Can
anybody outshine our favorite swashbuckler Indiana Jones? Not Fenton
Paddock, the hero of Lost Horizon, but he makes a very creditable
attempt! Fenton, who on occasion calls himself “The Great Padlock,”
is a soldier of fortune in more senses than one. His actions and the
game in general certainly DO considerably resemble Indiana Jones’
exploits. It is 1936 and Paddock outwits the nasty Nazis who have
not yet seriously consolidated their brutal power and European threat.
He has an intrepid sidekick, a beautiful Eurasian young lady called
Kim. She is also an expert at deeds of derring-do and excels at the
martial arts! She replaces Indy’s rather similar, delectable Sophia
with mutual wisecracking and a whiff of reluctant romance.

Almost before he gets into stride, Fenton is attacked by a vicious
gang of bloodthirsty Triad thugs in Hong Kong and only narrowly escapes
from a watery grave.

F & K set out from the Far East on a travelogue style mission
to rescue Fenton’s close friend Richard, and simultaneously discover
how he got mixed up with an ancient spectacular Tibetan power house
called Shambala. Obviously the Führer’s soldiers, led by the
formidable Countess Hanna von Hagenhild, are trying to grab it first
in order to harness its infinite energy to dominate the whole world
– Familiar?!

They
become grounded in Tibet, and after much kerfuffle Fenton moves on
to Marrakesh, Berlin, Wewelsburg and India before finally returning
to Shambala and the culmination of this long Quest.

Did I say long? Yes – very long indeed: There are very
many satisfying and pleasurable hours of questing in Lost Horizon…
and not one single technical hitch from the introduction through to
the final credits.

The game is completely mouse-driven point & click. It is a 3rd-person
game and often both main characters are on screen at the same time,
and sometimes others as well. There are sequences where they both
have to operate in tandem and assist each other. In these cases, control
is easily passed back and forth from Fenton to Kim and vice versa.

The interface is simple and effective and there is an absolutely
unlimited number of save slots. The graphics are excellent and in
places magnificent. The music is good background stuff and never drowns
out the speech. This quest-adventure consists of a short prologue,
a modest-length introduction, and 7 hefty chapters. Each chapter is
self-contained and you can’t proceed to any one before having completely
concluded the previous one. Inside each chapter there is a certain
(limited) degree of non-linearity.

The
voice acting of both main characters is excellent. Fenton has an English
accent rather than an American one for a change (more James Bond than
Indiana Jones). On the whole, the supporting actors are quite good,
although the many Algerian shopkeepers, Berbers and nomads seem to
have suspiciously similar voices and some of the Nazis sound rather
phony.

There certainly is a LOT of dialog, but it is nearly all short and
to the point: Paddock continuously belts out his particular brand
of cynical mild humor, occasionally overdoing it somewhat, thereby
irritating some players. There are absolutely no long diaries, voluminous
journals, pages of boring letters the player is compelled to read
through or miss vital hints &/or essential clues. In addition,
there are full clear subtitles, and miracle of miracles, I did not
notice even one single spelling or grammatical error throughout the
whole very long game…very rare indeed!. But language is a living
and breathing thing, and quite a bit has changed during the past 75
years. Due to this there are a few verbal anachronisms and figures
of speech which did not exist in 1936!

There
are no annoying sliders, musical puzzles, math problems, etc. but
there is one easy, rather original maze. By pressing the space bar,
all hot-spots and exits are temporarily displayed on screen for those
who wish to use them.

There are only about a half dozen standalone puzzles during the whole
of the lengthy game which is chock-full of inventory and ‘hot-spot-action’
puzzles…and there lies the rub!! The majority of these inventory
puzzles are reasonably logical, but some are quite ludicrous. Unfortunately,
a large number of such puzzles can only be solved by clicking every
inventory item on every other inventory item, and if that doesn’t
work, onto each and every hotspot. This process gets old rather quickly
and is a tangible drawback. It is not too harrowing, however, since
there are generally not more than about 4 or 5 inventory items, and
never more than about a dozen!

Some
veteran players may find the game rather easy. Since I am not a MENSA
type, I personally found the level just right and could advance throughout
the saga without frustratingly long intervals of “stuckness”
causing me to lose track of the interesting narrative. I did, however,
get stuck for a half hour or so maybe 3 or 4 times during the game,
and on one memorable action sequence for over an hour. But I managed
to curb my impatience and for once restrained myself from taking even
a peek at any walkthrough or hint system.

In conclusion: This is a real fun game and I thoroughly enjoyed it
despite some minor flaws. In some respects it is reminiscent of the
Lucas Arts classic masterpiece Indiana
Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. A welcome change from the
gloomy, sinister 1st-person so-called horror games! So sit back and
ENJOY a fictional romp through pure lightweight and lighthearted “adventure-land!”

System Requirements:

• Windows XP, Vista, 7™
• Pentium IV 2 GHz Single Core or 100 % compatible CPU
• 512 MB of RAM
• 4.5 GB or more of free hard drive
• 64 MB DirectX 9.0 compatible video card
• 16 bit DirectX compatible sound card
• DVD-ROM drive
• monitor
• mouse

Played On:

• Intel Pentium-4 Dual, 3.2GHz
• 2048 MB DDR-2 RAM
• GeForce 7600GS 512Mb DDR-2 RAM (DVI TVO PCX)
• SoundMAX HD Audio
• WindowsXP- Professional
• Mouse
• Samsung flat screen monitor ~ SyncMaster EX2220