When I played the Lost In Play demo at Steam Next Fest, I knew then and there that this game will have a special place in my heart when it comes out. Developed by Happy Juice Games and published by Joystick Ventures, it is a puzzle game with a cartoonish art style that you will simply love. And we’ve prepared this Lost In Play review to let you know if the game is worth checking out or not.
Lost in Play is the first title Happy Juice Games has developed, so there’s a chance this will be the game that gives the developers their big break, and for most people, first impressions are everything. So let’s go ahead without further ado and begin our review.
Story and setting
The game offers a colorful journey through childhood imagination. Your task is to help Toto and Gal on an epic adventure, two characters who are trapped far from home and lost in their imagination. If they don’t return home before nightfall, they’ll be trapped in their fantasy world forever.
When the game first starts, the setting is quite normal. But the landscape changes quite quickly from What looks like an ordinary day at the park, and the players soon find themselves running through an enchanted forest, hiding from a magical bear and helping frogs with their tasks so they can help you draw a sword out of stone.
Lost In Play features some very colorful characters as well as unique and carefully designed challenges and minigames. And overall, the game offers a family-friendly, wholesome experience that players of any age group can enjoy.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Lost in Play revolves around point-and-click puzzles. Be warned that these are not as kid friendly as one might think. They’re surprisingly challenging and not your average brain teaser, so you may have to put in more effort than you might expect.
There are countless trials and tribulations at play, such as helping a frog to open its can of flies and helping a dog move the sheep to their corresponding locations in his dreams. If you’re ever stuck with a challenge, tLuckily, there’s a button that lets you instantly reset the whole thing if you feel like you’ve made a wrong move or if you’re about to lose. There’s also a hint option in case you’re really struggling with a puzzle.
Some of these challenges require you to collect certain items before you can complete them, so players must also explore their current area before completing challenges and moving the story forward.
An example of such a puzzle is at the beginning of the game where you have to wake up your sleeping brother. Players must explore the room and interact with various items. that might make sense in the situation. After some experimentation, you’ll find that you can fix the alarm and use it to wake up Toto.
A minor quirk that adds to the game’s charm is the fact that every character in the game talks in gibberish, but their intentions are conveyed through a series of symbols. So you can learn about their objectives visually rather than audibly. In simpler words, the game has no dialogue, everything is conveyed through the gameplay. This helps the players understand their goal at all times, rather than having to guess what to do or look to a quest marker for help.
As for controls, I highly recommend using a controller rather than a keyboard and mouse, as controlling the characters and managing inventory feels much more natural with a controller. The controller is also the recommended input from the developers.
Images and achievements
Lost in Play doesn’t lag behind when it comes to visuals, thanks to its hand-drawn cartoonish art style that’s more like an animated show than your typical video game. It makes the world much more alive and beautiful. There’s a lot of variety in the environment too, whether you’re walking through a clear open field or making your way through a dark enchanted forest. Overall, the game is just breathtakingly beautiful to look at.
With its compelling art direction and graphic choice, Lost in Play can easily be considered one of the most visually appealing indie titles released this year.
When it comes to performance, Lost in Play isn’t a particularly intensive game, meaning that even an 8-year-old PC should have no problem running this title. And the game doesn’t even have minor performance issues, unlike some of the bigger bug-ridden releases we’ve seen recently.
While playing on my AMD Radeon RX 580, I experienced nothing short of flawless performance while testing the game on PC as part of our Lost In Play Review.
verdict
Lost in Play is a game about a brother and sister who go on an adventure in their imagination and try to find their way home. During the epic journey, they must solve unique challenges and explore exotic locations such as an enchanted forest, a goblin castle and even ancient ruins.
The developers promised a healthy adventure for people of all ages and they delivered on that promise perfectly. Lost in Play can very easily be considered one of the best indie games released recently.
If you’ve been looking for a healthy puzzle game to sink into for a few hours or if you’re the type of gamer who prefers indies over AAA titles, Lost in Play is the game for you. That concludes our detailed review of Lost in Play.
The good
- Sublime art direction.
- Hand-drawn graphics.
- Unique puzzles and mini-games.
The bad
Lost in Play rating – 4/5
We hope our Lost In Play review helped you decide if this game is worth it for you or not. The title is now available on Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam and GoG.
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