Adventure Game Studio

Community => Adventure Related Talk & Chat => Topic started by: CaptainD on Mon 02/07/2012 12:45:15

Title: Lost Horizon - any other fans out there?
Post by: CaptainD on Mon 02/07/2012 12:45:15
I've seen very little mentioned anywhere about Deep Silver's game Lost Horizon.  I just wondered if anyone else on the boards here are fans of the game - to me they got pretty much everything right about the game (the only criticism I could really level at it is that's it's a bit too easy); Secret Files 1 & 2 had major faults (illogical puzzles, terrible voice acting - at least in the English version), but both of these were corrected in Lost Horizon.  I have to admit that the main character who seemed like a cross between Indiana Jones and Jake Cutter did appeal to me too!

So, yeah... anyone else love it (or not)?  I just feel it's a shame that this game (to me definitely one of the best adventure games in the 21st century) seems to have gone largely unnoticed.

Title: Re: Lost Horizon - any other fans out there?
Post by: ThreeOhFour on Mon 02/07/2012 12:54:35
This is one of those games I mean to get and play but I have so many other games to play as well CaptainD! You can't expect me to play every game all at once, can you?

Stop looking at me like that, CaptainD. I will play it! Just not right now. :(
Title: Re: Lost Horizon - any other fans out there?
Post by: HandsFree on Mon 02/07/2012 14:09:59
To be honest I liked the Secret Files games much better.
With Lost Horizon I felt every 10 seconds of gameplay was followed by 5 minutes of watching a cutscene. I did like the endgame though, that was easily the best part for me.
Title: Re: Lost Horizon - any other fans out there?
Post by: Stupot on Mon 02/07/2012 14:48:42
This is one of those games you see everywhere but never get around to playing.  I quite liked Secret Files 1 (not played SF2 yet though), so if you're saying Lost Horizon is better, then I might just bump it up my to-play list.
Title: Re: Lost Horizon - any other fans out there?
Post by: Tabata on Mon 02/07/2012 22:35:15
        Here's one - me!  (http://www.smileyvault.com/albums/userpics/12962/ichichich.gif)

It is a long time ago (end of 2010),
but I played it (the german version) and have had fun  :grin:
Title: Re: Lost Horizon - any other fans out there?
Post by: CaptainD on Fri 06/07/2012 13:00:13
Tabata, out of curiosity have you played the Secret Files games in German?  My suspicion is that the German voice acting is much better than the English for those games.
Title: Re: Lost Horizon - any other fans out there?
Post by: Tabata on Fri 06/07/2012 17:07:07
I played the first one, but never did the english version.
The voice acting has been done nicely and fits well to the characters for my taste.

If you want to compare i.e. Nina by yourself, you can take a peek on the same parts in the let's plays.
I found Nina doing a telephone call over here (at about 05:15) in english (http://youtu.be/oR-OrAOgM-4) and the same over here (at about 09:49) in german (http://youtu.be/ST-EGsYHXjw).

I have to confess, I prefer the german voice (not only because I can understand it much better) :wink:
Title: Re: Lost Horizon - any other fans out there?
Post by: Anian on Fri 06/07/2012 17:49:23
So a Russian girl living in Berlin has an american accent...oh, boy.  :grin:

Lost Horizon was ok, some interesting puzzles, but thank god for the spyglass (hotspot reveal) feature, because some things were just almost invisible. I even liked the blend of 3d characters on 2d drawn backgrounds and the interface was smooth. I see Tunguska games are made with the same interface and style.

Two things I do remember bugging me in LH were the overly Indiana Jones ripoffing (story, characters, settings, the travelling screen), the blasted data loading screens and, as mentioned by Hands, especially in the beginning there are a lot of cutscenes.

And now that you mention it, there is a real lack of 21st century games that are unforgettable, at first I wanted to say Longest journey was fun, but then I checked and it was made in 2000. I mean there are games I really liked like Still life, Syberia, Gray Matter and a few AGS games as well (like Blackwell or Journey down etc.), but not a lot of them screamed out "classic".
Title: Re: Lost Horizon - any other fans out there?
Post by: CaptainD on Sat 07/07/2012 14:35:15
Quote from: Anian on Fri 06/07/2012 17:49:23
And now that you mention it, there is a real lack of 21st century games that are unforgettable, at first I wanted to say Longest journey was fun, but then I checked and it was made in 2000.

I think The Book of Unwritten Tales probably deserves "classic" status.  Maybe Runaway 3, I really enjoyed that one much more than the first 2 games.  Gemini Rue and Resonance were pretty impressive of course...  :P
Title: Re: Lost Horizon - any other fans out there?
Post by: selmiak on Sat 07/07/2012 16:15:56
yep, I liked it too. What can I say, I also thought it is very easy, the 3 different faces for the characters (3d model ingame, portrait when speaking and on the startscreen) could have been avoided or blended together better. But the indy ripoff story cought my attention really quick. The minigames are fun (car escape at the beginning for example) but they get fewer and fewer towards the end.
I even wrote a Solution for Lost horizon (http://selmiak.bplaced.net/games/pc/index.php?game=losthorizon&lang=eng), the items list was the worst part of it ;) So if you ever get totally stuck on this game (which is a challenge in itself as the game is very easy) you know where to look :D
Title: Re: Lost Horizon - any other fans out there?
Post by: hedgefield on Sat 07/07/2012 17:39:18
I certainly enjoyed the game. They got the atmosphere right and the environments felt pretty alive with all the animation and attention to detail, if still a little static. I think the character designs worked better in 2D, but they did a good job with it, I liked the main dude. Cool story too, I can never get enough of those kind of mid-1900s adventure stories. The minigames were fun, you don't see 'action-packed' things like fending off a carchase or throwing melons at the airplanes shooting at you a lot in adventure games. The escape from the sunken casket especially I thought was ingeniously done, if a clear nod to Monkey Island :) overall, yeah pretty sweet game.