodes of the series in the amount of time it takes to complete the game.

Still, it is fun exploring the island and piecing together the story, I just wish I had been ‘lost’ a little longer.

System Requirements (PC/Windows):

• Supported OS: Windows Vista®/Windows® XP (only)
• Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel Pentium® 4C or AMD Athlon™ MP 2400+ (3.5 GHz Pentium 4/AMD Athlon or 2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo/Athlon 64 X2 recommended)
• RAM: 1 GB (2 GB recommended)
• Video Card: 128 MB DirectX® 9.0c–compliant, Shader 3.0–enabled video card (256 MB recommended) (see supported list)*
• Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c–compliant sound card
• DirectX Version: 9.0c (included on disc)
• DVD-ROM: 4x DVD-ROM drive
• Hard Drive Space: 5 GB
• Peripherals Supported: Mouse, keyboard, Windows-compliant gamepad or joystick

*Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:
ATI® RADEON® X1300-1950/HD 2000 series
NVIDIA GeForce® 6600-6800/7/8 series

Laptop versions of these cards may work but are NOT supported.

These chipsets are the only ones that will run this game.

NVIDIA® nForce™ or other motherboards/soundcards containing the Dolby® Digital Interactive Content Encoder required for Dolby Digital audio.

NOTICE: This game contains technology intended to prevent copying that may conflict with some disc and virtual drives.