Childhood Wonder
I am not really a fan of point and click games, I’ve got nothing specific to complain about the genre tho. For some reason, these games just don’t sync with me, Disco Elysium is a very good example: Good story, great gameplay, interesting protagonist as well as multiple dialog choices, and yet, it’s accumulating virtual dust in my Steam library. So that makes me wonder, why I’ve loved Lost in Play so much? What kept my smile throughout my entire playthrough? Spoiler alert: The answer is probably something cheesy like: “It reminded me of my childhood days.”
You play as siblings Toto and Gal, both embarking on an epic journey with lots of puzzles, visual spectacles and silly jokes. Throughout my short, but rich, 4 hour playthrough I've explored: a goblin camp, a haunted cave, a big desert, the open ocean and, of course, a living room. This game is the perfect example of quality over quantity, you will never get bored or feel like the game is not respecting your time.
Simple Pleasures
The game is quite simple and it is filled with a variety of distinct puzzles for you to solve. Most of them require you to collect specific items based on the necessity at hand. But don’t assume that this is another one of those “Fetch” quests, the puzzle variety is quite extensive and there are a lot of mini games at play to keep you entertained. Every puzzle is unique in its own way and I was quite impressed by some of them. Luckily, the puzzles are not the only factor that will keep you entertained.
Certain games will never look outdated even after decades of its release. That’s the result of a good art direction, the visual presentation of a cartoon-style 2D game is timeless and won't go out of fashion in the years to come. And even if it did, I would still consider it a worthwhile experience.
Overall the game is quite polished and bug free, the performance is excellent and it works great on the Steam Deck, but there is definitely some space for improvement. The mouse and keyboard controls sometimes feel rather clunky and unresponsive, I highly recommend playing this game using a controller. Some specific puzzles are also frustratingly non intuitive, which made me lose a few minutes looking for something that was never intended to be found.
Verdict
I loved this game so much that I even got my wife to embark on this adventure with me. Its the perfect game to have a great time with your family and be reminded that even adults can get lost in play.
Highly Recommended
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