Lost Horizon (PC DVD)

Played on Windows Vista64.

Lost Horizon is your classic 3rd person point & click adventure game. Story + puzzles + inventory items = progress, yet LH is head & shoulders above allot of adventure games of this type that i have played over the past 7 years or so, and hopefully my review will reveal why. Set during the 1930's around a time where the Nazi's are searching for mythical weapons/objects to help them crush their enemies, you see where this is getting like Indiana Jones, yes ? well thats part of it anyway.

LH story starts off somewhere in Tibet around 1936, in a Monestery, where some British soliders(unkown to them) & the protectors of an unkown weapon, kept secret for so long, are under attack from Nazi forces, to gain control of this weapon & use it to crush their enemies. However things dont go quite to plan for the Countess, a German scientist in charge of gathering these mytical objects, as our games hero has something to say about that, his name...Fenton Paddock. Visualy Fenton looks almost identical to the iconic Indiana Jones character, minus the Fedora hat & whip of course, plus he is an ex-british solider. Kind of like the british version of Broken Swords lead Broken Sword: Trilogy (PC DVD), Geroge Stobbart, witty, cocky & yet a more charming character, along the lines of say 007's James Bond. Fenton, dismissed from the army years ago due to a tragic set of events, is now a smuggler(Hans solo type) who has found himself in toruble with the Hong Kong triads due to his new line of work. and after a lucky escape, is asked by his old commanding officer to go on the search for Fenton's best old friend, Richard. Who, as luck would have it, was at the Monestery at the time of the attack. So Fenton would do anything for his friend, and so off he sets into the unkown.

LH really does offer us a mixed bag of puzzles to solve, and in different ways. We have the basic inventory items to use & combine, which in this game are a nice assortment of items & ideas for using them(some new to me, and the biggest frozen leather strap EVER! ;-)). Some mini game puzzles, like putting broken items back togher, putting tiles in order & re-connecting wires correctly by following the spaghetti leads etc.. but one other thing, inkeeping with the Indiana Jones theme, is that there are a couple of interactive cut scenes early on, like for example an early car chase, where while the action is going on, we have to solve with objects at hand & switching between characters(switching objects between them as well), how to disable the pursuing car(not timed, but still good fun).The 2nd one was hilarious, but sadly that was it, as there werent anymore of these Interactive cut scenes in the game. Also note this switching between characters & objects between them also occurs during some parts of the regular game too.

Visualy the game goes for a Broken Sword, cartoonish look, but dont be put off, as it is done superbly with immense detail to the enviroments & objects. The sound & voice acting is very good & gives the game that extra bit of beliveability & fun, i did recognise some of the voice actors, and i am pretty sure one of them was from Dragon Age Origins(Fentons mechanic?). The game does offer us conversational options too, mostly pre set options where you just click your desired response/question, the 2nd or so conversation in the game did have 2 different outcomes depending on the approach style you took, but after that it was pretty much pre set selections, and no different outcomes that i noticed myself(maybe it was too time consuming & they removed the idea in the final game?).

Other things to note, the games manual seemed oddly chunky when i removed it form the box. The reason being is that the front & first few pages upto about halfway are run of the mill stuff about installing the game, gameplay & some game notes with nice, hand drawn, pictures of the games characters. Then if you flip the maual back to front, marked "Top Secret", it has a detailed walkthrough with pictures, of how to get through the first hour or so of the game, nice touch. Another nice touch was the games start menu, which is presented in the form of an 1930's style cinema, hovering the mouse over the main doors would be the option to start a new game, and the windows other game options. As well as cars moving back & fourth past the building, a nice touch i thought compared to the more straight forward approach. Anyway, it goes to show love, care & allot of thought have gone into this game all round.

In conclusion, i am finding Lost Horizon a real joy to play compared to some more hit & miss ones. It just gives you that feeling of you cannot wait to find out what happens next. The puzzles are a great mixture & really good all round, although a few objects can be too difficult to find imo, i am playing without game help, and i needed to turn it on at least once so far, and use a walkthrough one time too. And apart form that niggle, the game has run smoothly, its humour is a real treat along the way that will keep you smiling & bursting with laughter in some places. A little bonus at the end of the game after the credits, on the main menu you unlock the picture above the Cinema. You can watch how the game looked while in production back in 2008, and the different ideas for the characters they had, but also, we can play some unseen parts of the game from Kim's view(although this bonus is in German sadly). There is also a bonus mini puzzle to solve & you can replay the final scene of the game again if you want. A great adventure, highly reccomended.

It''s good to see that adventure gaming isn't dead yet. This game is very good - interesting story, simple controls and puzzles that actually make sense. When you combine inventory items, it's never a random "combine item A with every other item because I'm at my wits' end" type of deal - you know why you are combining item A with time B. Having said that, it does tend to make the puzzles somewhat easy and you find yourself drifting along without being challenged in any way.

Graphically, Lost Horizon doesn't break any boundaries but it's pleasant to look at, and on the whole, the voice acting is performed well.

I would recommend this to fans of the point and click adventure genre. I also found that it took elements from the Indiana Jones movies (Raiders of the Lost Ark in particular) and the story/some scenes were reminiscent of the old Sierra/Dynamix game 'Heart of China.' Worth a look!

If you liked Broken Sword, Secret Files, Runaway or similar adventure games, you should like this game.

Graphics are excellent, the controls, inventory system and save options are easy to use and the storyline is good, with various bad bods to outwit.

Voice acting is good, with none of the irritating mannerisms of some of the 'Secret Files' characters. Puzzles and tasks are reasonably straightforward and use inventory items and logic/commonsense, with only the occasional 'huh??' solution. The last act has a cool time-travel feature which is a nice addition to the game play and there are some nice Easter Eggs when you complete the game.

I enjoyed this very much and it runs fine on Windows 7. It was good value too.