A long, beautiful, creepy, and sometimes scary adventure.
The Lost Crown is the work of a single man, Mr. Jonathan Boakes, who is experienced in writing his own horror themed adventure games in almost complete loneliness and concentration (Dark Fall series). It shows. Never I have seen an adventure so absorbing and with so frightening moments.
The story, which mixes historical fiction with paranormal, is told in a rather linear manner, which is something that could annoy those adventure gamers who prefer more freedom, but that in this case, since the game is very long, it helps keeping the story well focused and paced. As in a good book, it starts slowly but builds steadily and draws you in till the end.
The game makes a very good use of graphics, even if it is technically dated. Screens are presented in an very stylish black & white, with coloured elements that stick out of it, like blood or flowers, and the result is excellent. It's dreamy, but feels real. There's plenty of haunting sounds and a gloomy musical score, to make the scary situations believable in the story's context and interesting to play. As a result, the game feels like a horror novel, which is probably the intent the author had in mind.
I'm convinced that when the overall result is so good, there is no need to get fixated on technicalities.
The game presentation is not perfect, the main character animation is stiff, and faces are not really expressive, but after the first hours of playing you won't really care. I just got used to it and enjoyed the rest.
Taking some inspiration from a classic British ghost novel (titled "A warning to the Curious") and the related small screen adaptation, Boakes has written an interesting story and crafted a beautiful world, which blends a very powerful imagery with his particular taste for paranormal investigation technology, that could easily make you lose many hours of sleep. Exactly what all adventure games should do.
Excellent.