The Lost City

The Lost City from Fire Maple Games is an attempt to bring back the excitement that Myst produced in the early 90s. I never really jumped on that bandwagon because I was busily studying and working away at in college at the time, but I did eventually try the game many years later. For whatever the reason it didn't really draw me in.

The Lost City is essentially a point-and-touch adventure game. In it you are returning to an island in search of the lost city in order to return an artifact that your grandmother passed on to you. Each location is essentially a static picture with minimal graphical effects such as perhaps a little running water or rain or a glowing orb. You navigate by tapping on the edges of each frame (i.e. tap the bottom to go backwards) or on things within the frame (i.e. a path leading off into the distance). As you do so a map is weaved together that you have access to via your backpack. Your backpack also contains a journal so as you discover things of interest (and the game auto adds such things to your backpack so you'll KNOW it's of interest) they are scribed for later viewing.

As for the puzzles, many of them rely on recognizing that this shape I found over here fits a puzzle over there. Or this object makes sense if it's use on that. The game requires good observational skills so that you don't miss anything in a location and reasonable skills at putting things together. On a personal note, I found the game to be pretty much perfectly attuned to my skill level whereas I recall Myst feeling a little too difficult for my lack of patience. Generally speaking, if I'm stuck on something for 5 minutes in a game like this then I move on to something else, however, The Lost City actually includes a built in hint system to prevent that from happening.

Graphically the still frames are very attractive and the audio is a nice accompaniment to the game. The map feature is nice as well because it makes it pretty each to ensure that you don't miss a location as unexplored locations will show as a line linking one location to nothingness; however that's also the case if something is preventing you from advancing such as quicksand. My only complaint with the map is that I think it would be nice if I could just tap on another location to get there versus having to execute the correct sequence of taps to march to said location.

True adventure games (not RPGs) are in short supply on Android so this is a nice addition and at $.99 it's s steal of a game. There's far more than a buck's worth of entertainment going on with this game. If you've looking from some adventure from the comfort of your couch then look no further than The Lost City. I've been pulled into this world and I suspect you will be too if you have the slightest interest in adventure games. 5/5 stars.