An adventure game starring the female version of MacGyver.
Graphics: 9 (impressive however it's odd how they use photo realistic backdrops in some areas and drawings in another – it's not bad however just odd)
Sounds: 8 (everything is top notch save the voice acting)
Value: 4 (short as)
Tilt: 8 (caught me of guard of how good it is)
As you probably aware (or not), when it comes to PC gaming, I can be regarded as a gambler of sorts. I almost will try any game from any genre and as rare it can be, a hidden gem can pop up from time to time. When I first set my eyes on 'Lost in Time', my initial reaction was a decent graphical point and click adventure however being made by Coktel, I placed a cautious step forward. I didn't place my hopes too high however I do have a weakness for ships (as the starting screen illustrates a young lady waking up in a ship's hold). When completed the game, I was pleasantly surprised by its gameplay and visual / sound effects.
As mentioned briefly, you play a character named Doralice who wakes up in a ship's hold with absolutely no recollection of how she got there. And don't worry, this is not an amnesia story as she does remember practically everything else, just not how she got there. A beautiful start up screen as you slowly regain your vision of your surroundings and hearing the ship's creaks as it lashes with the waves. And if you happen to play any of Coktel's other games, the name Doralice also appears in 'Fascination'. I'm not sure if this is the same Doralice though however she does look remarkably similar. And if you're not sure why I mentioned this, take a look at 'Fascination' and you'll see why.
Anyways, the gameplay is in a style of point and click. Back then, it was one of the early starters of this type of adventure as this genre was still in the 'verb' context mode. It has a very clean interface where the functions of the game (e.g. like inventory / settings etc) are hidden on the top of the screen and only appear when the cursor hovers over it. This was also starting to become a trend for other Sierra Online games as well. And because of this, the game is entirely mouse driven (as some adventure games still requires the user to type as a response to an action).
Because it was billed an 'interactive story', this is what you get – real life actors performing your requests. This was also a trend during that time as this is to add realism when playing. And the 2D backdrops really works well with those 'real life' characters as visually it's quite impressive. For example: in the beginning, when you click on the 'hotspot – chair', the game zooms in on the chair for further investigation. This rarely happens for adventure games during this time. Also the game itself plays on first person view and considering the main character is a female, it broke some of the 'traditional adventure game' mould.
However, the game's graphics does look a little out of place in certain areas. I won't say which locations as it spoils the game however you have photo realistic backdrops in one area then suddenly have hand painted areas in another. This is not to say that look bad as they are beautifully rendered however it does look out of place, especially when you have 'real' people about.
The ambience sound quality is nothing short than brilliant as you can hear the seagull squawk or the ship creaking. When you move, you can hear your footsteps and even have different sounds for different grounds. So basically there was extreme care taken when it comes to ambience. This also applies to the delightful musical scores and depending upon what version you has (i.e. CD vs floppy), I was amazed both have different compositions (but naturally the CD version is a lot better). However the voice acting is pretty bad considering but heck, you can't blame them too much as they are French after all. I'm sure that if I have to speak in French, it would be nothing short of a joke.
Because it plays as an adventure game, expect to solve puzzles along the way. During this period, what annoys me a lot is not able to solve a puzzle because of my lack of pixel hunting skills and / or starting the game all over again because I lost an all-important item. In 'Lost in Time', it's pretty much forgiving for you to experiment however this is not to say it's a pushover. To give you a little hint, if you are a fan of MacGyver, think MacGyver. And because of this, all the puzzles are actually quite clever and logical save for that dreaded time puzzle – seriously, that placed a sour taste in my mouth and it's the only time I need to consult a walkthrough. Also another hint is to take note of the descriptions carefully as this will save you.
Depending upon your MacGyver skills dictates the length of time to complete. I'm sort of an adventure gamer guru and it took me around eight hours to complete (thank you very much timed puzzle). Yet there's no replay value once you complete the game however not many adventure games do. Also considering that this game was released with two versions (floppy / CD), the CD version is far superior as obviously it can carry a lot more data. In addition, CD released games are just beginning so it was good of them to vastly increase the quality (graphics, sounds and voice acting). And whilst the storyline was pretty decent (Back to the Future anyone), the ending was extremely cheesy as. Still, I enjoyed this game though.