Lost in Random: Game Review

Lost in Random is set in a dark and slightly crazy world influenced by the work of Tim Burton and Neil Gaiman. In places, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, is also visible.

The main character Ewen lives with her parents and her sister Odd in one of the poorest, bleakest and most hopeless corners of the magical kingdom. Everything changes when the queen, after a clearly dishonest game of dice, takes Odd by force to her palace. As the plot itself hints, such a fate can rightfully be considered unenviable, but both the townspeople and parents show complete indifference to the fate of a twelve-year-old girl. Only Ewen worries about her sister.

Thus begins Ewen’s exciting adventure, during which she will meet a lot of eccentric and frightening characters, fight with the evil queen’s mechanical minions and various madmen – what only a mayor named Ram is worth – and try to save her sister.

Dice – man’s best friend

Ewen’s most useful new acquaintance will be a dice named Dicey. This gibberish kid plays a key role in fights with opponents, because only with his help Ewen has at least some chance against them. Daisy also acts as a key to the doors that close the passage to different parts of this magical world.

Although Lost in Random looks like a fairy tale, its simple facade hides a dark story of cruelty, violence, greed, hopelessness and dictatorship. Fear of the queen and her servants permeated all the inhabitants of the kingdom, causing some of them to treat Ewen with distrust and sometimes hostility. At a certain point, the player begins to realize that he is saving not only his sister Ewen, but the entire kingdom.

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Battles in Lost in Random are an important element that combines a card game and the very notorious random. Unlike other games where enemies just need to give slaps in the face with the help of improvised means, Zoink! everything is a little more complicated. Ewen is armed with a slingshot, with which she can break the growths in the form of energy crystals on the bodies of opponents. This energy feeds Daisy, giving Ewen the ability to throw it to play cards from her deck.

There are five types of cards in the game: weapons, damage, protection, obstacle and cheating. Some cards equip Even with a sword, a huge mace or a bow with arrows, others weaken opponents or scatter bombs around arenas, others can turn Daisy into a kamikaze with a good explosion radius, and others give temporary invulnerability. There are many opportunities, as well as space for strategic thinking. The effects of the cards are also easy to combine: you can draw a slow down from the deck of enemies, then send Daisy to them with a bomb.

Thinking strategically requires a variety of opponents. Some robots run to Iven with a sword at the ready, others keep their distance and meanly shoot from a pistol in the back, others hide behind shields. A brawl with a small squad of royal robots can drag on for a long time if your deck does not contain the necessary cards.

Unusual gameplay in Lost in Random

Traveling through the fairy kingdom, Ewen is also forced to take part in large-scale board games, where she has to move pieces across a huge field. Ewen needs to throw Daisy and draw cards, but the features of the playing field are added to the already familiar mechanics, on which weapons and traps are scattered.

New cards for the deck become available as the story progresses, but they can also be purchased from the local merchant. The more gold coins Ewen leaves in his shop, the more cards he will make available to her. Sort of like a loyalty program. The merchant even has cards that speed up the movement of pieces across the field in the already mentioned board games. And no microtransactions!

The world of Lost in Random seems linear at first glance, but Ewen can always deviate from the planned route to find an additional task, a strange character or a puzzle that will help to learn more about this kingdom, earn specie or get a new card for the deck. Sometimes this happens by itself, because it is easy to get lost and make a wrong turn.

Given the previous work of the Zoink studio, and the caliber of Lost in Random itself, it is difficult to blame the game for some technical flaws, but they are still worth mentioning. The animations of heroes and enemies look clumsy due to jerky movements.

Conclusion

EA had just a unique opportunity to screw their legendary “surprise mechanics” to Lost in Random with its cards and elements of randomness, but the publisher did not take advantage of this, which in itself is a great achievement.

Lost in Random is an interesting game with interesting mechanics, amazing design and addictive atmosphere. If you like unusual games with a touch of madness, then Lost in Random is definitely for you.

Pros

• Design
• Atmosphere
• Combat system
• An eccentric plot that hides serious themes

Cons

• Some fights are too long
• Jerky animation