Lost In Blue - Second Play

Since my last reported journeys on the desert island simulator that is Konami’s Lost in Blue I haven’t progressed as far as I wish I had. Sure, I’ve now got to the far side of the island – a task which requires more fishing and foraging than I’d really care for at the moment – and I’ve spotted the first signs of actual wildlife living on the island, but I haven’t really gone anywhere new within the game. Regrettably, this is mostly due to what I consider to be poor game design in the middle of the adventure. And I mean really bad game design because the game has incorporated my most hated game feature in order to slow down players and make the game last longer. Yep, that’s right, its Nonsensical Block-Pushing Maze Time!

On the far side of the island, for reasons I won’t spoil, the game suddenly dilapidates into the type of annoying puzzle-game that everyone decides they don’t want to play. Instead of harvesting carrots and potatoes, collecting firewood and discovering new tools to make, the game suddenly becomes about pushing massive stone blocks around on oddly shaped grids to make pathways. Oh, and since you can only push the blocks, never pull them back, it requires you to leave a room and then re-enter if you make a mistake as doing so will miraculously restore the stone blocks to their original positions. In any other game this type of puzzle could pass for mildly annoying as you figured your way through slowly, but in Lost in Blue – a game where you will die if you run out of stamina, which runs even when you stand still – it becomes a classic example of crippling game design, ramping up the difficulty to insane levels. This is how I was forced to approach the problem:

1. Spend 2 days fishing and foraging for supplies. One set for me, one set for Skye who will stay behind.
2. Spend 2 days gathering enough water and firewood to support Skye for the 2-3 days I will be gone.
3. Hike over the island taking all the shortcuts I can.
4. Short on stamina, spend a day of gametime trying to solve each of the block puzzles before returning home on the brink of death.
5. Spend a day recuperating.
6. Repeat.

Its hardly rocket science to know that forcing a player to go through the same repetitive tasks for a number of days is not an effective game experience. Not only that, but the mundane actually takes a substantial amount of time here and it was incredibly difficult for me not to scream in frustration and snap my fragile DS lite in my fingertips.

I’m ashamed to admit that I, after spending a whole weeks worth of play stuck on one particular block puzzle, resorted to using a walkthrough to bypass it. It was only after this point that I learned the game had more annoyances to offer me, namely when my girlfriend found out (by mistake) how to trigger the idea of making a bow and arrow. Thus began another screamingly frustrating part of the game as I run up to animals only to have them disappear before I can get my bow out. I’ve only spent a few hours trying my hand at this hunting business, but unfortunately I can’t really progress until I have mastered it as I need the resources gained from slaughtering in order to advance. I’m faced with the grim prospect of spending yet more hours out on the grasslands hunting wabbits with my ineffectual arrows. In fact, the one time I did managed to hit something it simply charged at me and knocked me out.

Ugh.

I will, of course, continue to play the game and will plow through as best I can - reporting as I go. It is part of our work ethic here though to give our readers a view of the game as a whole and, unfortunately, this part of the game is less than that which went before it and I feel completely deflated by the game if I’m honest. The opening held such promise and the starting chapters were filled with innovative gameplay and subtle design niceties such as tides and storms. While I shall press forward, hoping that the end-game is kinder to me, the middle of the game has proven to be the gaming equivalent of having your teeth smashed out. By massive stone blocks.