As you go about your quests on the island, talking to folks, running from monsters and repairing panels you’ll experience flashbacks that all help put Elliot’s memory back together, the one game play element that was actually enjoyable. When Elliot is in a flashback, you’re shown a torn up picture prior to being placed in the memory. While in the memory, it’s your job to use Elliot’s camera to take the picture that you saw at the beginning of the flashback. Doing so will allow Elliot to remember the memory and see a little more of his past. While in the memory, Elliot can do some limited exploring and examine objects that help make sense of everything before exiting the flashback. It’s an interesting mechanic and helps to push you through the uninteresting parts of the game, if anything just to figure out what Elliot’s story is.

While on the island, Elliot has his trusty camera with him, and often times, after examining an item, you’ll be prompted to take a photo of it, but outside of getting achievement points for the photos, there’s no reason to do so. The photos aren’t used for anything in the game, and they don’t further illuminate the story of the island. This seems like a huge wasted opportunity as many times you’ll be taking pictures of items of relative importance to the show’s mythology, yet you wouldn’t know it if you hadn’t watched the show. Why not use the photographs to trigger clips from the show that explain why the photograph’s subject is so important? The end result is that fans of the show won’t learn anything new and those looking to get in on the show by playing the game will have no idea why the items are so important.

From a visual standpoint, the island sure is pretty and the various locales are recreated accurately. The character models look like their real life counterparts but do suffer from some problems. Juliet’s face was oddly luminescent most of the time, and Tom looks like he’s wearing a beard made from hay, but for the most part the actors are faithfully represented. Where things break down are for the characters not based on real people. Elliot walks around the island with a bemused expression most of the time—making it look like he finds his memory loss and dire situation mildly amusing, or that he’s a complete idiot and has no idea what’s going on around him. Non voice acting audio is done well, with the music of the show faithfully reproduced, helping to augment the spooky feel of the game

Elliot’s story weaves through the first two seasons of the show, and while it’s interesting to see certain scenes from a different angle, the fact that characters not present until the third season are in the game makes for a disjointed effort. Trying to tell the entire story as series of episodes is good in theory, however when you’re seeing a “previously on Lost” montage of something you did thirty seconds ago before you can move on to the next episode, it gets downright annoying. True to the show, the game’s ending has a twist, however it makes no sense in either the context of the show, or the context of the game making your 5 hour trek through the island a bit of a letdown.

In the end, Lost: Via Domus works for neither fans of the show, nor fans of adventure games. Folks who have been watching the show from the first episode won’t find any new answers about the island, and those used to a more robust adventure game experience will be put off by the boring, simplistic game play. At five hours, the game isn’t worth a purchase, especially for the 360 or PS3 version which retails for double the price of the PC version, as it has no replay value. Uncovering Elliot’s story can be interesting at times, but those looking for a fantastic Lost adventure would be better off taking the time to watch the first three seasons on DVD. This is one game that should get lost, and stay there.