In case you're late to the party, I've been chatting with Zap2It's own Andy Grieser about our impressions of the Lost videogame Via Domus. The game, structured in seven episodes (complete with "Previously on Lost..." at the beginning of each of them) is a mixed bag to say the least, with some amazing highs and lows that would make Flo Rida stand up and take notice.

Yesterday we covered the first three chapters of the game. Today, we look at the last four. Take it away, us!

Chapter 4

Ryan: Andy, It's everyone's favorite game, "Follow That Compass!" Two huge problems in this section: 1) we're led to believe that after blowing open the hatch, everyone sorta went back to the beach, uninterested in what they found, and 2) that someone would post a series of compass directions on trees in the middle of a wooded area populated by Others packin' heat. I'm sure you breezed through this section, but I was never an Eagle Scout, and kept getting the dreaded, "I've gotta get my bearings!" line spoken by Elliot as I dodged enemy fire.

Upon arriving at the Swan, you're sent immediately back to the beach, since Elliot can't remember his name and prove he's not another Ethan Rom. Really loved retracing my steps only to have a conversation I could have had before leaving the beach in the first place. Fantastic. Thanks, linear gameplay!

But once we get into the Swan, things get good. Really good. The reconstruction of the Swan is pretty flawless, and hearing the counter start beeping at four minutes was incredibly unnerving and immersive. Pushing the button was oddly compelling, and the three fuse puzzles were difficult but not overly so. Moreover, the isolation felt while wandering around, trying to let Sayid and Jack into the Swan, really gave a sense of what it must have been like for Desmond for all those months. As beautiful as the jungle-scapes are in the game, Via Domus truly shines when letting us experience the various creepy edifices left behind by the Dharma Initiative.

Andy: I totally agree about the atmosphere in the Swan. But first, the compass directions in the jungle: I was never any sort of Scout, and my strategy here was to flail about wildly in the jungle until I chanced across signs. That's probably more my fault than the game's.

The Swan is one of this game's genius moments, and it's so good to hear you say so as well. I envy those who bought this game on PC, because the numbers are ridiculously difficult to punch in using a wireless XBox 360 controller. Once done, though, I loved poking around what you pegged as a faithful rendition of the hatch. As usual, I wanted more interaction -- let me play backgammon or pump iron or listen to some of the music! -- but that's picking nits. Once again, kudos to the location designers. I have to say, this sequence and the ending were the high points of the game for me. Unfortunately, Jack and Sayid spoil the party soon enough.

Chapter 5

Ryan: This chapter actually starts out with possibly my favorite moment in the game. It's a small moment, pretty unimportant in the grand scheme of the game, but gave me a jolt all the same. Sadly, it all goes downhill from there, as getting released by Kate was way too easy. At this point in the game, I started to wonder how Kate ever had time to have a love triangle with Sawyer and Jack, in that Via Domus would have you believe she spent the majority of the first two seasons talking with Elliot.

Chapter 5 also had the single most ridiculous sequence I played during the entire game. I closed the proper blast door, turned on all the UV lights, and went to admire my handiwork. And there, in the creepy blue and red light, adjacent to the Blast Door Map, acting like this was the most boring thing ever, was Kate! She couldn't be bothered to notice she was bathed in blacklight, nor that an insanely detailed map of other hatches existed just behind her. Just killed me. Sadly, there was no "Hey, Kate, look behind you!" prompt in the dialogue.

I will confess it took me longer than it should have to find the door to the magnetic room. Course, you need dynamite to blow it up, so off to the Black Rock I went (avoiding Smokey once again). And thanks to Other in the Treehouse, I barely made it. Luckily, I'd traded Charlie two bottles of water and a dime bag of heroin for a gun while at the beach. (OK, kidding about the heroin, though being able to collect Virgin Mary statues for trading would have been awesome.)

Walking back with the dynamite while avoiding Smokey may have been the single most annoying gameplay in Via Domus. Not only are you literally retracing your steps (AGAIN!), but you now are unable to run, lest you turn into Artz Part 2. I recognize this game play decision was meant to enhance the tension, but it just comes off like Elliot really, really has to go to the bathroom.

But I've rambled on enough: what did you make of this chapter, Andy? I'm especially interested in what you thought of the contents of the magnetic room.

Andy: Ryan, you're making like Darlton and not actually telling us what your favorite moment was. I have to know! And don't make me wait until the last five minutes of this article. Meanwhile, I'm ashamed to say I missed the map behind Kate.

By contrast, Chapter 5 was my least favorite of the entire game. As you touched on, the trip back to Black Rock involves avoiding Smokey... but leaving a banyan tree shelter swings the camera toward Elliott, and from what I could tell the game dropped you in a set place instead of whatever direction you might have been looking from inside the tree. More than once I was pounded by Smokey while trying to swing the camera around. As you say, the trip back involves carrying dynamite, which means you can only run for a few seconds at a time. I died so often here that I began intentionally timing my explosive deaths to take Smokey down too. Didn't work. Honestly, why play tested this chapter? Once again, luck won the day: I ran screaming in random directions until finding the flag that warped Elliot to the next area.

After all that frustration, I admit to only giving the generator -- object of so much speculation in the series, so a shame this isn't canon -- a cursory glance before shutting it down. Did I miss much? The chapter ends with an OtherIM, a supernatural spooky moment in the original series that I forgot, and that we now know was just Ben menacing Michael while sitting in his boxers in his comfortable Barracks bungalow eating Cheet-Os and, presumably, playing World of Warcraft.

Chapter 6

Ryan: Oh man, Andy, I love the idea of Ben playing WoW at the Flame. He would level up by emotionally manipulating the incoming horde of orcs to lay down their weapons and joint his faction. Also, my fave moment occurs when Elliot uses his lighter at 1:26 in the first clip above.

Chapter 6, you'll remember, starts off with the first real "chase" sequence of the game, as Elliot hauls it to the sonic fence while Smokey gives chase. One thing we learned is that Elliot is sloooooooooooow in getting up, should he trip on a branch or hit his head on a low-hanging tree. Let's just say he'd end up in the Gauntlet pretty quickly if he ever landed on MTV's Real World/Road Rules Challenge.

Smokey then comes face-to-face with Elliot, and does what it did to Eko first time around: scans him, then slinks away. I only mention it as it potentially points to the ending. I can't be sure, but it's possibly related. A super-magnetized Elliot could have more than a passing relation to Desmond, Faraday or Minkowksi, no? (I'm thinking too much about this again, aren't I?)

In any case, Juliet lets Elliot through the sonic fence, and he immediately heads into...The Flame. Yea, I'm crying foul with the geographical placement of this hatch. Heck, half of the Dharma hatches seemingly exist inside the Barracks, from what I can tell. I'm not even going to get mad about this, as moving through the underground tunnels felt appropriately claustrophobic, and when all was said and done, Elliot gets to kill the faux Jason Statham, right before once again getting knocked out by someone in his nearby vicinity. If there were a Via Domus drinking game that involved, "Drink every time Elliot gets knocked unconscious," you'd be in a coma long before this chapter played out.

Most intriguing about this chapter? The flashback involving none other than Thomas Mittelwerk, of "The Lost Experience" fame. I was excited about his transaction of sarin gas with the head baddie (interested in ESP, hmmmm) until I remembered that this is the same game that put the Flame next to the barracks and assigned Charlie the role of Island Arms Dealer, and decided to not explore further conspiracy theories.

Andy: Ryan, you have no idea how enraged I was, having been killed by Smokey so often, when our favorite amorphous mass simply left Elliot alone. It's not because he's magnetized; slip more than once during that run and Smokey will gladly crush Elliot. Still, you're right that the Flame's corridors were nicely dark and dank and spooky. Unlike the caves, though, here you're unlikely to be eaten by a grue. In comparison, the faux Jason Statham showdown was shockingly abrupt -- one shot and he's down, and so much for all that menace. I'm not asking for Adolf Hitler in a mecha suit a la Wolfenstein 3D, but quick resolutions like that one forced me while playing to think about how wildly inconsistent the gameplay was.

Most games ramp, of course, gradually training the player to win while raising the stakes. Other than the fuse games, Via Domus never increased the difficulty of its minigames. The whole affair feels rushed, and so a character positioned as a Big Bad is taken down with zero fanfare. On a larger scale, it's representative of the overall lack of actual stuff to do. You can bitch about hunt-the-wumpus and delivery-boy quests, but at least they keep players busy. Here it's like the developers wanted me to just get the damn thing over with already.

I say this because the next chapter actually has decent gameplay, plus gets us closer to that amazing ending. And so I hand it back off to you...

Chapter 7

Ryan: I have to say, as impressive as the Swan was in this game, the Hydra trumps it. I think this has something to do with the fact that the show explored nearly every inch of the Swan, whereas the full layout of the Hydra always remain shrouded until now.

Andy: Well, we've made it to the end. And by the end, I mean a chapter that has more actual gameplay than the rest. In Hydra alone, we get one final flashback (and yes, Elliot's as flawed as our regular Lost favorites) plus some IQ tests and fuse games. The Dharma shark was a nice touch, and if the game were canon I'd wonder at its seemingly cyborg appearance.

Ryan: A shark with frickin' laser beams attached to its head? Yea, I'd be down with that as well. Unfortunately, I didn't spend a terribly amount of time due to the fact that I had to go and collect a few dozen more fuses to work my way out of the Hydra Station. When the full history of the Dharma Initiative is written, I think we'll see that carelessness with fuses led to its downfall, even more than the Purge.

Andy: And here's a switch, Ryan. I've been advocating all along for busywork, but here it doesn't work. Getting Jack to go to the Black Rock is as easy as asking. Why not just warp us there? Is it to buy ammo from Sawyer -- surely his lack of any other buyable items means a boss fight is ahead, right? Nope. The final showdown requires exactly one bullet. I have to admit, I spent lots of time "failing" that one just to see what happened to the other Losties. Can you tell I'm trying not to spoil?

Ryan: Strangely enough, the whole "Jack hates Elliot throughout the entire game, yet all but packs Elliot's backpack for him before heading to the Black Rock" felt oddly consistent with some of the choices made by the characters in the show. And yes, like you, I intentionally failed during the final showdown, and giggled waaaay too much during each failed iteration. I think someday I'll post a YouTube clip of my failings set to some music from The Benny Hill Show.

Andy: One more footrace and we have our ending and... wow. I will spoil here: The final scene of Oceanic 815 breaking up over Elliot in the boat, and then his awakening on the beach with Lisa alive and well, has massive implications. We already know Des changed some of the past, though I could swear he was warned that the universe self-corrects. Now here's a game I want to play, but of course Via Domus is over.

I can't recommend Via Domus as a game, for sure. It's too thin, too arbitrary in some places, too bugged in others. I can recommend it to Lost fans who want to experience the Swan firsthand, or know what it's like to be stalked by Smokey. How about you, Ryan? And how 'bout that ending?

Ryan: I like your differentiation between "experience" and "game." I'd recommend based on the former, not the latter, as well. As for the ending: apparently, Damon came up with this himself. Which SHOULD mean hours of analysis, looking into just why Elliot ends up back on the beach after the crash with a now-alive Lisa. And yet, so many things within Via Domus fly in the face of canon that I'm hard pressed to really get excited about this twist ending.

Oh, who am I kidding? I've been thinking about this for days. And I'll let you know what I think it means...tomorrow. In the meantime, let's show the folks at home what we're talking about.

Pretty interesting, eh, denizens of the internet? Give us your best theories as to the meaning of that surprise ending, along with anything you noted of interest either by playing the game or watching the provided clips.

Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude.

Comments

Nice recap. Okay, I have three theories about the ending.

1) The obvious one that Elliot was affected by purple sky and had the perfect mix of regret and opportunity for the Island to "transport" him back to right after the crash and undo the killing of Lisa. Of course, this opens up some problems as well since we are to assume that Elliot only got on the first flight out of Australia because he was being chased by bald-baddie. If he wasn't being chased, how did he and Lisa end up on this plane? Also, how the hell did Locke get from the dock to the hatch in that amount of time? Are we to believe that Elliot hung around the dock to give Locke enough time to get back?

2) Ok, much more intriguing possibility is that Elliot actually died when he was hit by the dynamite shrapnel and everything afterwards was his sub-conscious mind coming to terms with his death by creating a scenario where he makes the better choice of saving Lisa's life. Kind of like an auto-restore program that lets you die in peace.

3) When Elliot was in the room spying on the big baddie in his flashback, he had his own flash-forward that detailed the consequences of his actions (kind of like "Devil's Advocate").

I don't really know. None of these fit perfectly but this is all I can come up with.

Do you guys think we might get a sequel to the game if it sells well? Would it follow Elliot's new story post-purple sky (since we already went through the first two seasons with old-Elliot)?

Blue Sean | Mar 4, 2008 7:33:24 PM | #

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I'm with Ryan on this one, don't buy the game, just rent it. --Blue Sean/

Good advice in another sense: Don't "buy" the ending (as canon), just "rent" it (that is, momentarily enjoy it as an attempt at humor).

At least that was my reaction: the second I saw (in the youtube clip) the plane breaking up overhead I started laughing at loud at what I assumed was a good joke on Lindelof's part. (Better than most of his podcast or Lost TV Special jokes I might add.)

I think Lindelof is just messin' with ya all. (I haven't played a video game since the 70s.) He knows they really can't end the real show that way (or his life wouldn't be worth a plug nickel), but I'm sure it's one of the ways, when they're getting punchy in the writers room, that say "hey, wouldn't it be funny if we ended the show by..."

In any case, thanks for the review of the game (and for posting the finale video), so I don't have to feel like I'm missing much by not playing it.

By the way, I guess I've always assumed (at least since the end of third season if not before) that the show would end with Jack and Kate and several more going back to the island and deciding to live there permanently as the new live-in protectors of the island.

Regarding the question of one's favorite episodes:

1) "Psalm 23"
2) "Walkabout"
3) "The Constant"

Although my first choice was sullied somewhat by the third-season episode wherein Eko is killed, since that episode overtly steals major footage from "Psalm" (I believe the only episode to do that) in an attempt to make people not realize just how poor (and short) an episode the latter one really is.

But that third-season episode was not written by the prime writers, so I dismiss it just as I do the episode about Jack's tatoo, the Tales from the Crypt episode, and (to a lesser extent) "Eggtown". (As I've said before, I wish Carlton and Damen would keep a closer reign on these tertiary writers.)

"concerned" (only slightly) | Mar 5, 2008 4:26:23 AM | #

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Okay, I've only glanced the first part of this article and am trying to avert my eyes away from ending spoilers.

I love love LOVED the Reactor Core! Andy's wrong about it not being canon. It definitely is canon and has been said so in numerous interviews with the game producers and team Darlton. All the actual locations themselves do exist on the Island.

Anyways, for me, it was such a huge rush seeing it for the first time. I've been waiting so very long for that experience and it was even better than I thought it would be. The attention to detail, from the glass shards on the floor that would shake, to the overhead lights that were all pulled toward the toppled magnet, to the rock & concrete landslide blocking the entrance to the rest of the station, to the similar geodome architecture, to the distinctive sound of the magnet itself was pitch perfect!

I can see that powering down the reactor is not canon, for sure, since it blows up in the show. Regardless, the room itself and what's in it is real and I was giddy as a schoolgirl discovering it.

Another awesome thing about the Swan was the second layer to the blast door map. While most of it just fills in stuff we already know, the location of the Pala Ferry, the Hydra and Looking Glass, there were some other neat markings that made me interested (spoilers below)...

1)k. behaving strangely - can´t trust - have to watch out
2)Barracks - hostile controlled
3)convinced island is hydra - tunnel bunker unable to access
4)cables running offshore - possible looking glass
5)possible orchid? (referring to the scratched out station)

Very cool stuff! I'm at the Flame right now and should hopefully finish the game tonight.

Jeff | Mar 5, 2008 6:55:05 AM | #

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Concerned- I see where you are coming from about "renting" the ending. It's not like I really have anything better to do, so I might as well analyze the ending just to see if it can relate back. :)

Jeff- Where did you hear that the locations were all canon? I thought there were only canonical generally but the specifics of them were up to the writer's of the game.

Blue Sean | Mar 5, 2008 7:12:50 AM | #

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Blue, I've read several interviews and the Making of the Video Game featurette on the Season 3 DVD confirms these places do in fact exist on the Island. Not only that, but when it comes to the stations, the game producers were given full access by ABC to each station's official blueprints.

Jeff | Mar 5, 2008 7:31:25 AM | #

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See, this is where Damon making the blanket statement that the game is not canon in a random interview actually hurts Lost. He should have been more specific.

I'm 99.9% sure what's canon is the locations, the landmarks, the Island and the smoke monster. What's not canon is Elliot, his story & backstory and his interaction with the other characters and interaction with the places he goes.

Jeff | Mar 5, 2008 7:37:44 AM | #

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Jeff, I meant to mention this for Chapter 6, but the atmospheric graphics are top-notch. Once I passed the sonic fence, I stood and just watched the grass move in the breeze... utterly fantastic. And this is coming from someone who played Far Cry and Crysis on a top-end rig.

I wish the gameplay aspects had been as beautifully done as the locations.

Andy | Mar 5, 2008 7:42:16 AM | #

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Jeff: But it's not even that simple, as while the Flame might be architecturally accurate, it's not in the correct place on the Island! It's hard to extrapolate so-called "canon" elements if they aren't consistent with the topography of the show. (I'm looking at you, mysteriously appearing waterfall near the Swan that exists in the game but not in the show.)

Ryan | Mar 5, 2008 7:47:43 AM | #

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Agreed, Andy. I also loved the way they made it feel cinematic by not having any kind of HUD. I'm running it on a high end machine with all the settings on high and it's one of the most gorgeous games I've ever played (though I haven't yet played COD4 or Crysis).

Jeff | Mar 5, 2008 7:48:09 AM | #

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I'll agree with you about the topography for sure, Ryan. Like, I had no idea the DHARMA van was in the Dark Territory. I have a feeling a lot of this is due to the restrictions of this being a video game and having to have things close to each other geographically for tighter gameplay. Regardless though, at the very least the interiors/architecture are official.

Jeff | Mar 5, 2008 7:51:20 AM | #

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Two more things about the Dark Territory that I don't know what to make of:

1) The Other who seemed shocked to find a smoke monster in his area. I always assumed the Others learned to walk silently in the jungle to avoid it.

2) My compass was batty in the dark territory, but not in other areas of the Island. Made me wonder if there was a connection between magnetism, the monster, and the incident in the Swan.

Ryan | Mar 5, 2008 8:06:44 AM | #

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Hmm. I didn't see or hear that Other.

I think the compass was batty because you still hadn't powered down the reactor at that point.

Jeff | Mar 5, 2008 8:20:21 AM | #

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Jeff: there's a whole cut scene in Episode 2 that shows the Other getting killed by Smokey.

I also don't remember ever powering down the reactor. Maybe I just skipped this part, but I was pretty sure you couldn't do this. But then again, I didn't complete every task in the game to 100%.

Ryan | Mar 5, 2008 8:27:06 AM | #

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Umm, don't you have to power down the reactor in order to finish the level? It's what you do right before you get the OtherIM.

Haha, I totally thought that Other was actually Squinty McGee. My bad!

Jeff | Mar 5, 2008 9:02:05 AM | #

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Jeff: maybe I did, and just forgot because I was insanely confused how, amidst all this wreckage caused by something akin to an EMP, this one tiny little computer worked just dandy.

"Squinty McGee"? Is this what you all call me behind my back?

Ryan | Mar 5, 2008 9:07:09 AM | #

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LOL, I meant faux Jason Statham, but I can call you that too, if you'd like :)

It was odd that there was a cute little terminal sitting there in working order, but considering it was hardwired just like the Swan computer, I didn't really think about it.

Jeff | Mar 5, 2008 9:15:00 AM | #

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Did you guys uncover any of the hidden stations?

Jeff | Mar 5, 2008 11:34:51 AM | #

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I just realized I played Chapter 6 without looking for the Pearl station warp :/

Jeff | Mar 5, 2008 11:39:10 AM | #

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Jeff- What hidden stations? To be honest, I didn't spend a lot of time exploring, I just went with the story to see how it all turned out. After getting to the end, I was too frustrated with the gameplay to try and go back and discover things.

Blue Sean | Mar 5, 2008 12:24:00 PM | #

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Understandable. I'm being pretty meticulous. It's possible to go to the Pearl and the Staff in the game.

Jeff | Mar 5, 2008 12:51:59 PM | #

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Hey, someone's gotta cover that stuff. Let me know if you found something interesting, I already returned it to BlockBuster.

:)

Blue Sean | Mar 5, 2008 12:54:44 PM | #

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A grue??? Nice Zork reference. Very nicely done.

AdSlinger | Mar 5, 2008 1:01:49 PM | #

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Tell ya what, Blue. Once I finish the game I'll go back to those episodes and check out the stations. Probably not a ton to see, but I am curious as to the layout of each station.

Jeff | Mar 5, 2008 1:09:53 PM | #

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I like being called 'Blue'. It makes me feel like a rugged cowboy.

Blue Sean | Mar 5, 2008 1:31:13 PM | #

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"I can see Blue. He's... glorious!"

Jeff | Mar 5, 2008 1:36:22 PM | #

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