The "Lost" games were miserable - and I loved them

Every year I get the urge to start a re-run of my absolute favourite series "Lost". This was also the case last September, when "Lost" celebrated its 20th anniversary. To mark the occasion, I watched all 121 episodes of the cult series for the fifth (or sixth?) time in the space of four weeks. And like after every repeat of "Lost", I feel empty. I want more.

As Jack says so aptly in the finale of the third season: "We have to go back".

As always when I've watched "Lost" through, I first try to fill my inner emptiness with several hours of Youtube videos, which put forward and explain crazy theories about the island. That usually satisfies my insatiable hunger for "Lost" - but this time it's not enough for me.

So I resort to a measure that I actually only save for emergencies after a re-run. I play through the two official "Lost" games again: "Lost: Via Domus" for the PS3 and "Lost: The Mobile Game" for the iPod.

The reason I don't want to touch the games despite wanting more "Lost" is simple - I know they suck. Back when Lost was still on TV, I didn't care. I was hyped and soaked up and loved any additional "Lost" content. Short "mobisodes" between seasons, "alternate reality games" with interactive websites, podcasts with the authors and also the two official video games.

But how will I experience the games from today's perspective? Will they satisfy my hunger or will the licence junk leave a bitter aftertaste for dessert? Despite my misgivings, I take the plunge into the virtual "Lost" adventure. Jacob stand by me.

"Lost: Via Domus" (2008): brainless, ugly and yet damn cool

I'll start with the "big" game "Lost: Via Domus". It was released shortly after the start of 4. Season in February 2008 for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. The game was developed by Ubisoft Montreal, who had released the blockbuster "Assassin's Creed" a year earlier.

The two showrunners of the series, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, were listed as co-authors in the game's marketing. I was extremely hyped about the game at the time and even bought a PS3 especially for it - or persuaded my parents to buy one.

What is the game about?

In the game, I take on the role of Elliott Maslow, a photojournalist who suffers from amnesia after the crash. The character was developed especially for the game and did not appear in the TV series. What's cool is that the story is also told in flashbacks in the game. In small snippets, I learn that Elliott was on the trail of a sensational story involving the "Hanso Foundation" - the organisation behind the "Dharma Initiative".

The action on the island is loosely connected to iconic story moments from the series. My goal is to recover Elliott's memories and escape from the island. A mysterious compass with the inscription "Via Domus" - in Latin: "the way home" - shows me where to go each time.

The bad stuff first

After just a few minutes of playing, my fears were confirmed - "Lost: Via Domus" was already bad back then and hasn't aged well. These points particularly bothered me when I played it again:

The story is absolute rubbish

I can still remember that Elliott's story disappointed me back then too - especially because Damon and Carlton were supposedly involved in the game.

In truth, however, the two had little or nothing to do with the story. They were merely responsible for the correct depiction of the various locations from the series. However, the rascals at Ubisoft very skilfully marketed this limited involvement of "Darlton".

The story has one major problem in particular: Elliott is an absolute arsehole. In his past, he betrays his work colleague for a reportage, who is subsequently shot dead. Elliott's story on the island is in turn a cheap copy of Michael's story.

By stupid coincidence, Elliott meets the Others. For some nonsensical reason, they promise to let him leave the island. But only if he lures Jack and Kate into a trap so that they can be kidnapped.

Why, why, why? I have no idea. In contrast to the series, it all seems so artificially contrived, not well thought out and simply stupid. In contrast to the "evil" characters from the series, Elliott doesn't have any exciting nuances. He's dumb as a rock and simply unlikeable.

But worst of all is the outrageous ending. Elliott sails away from the island on a boat and gets caught in an electromagnetic vortex. This apparently causes him to travel through time and enter a parallel dimension. He wakes up back on the island on the day of the crash - but in this reality, his deceased work colleague is still alive. An absolutely unnecessary twist that has absolutely nothing to do with the time travel in the series. Clear rules apply here: "Whatever happened, happened" - you can't change the past and there is no multiverse. Full stop.

I wonder why Damon and Carlton let this slide. After all, the writing team clearly communicated after the launch that the game's story was not part of the series canon.

The gameplay is as dumb as the story

To uncover the secrets of Elliott's past, I have to talk a lot to the characters I know from the series. That would actually be a cool idea, but unfortunately the conversations are sometimes ridiculously badly written - Elliott asks stupid questions and gets even stupider answers. Locke's annoying quote about the "Banyan Trees" is legendary and has been burnt into the memory of everyone who has played the game:

From time to time I also have to trade with the survivors of Oceanic flight 815. To get a torch, I trade Sawyer 4 coconuts and 8 papayas. I have to offer the blonde a lot more for a gun.

That makes sense to me - Sawyer always hoarded weapons and valuable items in the series too. But why, for example, Charlie has an arsenal of weapons and ammunition or Michael carries 15 torches with him is left unanswered by the game.

I always find myself on expeditions through the jungle or dark caves. These trial-and-error sections are extremely annoying. Bats attack me in the caves and the smoke monster chases me in the jungle. If I don't hide fast enough in Locke's "Banyan Trees", I'm killed and have to start all over again.

Sometimes the "Others" have it in for me in the jungle. They sit in tree houses and shoot wildly at me. What the hell reason do Ben's people have to shoot at me? Especially after I made a deal with them. That's rubbish.

The only positive aspect of the gameplay for me is the "Fuse" mini-game. At irregular intervals, I find fuse boxes in which I have to divert electrical charges. To do this, I use various fuses that redirect and weaken the electrical flow. A surprisingly addictive game principle.

One problem: What the hell does this have to do with "Lost"? It feels like Ubisoft has pulled a mini-game concept from the archives somewhere and sausaged it into "Via Domus".

The game looks terrible and doesn't sound good.

When exploring the small areas on the island, I am accompanied by constant stuttering and unattractive screen tearing. The loading times between levels drive me crazy.

The characters don't look anything like their role models and put me off with their poor animations. Charlie's eyes look like those of a lifeless mannequin. Hurley looks like the Hagrid meme from the "Harry Potter" game for the PS1.

Jack looks as if the default settings had been used in a character editor - a generic, white man in his thirties. In other words, the way 99 per cent of all gaming protagonists looked back then. Exactly the same problem with Elliott - Jack and he look too similar.

Speaking of characters - apparently the budget for the cast from the series wasn't enough. Only a handful of characters are voiced by the original actors and actresses. Among others: Ben (Michael Emerson), Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) and Tom (M.C. Gainey). Unfortunately, they are all characters who play a small role.

The other, larger roles are played by soundalike speakers. Some of them sound quite passable (Sayid, Locke). For others, the budget wasn't even sufficient for a similar-sounding replacement. Particularly bad is Charlie, whose voice actor makes no effort at all to imitate his accent and voice pitch. I'd rather run into the sonar fence of the Dharma Initiative and let my ears bleed than have to listen to that.

The good last

So, having ranted about the bad, annoying and ugly aspects of the game, I have to mention what I liked about "Via Domus". It's the numerous locations from the TV series that I get to visit in the course of Elliott's pointless adventure - the part of the game that Damon and Carlton were heavily involved in.

No matter how bad the rest of the game is, I can't emphasise enough how damn cool it is to walk through the different sets myself. I explore the hatch with the computer, collect dynamite in the "Black Rock", pay Mikhail a visit in the "Flame" station and investigate the "Hydra" facility on the second island.

It feels like 90 per cent of the development time went into these locations. They are bursting with details and inspire me with their interactivity. I can operate the computer in the hatch and enter the cursed numbers myself - my "Lost" heart beats like crazy.

Some of the locations have also been expanded with new sections that were never seen in the series - and according to Damon and Carlton, these are part of the official series canon. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

It's these nerd moments that motivate me to play through the six-hour game again - despite the stupid story, pointless gameplay and poor technology.

I almost feel like I did when I visited the filming locations of the series on a "Lost" tour in Hawaii. Or when I snuck onto the studio premises without permission to catch a glimpse of the sets and props. Marvellous. That alone made it worth playing through again.

"Lost: The Mobile Game" (2007): a short fever dream

We continue with "Lost: The Mobile Game". The game was released in January 2007 after the start of season 3 for "Java ME"-compatible mobile phones and for Apple's iPod. I still remember it clearly: it was the first game I bought on iTunes for my iPod.

The game was developed by Gameloft, which at the time was best known for the racing series "Asphalt". "Lost" producer and author Gregg Nations was listed as the author.

What is the game about?

In contrast to "Via Domus", I don't control a new protagonist in the mobile game, but Jack Shephard. The plot of the game is loosely based on iconic events from the show - I experience how the pilot is killed by the smoke monster, how the hatch is blown up and how Claire is kidnapped.

Good, bad, I don't care

"Lost: The Mobile Game" is objectively a much worse game than "Via Domus". But I can't be mad at the little mobile title because I don't really take it seriously. In parts, the game is so bad that I find it trashy-good again.

It's a small and technically limited Java game that I can play through in less than an hour - no more, no less.

The way the story is told feels like a fever dream. The characters only communicate with each other in short snippets of dialogue, important story elements are omitted, others are added or recombined. Considering the limitations of such a small project, I don't think Gregg's remix story is bad at all.

Graphically, the game cuts a handsome figure for a mobile game from 2007. I particularly like the survivors' beach camp and the hatch, which have been realised with great attention to detail. It's fun to rediscover these locations from such a limited perspective.

Less great is that the game regularly suffers from serious slowdowns - especially fire effects make the small iPod processor with 80MHz sweat. The sound effects are also disappointing and annoying - especially the rain, which is played in a 2-second loop with short periods of silence in between.

The gameplay is... present. It is unspectacular, but fulfils its purpose. I control Jack with the click-wheel - it takes a bit of getting used to, but it's kind of cool. I run through the jungle, move crates, cut down grass with my machete and shoot aggressive wild boars.

Even snakes aren't safe from Jack's shooting rage. Oh yes, who doesn't remember the iconic episode from the TV series in which Jack wipes out an entire snake civilisation with his gun? (Not me).

The only animal Jack can't tame in the game is a wild eagle that keeps attacking me. Why is that? I have no idea. The only birds that ever played a role in the series were the letter pigeon gull (season 3, episode 12) and the infamous "Hurley Bird" (season 1, episode 23/24).

No matter how good or bad the game is, I'm glad I managed to get it to work at all. Operating my barely functioning iPod again after all these years was a wonderfully nostalgic experience that catapulted me back 17 years into the past, even apart from "Lost".

The games are over - and now?

I put my emergency plan into practice and played through both games. I don't regret my decision. "Lost: Via Domus" is a rubbish game, but it felt great to run through the virtual sets again. That's why I've taken the "Licence Junk" firmly into my Lostie heart.

"Lost: The Mobile Game" is a special experience because it offers me an insight into a type of technically limited mobile game that no longer exists. Even though the game is pretty trashy, I enjoyed my time with it - simply because it's exciting to experience "Lost" from such a primitive perspective.

And now? I still want more. But there's not much left for me to consume in the "Lost" universe. One big goal would be to somehow get my hands on the official "Lost" board game - even if the reviews aren't exactly positive. But hey, that hasn't stopped me from playing the games either

I would also be tempted to watch "Lost" once in its entirety with chronologically sorted scenes. From the first scene on the island 2000 years before the crash of Oceanic flight 815 to the last scene after the death of all the survivors.

Most likely, though, I'll be scheduling my next regular re-run. And after that, I'll probably play through the games again, despite my reservations. Maybe at some point I'll manage to tame my hunger and put an end to it. As Jacob said in season 5, episode 16: "It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress".