Lost Dream: Darkness (Switch) Review
Sort of oddly calming
No way to die. No way to Win. No way to do… anything.
The janky walking animation of the fox makes it seem like he has plenty of junk in the truck
No option to invert the camera controls
There is literally nothing else to do other than walk even though there is an attack button
Low res textures and pop-in ruin any artist visual appeal
For whatever reason, I noticed a couple trends in gaming over the last few years – there seem to be more and more walking simulators and many games seem to be starring foxes. Lost Dream: Darkness mixes these two popular inclinations into a game that, well, isn’t exactly a game.
Controlling a fox, the goal is to just push forward on the analog stick to make it to the other side of the environment. There are no enemies but strangely, there is an attack button. There is also a jump button but there is no use for it other than the very first thing the player does in the opening moments. If you do manage to fall off a cliff or go somewhere you are not supposed to, the fox just respawns back at the beginning as if nothing happened.
And that’s it. You literally just control a fox and freely walk forward. Other than trees, rocks, and hills composed of the cheapest texture mapping you ever seen, there is nothing to do, see, or interact. I guess it is possible to get lost, but the stage design does a decent job of keeping you on a path to enter the next area. There are no optional things to collect or kill so there is no point in venturing off the given path.
It is unfortunate because the visual jank detracts from what could have been an oddly calming experience. Constant pop-in and free downloadable texture assets do not help the overall presentation values either. Even the audio department cheaped out thanks to repeating ambient noises – you hear birds and thunder but never actually see these flying critters or electric blasts in the sky.
If you don’t let your thumb off the analog stick, you’ll walk through all the simple environments in about 15-20, minutes. Then you are kicked backed to the main menu. And that’s it. Not having any type of narrative also doesn’t provide any worthwhile reason to play again either.
While I respect what is trying to be done here, I still wish there was a little more game in this game.
Not As Good As: Lost Ember
Not As Heart Breaking As: Endling – Extinction is Forever
Reminds Me A Lot Of: Feather
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz
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