Lost Horizon

He almost dyed!.... Get it?... No?... oh.

Fantastic adventure games have suddenly become hard to come by. Usually, all you had to do to acquire one was to look upon the "PC Games" isle at a local, inconspicuous department store. Rare and precious, like rectangular-shaped gems, these little boxes hid amongst the many other "regular titles" that you'd grown to ignore. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. Upon visiting the desperately out-dated "PC Games" isle, the most you'll find is a brand new copy of Norton Anti-Virus 2002 or one of those ridiculously stupid hidden object titles that I will always continue to refuse as real adventure games for as long as they exist. Considering that the base mechanic of hidden objects titles is an exploitation of a problem that plagues adventure games, I can only concur that anyone who enjoys playing them also enjoys watching paint dry. To my delight, however, Lost Horizon was not one of those horrible abominations associated with the genre of adventure gaming... or a cleverly repackaged Norton Anti-Virus 2002 CD. Lost Horizon, was actually, in many ways, the great real adventure game I had wanted for a long time.

So this is where all these hidden object games end up!

The game's story is quite different from others you might have played through. When I got it, I was expecting it to play out like some WWII adventure game where you search for some lost troops over some dangerous landscape. I was partly right, but the story also throws out an unique twist that makes your objective so much more complicated. You play as Fenton Paddock, a former British military soldier gone smuggler who engages in an expedition to save his best friend... and perhaps the rest of the world. While I never became attached to any character other than Fenton, I truly enjoyed many the characters' presence in the game.

In this picture we see ground control preparing Major Tom's flight.

One of the things that really speaks volumes about the game is its beautifully detailed environments. At first, I was a bit worried about the particular art style that they had chosen, especially since its pretty rare to see any sort of game with plastered 2D backgrounds to feature 3D character models. After the first 3 minutes, though, you begin to realize that this is far more of a strength than a weakness. I actually found myself preferring this art style over many of the others I have seen in even my favorite adventure games. The cartoonish look that the developers took with the characters also looks really nice in contrast with the detailed backgrounds. The only department that's lacking graphics-wise is the game's cut scenes, which often look stale and rushed.

This adventure will take you to some pretty diverse landscapes.

The puzzles themselves are pretty easy to solve, which isn't always a bad thing. Of course, if you're one of those who enjoy those frustrating, headscratchers of puzzles, they're here, but just know that most of the game consists of pretty simple solutions. In general, I had a really good time with the puzzles and never had to resort to a cheat resource. Luckily, the entire game is comprised of inventory-based puzzles and a couple logic ones.

Some puzzles permit the use of an additional character to be solved.

Other than that, there's not much else to say. If you love adventure games and you're looking for something new, Lost Horizon is definitely for you. Its interesting visuals and fun puzzles are further helped by its solid story and characters. Although I found myself beating it within 10 hours, I take pride in the fact that I really did enjoy every minute of it. While I wouldn't consider Lost Horizon my favorite adventure game, its certainly one of the most solid inventory-based titles I have ever played. 

And you thought adventure game puzzles were boring...