Lost Horizon

It plays like a classic adventure movie turned into a puzzle game. It may not be flashy, polished, or especially innovative, but its familiar charm still makes it enjoyable throughout.

This is a somewhat slight, but decent enough adventure game. It didn’t wow me, but made for an entertaining few hours. I had been looking for a lightish game to play in the late evenings to relax, something with a decent story but not too heavy gameplay. This seem to fit the bill. Gameplay wise it is your standard point and click adventure, click to interact with objectives, combine items or use them on objects in the world. Some of the puzzles seem somewhat complex for the sake of it, suffering very much from the point and click syndrome of puzzles that make no logical real world sense. For instance at one point you have to trick a photographer that there’s a no photography allowed with a fake poster. The solution is to travel half way across the city to a museum, paint a door handle red and press another poster you find to it. During this you are supposed to be under some time pressure to get to another area, though that doesn’t actually effect gameplay. Overall none of the puzzles were that hard, it’s pretty easy to click on all objects and items and find something that works. There was a tangled wire puzzle I looked up, but that was because it appeared to be an exercise in tedium, tracing the wires, rather than a puzzle you actually have to think about. Graphically it looks pretty nice. It is 3d models on hand painted backgrounds. The backgrounds are gorgeous, like paintings in motion and the globe trotting plot gives a lovely variety. The character models are serviceable. They have a slightly cartoonish look to them that covers the fact they probably aren’t detailed. The game overall runs great and is stable, which isn’t surprising. The story is pretty standard rip off Indiana Jones material, though it motors along nicely through a series of locations, though it descends into a bit too much mystic rubbish at the end. It also ends abruptly after the main villain is defeated, with little wrap up and with one characters betrayal never shown to have any consequence. The characters are pretty entertaining and all well voice acted. I did find the insistence on the very standard point and click puzzles as a solution to be a bit grating at times in relation to the main character and the story as the game progressed though. I get that this is a point and click game, and the devs likely had limited resources, but that doesn’t exactly match with the rip roaring adventure story the game is trying to tell. It makes the main character, Fenton look like a crazy man who rifles through bins for random rubbish, rather than doing something sensible like acquire a gun to deal with the Nazi’s and triads chasing him. This is despite the fact he is an ex Army officer. Overall this is a bit of a meh, but it’s not bad game, and worth giving it a go if you like point and click adventure games or stuff set in the 1930s. Personally I love historical stuff like that, so I got a bit of a kick out the game despite it’s limitations.

[h1] Introduction [/h1] In 2010, German Adventure-developer [i] Animation Arts [/i] decided to let Nina Kalenkow and Max Gruber from "Secret Files" take a long needed vacation and start a new IP, based on classic Adventure movies and the Indiana-Jones-Games of Lucas Arts fame. The game took around three years to develop and was released to critical and commercial success. A sequel, "Lost Horizon 2", that unfortunately couldn't duplicate the success was released in 2015. [h1] Story [/h1] We start in the vibrant city of Hong Kong in the year 1936. Our stories' hero is called Fenton Paddock, a former british soldier who, after having been dishonorably discharged from the british army, makes a living as a smuggler for various, Hong-Kong-based crime syndicates. But his past catches up to him when an old friend of him goes missing on an expedition deep within unexplored tibetan territory and Fenton agrees to start a rescue mission. Soon he finds himself pursued by nazi soldiers and, involuntarily accompanied by his ever complaining ex girlfriend Kim, embarks on an adventure that spans multiple continents. [h1] Gameplay [/h1] "Lost Horizon" is a classic Point-N'-Click-Adventure and remains in the tradition of games like "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis". We maneuver our hero through various exotic locations and try to solve problems and puzzles in order to overcome obstacles and continue our mission. To do so, we collect anything that fits into our pockets and try to combine it in unusual ways. The DNA of "Secret Files" runs deep within this game and so we encounter some aspects known from its inofficial predecessors. For example, Kim acts as a second playable character in some sequences and needs to cooperate with Fenton to solve some riddles. The difficulty of the game is rather moderate I'd say, I never felt frustrated or got stuck without being able to continue. If you DO get stuck however, the game presents you with the same help systems that were implemented in the two "Secret Files" games. By pressing Space Bar, all available hotspots on the screen will be presented to you. On top of that, the in game notebook serves as a provider of clues for the current situation. So all in all, with the help systems this game can be considered as a great entry point for newcomers to the genre. Experienced players (like myself 😉) can ignore these systems and finish the game old school, of course! [h1] technical side [/h1] The game is based on the same engine as "Secret Files: Tunguska" from 2006, but "Lost Horizon" greatly improves graphics and animations. Especially the backgrounds are incredibly beautiful and immediately make you want to explore them. The characters are also an improvement over previous games, but especially the facial animations during close-ups could have been improved. Nonetheless, it stands as the developers best looking game till date. More praise must be sent to the sound design that really makes all of the settings come to live and the soundtrack, that of course heavily reminds of the Indiana Jones movies. This is only emphasized by the high quality of Geman voice actors in the game. [h1] Conclusion [/h1] All in all, "Lost Horizon" is an amazing adventure for anyone who loves classic Point-N'-Click-Games. Yes, it is quite derivative of Indiana Jones and personally, I kinda prefer "Secret Files: Tunguska" for being more original, but The journey of Fenton Paddock is still a remarkable game and remains a strong entry in the genre. On top of that, it is still the best game Animation Arts have released until today. Playing it again was great fun for me and it still gave me that warm feeling only some special games are capable of. [h1] Score: 9/10 [/h1]

Абсолютнейший выродок жанра, очередной квест - пережиток ошибок прошлого, в ходе которого вам не то что иглу в стоге сена нужно будет искать, вы её искать в океане будете. Если первая глава ещё более-менее терпимая и в целом повествование держит желание продолжать, то уже во второй главе такие вещи как "достать из гнезда разбитую скорлупу, пойти к луже с протёшким маслом набрать чутка в неё, затем подняться на крышу и смазать этим маслом в скорлупе" становятся абсолютной обыденностью, что в итоге либо потратит уйму времени на кликанье по всем предметам + местам взаимодействия для прохождения методом проб и ошибок (мучительно) или просто не убирать глаз с текстового прохождения (уныло). Крайне НЕ рекомендую пробовать данную игру, если вы конечно не ярый фан квестов из 90-х.

Splendida avventura punta e clicca che conquista fin dai primi minuti grazie a una storia coinvolgente e a un’ambientazione affascinante. Il viaggio attraverso luoghi esotici e misteriosi è raccontato con grande cura, tra colpi di scena, dialoghi ben scritti e un ritmo che invoglia sempre ad andare avanti.

I would like to finish the game, but I can't, after the encounter in the Monastry, the time when I should be shot so as the video 'escape from tibet' should kick in, the game hangs-up with comments 'cannot find a certain bik file' / Rad movie, checking the www, this issue is not unknown and I am not the only one. All bik videos are combined in one pak file what could be extracted but where is the sense, there is no solution to some of us, either to be lucky or not, in this case, I was not! Sad to give-up, another try on another machine, perhaps.

Lost Horizon is a small, unjustly overlooked gem, which is surprising considering how much I enjoy adventure games. It completely flew under my radar for years, and it really shouldn’t have. The game is quite long and consistently enjoyable, with a light, adventurous tone that clearly echoes classic Indiana Jones–style storytelling. It takes the player through numerous exotic, diverse and visually appealing locations, keeping a strong sense of exploration and discovery throughout. The puzzles are excellent, easily one of the game’s strongest aspects. They are well designed, logical and satisfying, representing some of the best this genre has to offer. They rarely feel forced and never break the narrative flow. The cast of characters is generally interesting and well written. The only exception for me is Kim, who comes across as overly hysterical and ends up being slightly grating compared to the rest of the cast. Overall, Lost Horizon is a solid, classic adventure game that deserves far more recognition than it received. Score: 7.5/10

I really enjoyed this Indiana Jones-like adventure. The art, music, and general atmosphere suck you into the experience. The story is genuinely intriguing, with very likable characters, and it knows exactly how long to keep you in a section of the game so that it does not become tiresome. There were some very clever bits in the game, where you are puzzle solving during car chases and other action-type set pieces, which really sold the 1930s adventure serial vibe. For the difficulty, I think that it walked exactly the correct line that it needed to, never being too hard or too easy. You don't need any walkthroughs here. Some of the objects which you need to interact with are quite small and pixel hunty, but the game has a useful "interactive elements" button which will highlight everything that you can fiddle with, if you seem to be missing something. A very good tool. I also appreciated that each section comes with an audio tip that you can press a button to hear, which summarizes the story thus far and indicates what your next current goal is, sounding a lot like a prologue to one of those 1930s adventure serials. It gives you just enough information to get you oriented back into the game, if you have been absent for a day or two, without giving you extra information that you don't know yet. The team did a really fine job with this one. I'm looking forward to exploring more of their work. The video trailers don't do the game justice at all. While playing in public, more people asked me about my Steam Deck -- almost every time -- compared to any other game. It's quite an eye-catching title.

Sehr schönes Adventure! Wenn jemand den alten Indianer Jones Spielen und Baphomeds Fluch nachtrauert, dann hat er hier eine Alternative gefunden. Spannende Geschichte, gute Charaktere. Sehr schöne handgezeichnete Hintergründe, gute Sprecher und Musik. Die Rätsel sind durch die Bank logisch aufgebaut oder mit ein wenig probieren lösbar. Und wenn man mal ein Rätsel mit probieren herausgefunden hat, dann merkt man spätestens, das es eigentlich doch recht logisch war - so muss das sein! Und ganz am Ende, wenn man das Spiel durch hat, erhält man eine Belohnung, die ich bisher noch nie in meinem Spielerleben erlebt habe: man erhält Zugriff auf den Prototyp des Spiels! Echt cool! 10 von 10 Punkten von mir.

Great story and great game :) I recommend it :)