I mean.... I love LOST.

I was told by someone the other day that if you liked the series LOST then you would probably like the game.  But they were wrong.... well, sort of wrong.

I have never once watched even so much as part of an episode of LOST. I have of course been told how great it is, but I was put off after the first episode was released and everyone was talking about a polar bear. I do not care for polar bears. I usually don’t make time to ensure I can watch TV at the same point each week, so generally only watch things that involve no prior knowledge of what’s going on and very little brain power - like repeats of Friends and Scrubs.

So when the game appeared in my home I thought I would have no idea what it was about and find it (like a lot of TV-to-game adaptations) heavily relying on people’s love of the series to win it over, rather than having a solid gameplay and story in itself. I put it in the console and instantly found that my character walked at a snail’s pace. This thoroughly irritated me until I remembered that most game characters don’t run by default - you have to actually push a button to make it happen. It was all smooth going from that moment on.

I am really enjoying this game. I like the combination of point and click style conversations and finding of objects, the jungle treks, the puzzles, the flashbacks and the story. I am sure there are lots of things that you would know if you are a LOST fan, but I can’t wait to find out how even the computer knows who Elliot is and what this crazy black fog stuff is all about. Who keeps shooting at me? Why did the plane crash? How did that guy use ‘the numbers’ to win the lottery when I have only just discovered them on a remote island?

Each time I try and put this game down it draws me in with something new. I love the way you will jump into memory mode at some point in each level. Since I have no idea about anything, the puzzles are of a nice difficulty level for me, with even such simple things as ‘enter the numbers’ causing me to hunt for how this is actually possible (do I have to remember the numbers to do that? Can I enter when it starts beeping or when the beep gets serious? Where can I enter them? Do I have to explore the area first for fear that entering the numbers will start a new part of the game and I might have missed something?). I have also been totally suckered by the presence of mini IQ tests. I love IQ tests! Give me a sequence that needs finishing and I am as happy as a kid with an ice-cream.

Playing the game has not made me want to watch the series, but it has made me want to complete the game and really enjoy doing so. It mixes just enough intrigue with a little tenseness and lots of puzzles, so even if you have never heard of LOST I certainly recommend that you still give it a go.