Adventure Gamers - Forums

Lost Horizon 2 turned out such a mixed bag. I could only guess they were making final touches to the gameplay when the publisher told them it’s not modern enough and needs more variety and cinematic stuff like in Uncharted. So they threw away the old engine, half of the puzzles along with the storyline and chaotically added all sort of mechanics they saw in other games. As a result LH2 looks rushed and unpolished. There’s a serious lack of interesting locations, cutscenes are poorly directed, animation is minimalistic and often broken, and so are the new features, like a hand simulator reminiscent of Myst 4 when we open a door or turn a switch by dragging mouse. It activates randomly (90% of actions are still performed by a simple click) and has a very alien feel as the game switches from third person to the buggy first person mode.

There are stealth and timed sequences now, with a ticking clock and a death message if we fail, also very random, unexciting and buggy. I once failed and clicked on an item while the death message was playing, it suddenly disappeared along with the clock and I finished the sequence in peace. They even tried adding QTE at one point, but it worked so badly they never returned to it again. There is also an item combinator mode borrowed from Mysterious Island and other Kheops games and used to solve maybe 4 puzzles in the whole game, like combining items in inventory wasn’t fun enough. Inventory, on the other hand, became far less responsive despite it grows so fast that we soon end up with a huge reel of items, and almost half of them are red herrings! So many stillborn ideas.

If LH1 was adventure gamer’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, then LH2 is The Crystal Skull, it’s similarly frustrating and unamusing, the story plays like a chain of unconnected events, and the fact that it takes place 20 years after it’s predecessor makes it even worse: instead of the 30 y.o. adventerious daredevil we now play as a beaten MI6 superagent in his 50s who only wants to be a good father for his grown-up daughter. There are boring Mossad and Soviet agents all over the place, a trip to a Scandinavian graveyard, a maze-like German bunker and the Red Square with a secret KGB laboratory inside the Lenin’s mausoleum, while almost every chapter ends with someone shooting someone in the head, because headshots add to the cool factor.

The last part that takes place around Yggdrasil (a sacred tree from the Norse mythology) was too much for me. The game suddenly decided it wasn’t brutal enough, forgot all those proud innovations and turned into a tedious Myst clone mixed with inventory puzzles, Tunguska-style. I gave up after being forced to make a bow from a pair of jeans, a wet stick and a gun cleaning metal rod (and not even in the combinator mode!) and watched the rest on Youtube. LH2 has its moments, especially during the 2nd chapter that takes place in Germany and plays more or less like the first game, but it fails even as a proper sequel. That elderly tired man is not the Fenton Paddock I once knew.

I finished Disco Elysium.
It’s definitely a unique game. Before playing it I had no idea what it was about so everything was a surprise, but especially what surprised me the most was not so much the loaded dialogues or even the decadent atmosphere but the deeply political plot, I don’t think I’ve ever played a game like this before.

The freedom we have to adopt a political ideology and base our dialogue and responses on that basis. It encourages us to think and reflect on the world, the world in which the character moves is not just a background, a lifeless stage, it is a character in itself. And understanding it is part of the game. Whether or not that has an impact on the ending we get I really don’t know. But there is no hero, and I love that.

It is not only about solving the murder case, but this became almost secondary in my case and I found myself interested in understanding what lies behind Revachol and the consequences of its decadence and misery. All this without leaving aside the human aspect and the own existential confusion of the character.

I got an ending that maybe wasn’t the one I would have liked (Kim was shot and I had to recruit Cuno.), or rather it didn’t convince me completely but it was ok. At one point I thought about loading an old game to get a different outcome with which I felt more comfortable but then I gave up that idea and I preferred to continue/live with the “mistakes” I made. I’m not going to say it’s an excellent game but I enjoyed it, of that I have no doubt.

The Forgotten City

I’m a bit sorry I didn’t play this before the top 100 poll, because it might well have made my list. I didn’t expect to love the time-travel plot which was complicated and long-winded for my tastes, but I’m aware others will adore it. Where the game excels is the characters, which are some of the most fleshed-out, lived-in and relatable I’ve seen in a game. The voice acting is impeccable and the animation is top notch, right down to the facial expressions and mouth movements. The other area I appreciated was the historical research which went into it. I always want to learn something from the games I play, and I sure learned a few things here. The story’s background is convincing enough that I might have expected scholarly books to be written on some of the ground the game covers. Obviously it’s a work of fiction, but the parts that aren’t and the more speculative aspects, for someone like me with no archaeological background, are impressive. It also has one of the most satisfying finales I’ve played. Highly recommended.

Doom - 29 July 2022 10:12 PM

Lost Horizon 2 turned out such a mixed bag.

Definitely agree with this. I loved the first game and in all honesty had seen that the sequel had received a very mixed reaction from fans. The highlight for me was the puzzle involving paintings and dates, very clever and satisfying to solve, but the rest mostly felt like a made-for-TV movie with the odd gameplay section thrown in, sometimes seemingly at random. I haven’t quite finished it but your description of some of the end sequence puzzles make me hesitate to go and try to do the last bit!!

Good for you, danigar. Yes, an amazing, emotional, and sometimes even scary experience. In my top ten.

danigar - 30 August 2022 07:35 PM

Speaking of loops I just finished Outer Wilds. I tried it around the time it came out following all the reviews and recommendations but for some reason I couldn’t get into it. I think the feeling of having to rush while exploring put me off

That’s what killed Outer Wilds for me too. I really appreciated the relaxed feel of Forgotten City and having as much time as I needed to investigate.

(Except for one of the paths where I stole the golden bow, but the game warned me about that and it wasn’t at all necessary to complete the game. I should have listened.)

Sam Barlow is great at telling stories with unexpected twists and I enjoy his novel gameplay mechanics very much. I thought I had Immortality wishlisted but no. I forgot all about it, so thanks for reminding me. I immediately bought it and played it for an hour. Loving it so far.

Loved his previous games, didn’t even know about Immortality until now. Curious why you say it’s horror SamandMax, the Steam page just mentions supernatural themes. Without revealing too much, is it particularly strong/disturbing stuff? There are a few people on the discussions saying there’s some very creepy scenes, which might be a dealbreaker for me.