Lost

Absent

Of course, assuming anyone who doesn't watch Lost has made it this far, you might be wondering if the game is purely for die-hard fans of the series - or if adventure game fans who don't watch Lost will find anything to enjoy here. The answer, frustratingly, isn't entirely clear. The sections we've played felt extremely disjointed, and would have seemed like very gappy narration were it not for the fact that we're familiar with the series. Whole sections of plot are explained away with a few words, and key characters appear and disappear with little exposition or explanation.

If you've watched the series, you'll understand. "Ahh, they're off to the Hatch; ahh, they're building the raft" - and so on. If you haven't seen the series, you'll probably be somewhat, well, lost. However, that's not to say that you wouldn't be able to play through, and even enjoy, the game as a whole.

"We did want to give people who aren't fans the ability to play through the game," insists the producer. "The question is, do you think that if you're not a fan, and don't know anything about the series, could you finish this game? That's the goal. If people finish the game and it makes them want to watch the series, even better - but the goal was that both fans and non-fans should be able to finish the game, and I think that's what we've achieved."

Despite this, there's no doubt that Lost's real appeal will be to big fans of the series - and possibly to people who don't really play games that much. However, having played through a significant chunk of one of the episodes (the game is divided up into episodes, each bookended with a "Previously On Lost" section), we found ourselves rather compelled by the game. Some of the puzzles get quite challenging, and piecing together the story is a rather compulsive activity - even if a few of the mini-games are annoying, such as the cave-exploration game where walking into a dark patch informed us that we'd died by falling down a big hole and plopped us back at the entrance to the entire section.

"For me," says producer chap, "it's going to be the Lost fan who wants to have a story-driven, casual experience. We always say casual game, but it's a very hard market to pin down - you know, is it Brain Age or is it Wii Fit? We don't know. The reality for us is that the Lost fan is definitely our primary market."

"We'd like to see hardcore fans play it, and I think this is a product they could play - because our feedback is that there really is no game like this around any more. I feel that a lot of hardcore gamers miss these types of games."

If our comments threads are anything to go by, he's not wrong. There's a definite nostalgia for adventure, we suggest. "Yeah, and we don't do them any more - and I don't know why! It was very difficult for me to convince the Ubisoft management that this was the way we should go - they said that adventure games don't sell on consoles. But we've never seen an adventure game on a console yet! Why not pick Lost to be an adventure game on a console - it'd be a great launch-pad!"

We have yet to be convinced that Lost is going to be the game to relaunch the adventure genre into a glittering new future - but we're certainly convinced that it isn't yet another bargain-bin TV tie-in. Sparkling production values and some genuinely thoughtful gameplay decisions, combined with very professional script-writing and a striking narrative, mean that this is shaping up to be a game that Lost fans will enjoy - and others may well find a soft spot for.