Lost In Blue

 

Lost in Blue on the Nintendo DS pits players against the harsh reality of nature surviving on a stranded island; hunting, fishing, gathering for food and supplies but when the game hits the ground running your realize this is a whole lot of micromanaging. 

 

Don’t get me wrong, Lost in Blue is a great game with a lot of exploration to be done on the island and multiple ways of completing tasks by making supplies or weapons to make survival much easier.  Stylus controls are very innovative.  Hunting and fishing is pleasant with great minigames to play in order to catch or kill food.  If you have a spear tap the screen as a fish swims by to spear it for a nice fish-ka-bob, make a bow and arrows and go hunting but it’s pretty challenging to kill animals without traps but who said killing animals stranded on an island was an easy task?  Digging up vegetables is done with the stylus swiping back and forth on the screen digging deeper into the ground until you can pull the vegetable out.

 

As you advance and make tools and gather food micromanaging tends to set in.  The female stranded with you, Skye, can’t do much on her own and must be looked after so she doesn’t die when you are away.  Not only do you have to watch over Skye your character, Keith, tends to get thirsty or get hungry quite often.  Running back and forth around the island collecting food and water is a lot of backtracking and it tends to get boring seeing the same scenery over and over again while going for some potatoes or carrots.  This micromanaging leads players to plan their day before exploring more around the island and advancing the story.

 

Exploring new areas of the island advances the story as Keith discovers more areas around the island looking for anything to help with their escape off the island.  The temple on the island adds a variety of puzzles to complete although this is something new to approach in the game in the back of your mind there’s always that pesky micromanaging to deal with which turns the game into a back and forth to new areas then back to the camp over and over again.

 

Graphics are great for a 3D DS game and the audio as well .The game is great in the sense of survival on an island and is best enjoyed for people that want to try a new kind of survival game and don’t mind the backtracking or micromanaging.  For the casual gamers it may be difficult to pick up and play and survive the first couple of days without really knowing how everything works.  Overall it’s a fun game but will mainly be enjoyed by the hardcore survivalists.

 

Pros:  Great sense of exploration, multiple ways to beat the game, hunting/fishing mini-games are a great addition, a lot of hidden areas/routes to discover throughout the island, stylus controls are innovative. 

 

Cons:  Micromanaging, backtracking, Skye can’t do much on her own.

 

3/5