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As much as games try to, there are few titles that are truly able to chill you to the core of your soul. Games that makes you want to turn off the lights and stop playing, but are so good that it is impossible to not continue forward and see what the designers have planned for you next. Capcom’s original Resident Evil was excellent at this, and more recently, Irrational Games was able to update Warren Spector’s classic System Shock with a sequel that introduced a brand-new kind of first person horror. With the System Shock license out of their hands, Irrational Games has turned to the raw power of the PlayStation 2 to bring a tale of terror to a wider, more diverse audience of gamers, but with even more fervor than any of their previous efforts. From a glance, it seems apparent that The Lost is based around a generic one-person-versus-evil-world-threatening demon setting, but Irrational Games is far too creative for something that generic. Your character, Amanda, has slowly been losing the already small grip she has on her life. A medical student, waitress and young mother all wrapped into a single enigma, Amanda has nearly been disowned by the parents who gave her life and the father of her child has run off without a trace, leaving her and her daughter to survive in the harsh world on their own. Just as the last straw to break the camel’s back is about to fall onto Amanda, a mysterious figure appears out of the darkness, offering Amanda an “alternative” out of the dreadful life she has been thus far living. What she doesn’t realize, however, are the dire consequences for accepting the terms of the man’s offer.
Described as Zelda meets Resident Evil, don’t expect The Lost to be an exploratory walk in the park where the most difficult obstacle is finding the next area to click on an item; there will be just as much, if not more action sequences in The Lost compared the puzzle and adventure elements. Gamers will have plenty of items that Amanda will have to use to defend her and attack the evils that inhabit the nine worlds of The Lost’s rendition of hell, including over 70 useable weapons, shields, spells and more. Additionally, there will be special items (such as the Widow’s Tail, Nettles and Image of the Damned) that will have unique uses during different situations throughout the game. Blatantly apparent from the screen shots that have been released, Irrational Games is harnessing the power of the PlayStation 2 in ways that only top-notch teams at Konami and Namco can rival. Thanks to Monolith’s LithTech engine, Irrational Games has been able to concentrate more on tweaking the engine to working for their specific needs and developing the actual content of the game than 6 months or more to create an engine that would likely not end up quite as good. What this has resulted in are enormously detailed environments that aren’t as much full of life (since this is hell, after all) as they are deeply foreboding. None of the game’s character models are shaping up all that shabby, either; the main character, Amanda, shows a wide range of emotions in her facial expressions, and the enemies she comes up against look pretty damn intimidating! What else is there to expect from The Lost? Plenty! Read on to find out more… - First PS2 Survival Horror game with an object rich, 3-D environment that includes both inside and outside worlds.
- A truly bone-chilling experience with eerie music, unmatched 3-D environments, and the unique death sequences that put you in the “shoes of the damned.”
- Play as 5 interchangeable characters throughout the game: Amanda, Instinct, Corruption, Shadow, and Light.
- The Lost gives the player total control of both the camera and the development of his character's skills.
- Full range of movement in a world of unprecedented detail.
- 3rd person perspective providing insight into what is happening to your character.
- Rich indoor/outdoor environments utilizing the PS2's advanced rendering capabilities.
There’s not a single person who can claim to not have been scared out of their wits when the monkeys started appearing in System Shock 2, and if Irrational Games can pull off the same effect with The Lost, gamers will be for an experience they’ll never forget.
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