Lost in Play Review (.Martin)
A meticulously crafted adventure game that delivers high value in some aspects but ultimately lacks substance.
I have picked up this game on sale for 10 dollars. Seeing that it is among the highest rated games on Steam I had high expectations going into it. Unfortunately, my expectations of a truly great game were not met.
Graphics are top-notch. The playfulness and the attention to detail of the animations most certainly contribute to the high score of the game. And I can totally get behind that. Lost in Play is beautiful from start to finish.
Sound/Music are pretty good, too, but it serves more as a background necessity than being something that shines on its own. I have just finished the game and not a single piece of music comes to mind that stuck in my head. It is purely ambient, which does not necessarily mean it's bad. It did its job.
The gripes I have with this game are mostly Gameplay and Story.
While the presentation is beautiful, the subject-matter that is presented stays mostly flat. The plot revolves around two siblings "Lost in Play" traversing imaginary lands on their quest to get back home through a Frog Portal which can only be activated with a Crown lit by moonlight and, to make things worse, the portal will be closed if they don't make it in time before the next New Moon. You would think it's a product of a child's imagination. Well, that's exactly it. It's the baseline of the game's story. A child's play. In some sense this is charming as it underlines the whole concept of the game. But it is an easy way out from a developer's perspective to not have to provide a coherent storyline, any in-depth explorations of the created world and most importantly, any logical grounding of many of the puzzles presented.
It is clear that a lot of thought was put into this benign storyline regardless, with an ending that is connected to the beginning, and multiple references/"characters" making appearances throughout the journey. Ultimately, though, as a player, the plot is forgettable, incongruent and just outright boring. The protagonists, serving as anonymous player characters, do not have any depth to them whatsoever. The world that is presented is as random as it can get. There is the "But it's a child's imagination" argument - hinting at real world items that exist in their home -, but that experience is not what most people play games for.
That said, one might argue that this game targets a younger audience. And I think there's certainly some merit to that. But this leads me to the next problem. The game as a whole is extremely easy and very short. I finished it in under 4 hours. Mostly, the gameplay is split up into
1. collecting items for people
2. puzzles
In a traditional point-and-click adventure, collecting and using items in the right spot is what makes a puzzle. On top of that you might have some other dedicated puzzle screens like the puzzles in Lost in Play. However, in this game the item combination part is completely free, as in super simple, since you always know exactly which item to use where. I am not saying that you can't break with conventions to create something different yet intriguing. But the way it is handled here, it not only eliminates a landmark of Point & Click adventures but coupled with slow screen-transitioning makes it feel entirely like doing chores.
The puzzles on the other hand, ramp up the difficulty immensely. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed most of them, because this is where I actually had to think to progress. But most of the game happens in the "Everything is extremely simple" mode. This ramp-up in difficulty, I reckon, is not a good fit for younger or more distanced P&C audiences.
To sum it up:
Did I enjoy playing Lost in Play? Not really, I mostly liked the art style.
Would I buy a 20$ Lost in Play over a 10$ Monkey Island? Absolutely not.
Should you buy Lost in Play? Only if you're a fan of excellent presentation and don't mind a shallow experience and when it's on sale.