Customer Reviews

Lost in Shadow

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lost In Shadow is not so much a brand new concept in game design but a homage to past successes. The developers seem to take the basic design from classics like ICO (PS2) and more currently, Limbo (xbox 360) -- both cult hits.

You play as the shadow of a young boy which has been forcibly "removed" from the boy as shown in the opening scenes. Your shadow is banished to the bottom of a tower and now begins your journey to reach the top of the tower and reunite with your body.

In the foreground you see the physical objects that any game would normally consist of, but you actually play and interact in the background, ie the shadows of the foreground objects. The game tries to be a combination of rpg, adventure, action and mostly problem solving, yet by not committing to a single type of game play, I began to grow tired of the varying styles. Some puzzles require you to manipulate the light source coming into the tower so that the shadows of certain objects move which then allows you to advance throughout the levels while other cases require you to actually rotate the screen to gain a new perspective. This was done very well but every now and then the camera angle will move in a way in which you cannot see the depths of the shadows in the background. A little frustrating but not a big problem.

Of course you encounter enemies throughout the way and you mostly fight them with your sword (other times you have to just avoid enemies completely), noting rpg syles. This gets old fast. You collect memories as you go which increases your shadows weight -- similar to a life bar. The music and sound is sparce throughout the game but this actually works to add to the creepiness of the style and really sets the mood.

Overall this is a fairly dark and disturbing game but with the ever increasing difficulty of puzzles to solve and the way in which you can manipulate your environment make this a game worth trying. I am glad I bought it for under $40 and hopefully the next one in the series will improve on the minor flaws.

The other reviewer compared this game to ICO for the PS2, and I definitely agree. It's not an excellent game, but it is kind of cool.

Here's the premise: you're a shadow. Something cut you off from your body, and you have to get back to your body. You can walk on shadows, but you can't walk in the real world. However, you do have a fairy guide that can move stuff around for you in the real world to adjust the shadows, adding a bit of a puzzle element to the game in addition the the straight line maze.

There's not really any action involved, and not really much of a storyline that I've seen so far. In each level you have to touch 3 red things to make the black shadow wall disappear. It's very straight forward, but the further you advance, the more challenging it becomes trying to figure out the puzzle aspect of it.

The game does not take very long, and it is not very complex. You could probably beat it in about 6-8 hours with average-level puzzle skills and a little help. Unless you got completely stuck, I don't think you could take more than 12-15 hours to beat it. As such, I'd recommend renting it, not buying it. Almost anyone can afford 6-8 hours of game time in a down-week, and a week long rental probably costs $5 somewhere rather than $35 to buy the game.

Although it's rated E for Everyone, a few things I'd keep in mind. First of all, some puzzles are not for young children. They're great for learning critical thinking skills and interacting with 3D objects, but if you've got a perfectionist toddler who's going to throw a fit if he gets stuck (or a perfectionist husband that acts the same way, such as myself :) ...), then this might not be for them. Second, there is a little fear involved. It's not that much. I wouldn't call it horror, but it does get a little scary. I let my 21-month-old watch, and there were a couple of times he jumped. If he was a little older, it might have given him nightmares. Not likely, but possible if you have really young children who get scared of shadows or would be disturbed seeing an implication of an executioner and a hanging body (note: implication; you don't see a noose, blood, or anything grotesque).

The music isn't Final Fantasy, but it's classic and worth getting a soundtrack if they make one.

I agree with the other positive reviews, so I'll keep this short. I was able to get to over 98% complete playing at the "easy" level. I was not able to get two of the memories but was able to complete everything else. There was also one "shadow corridor" that annoyed me and I had to stop playing for a few days before I could come back and beat it. That was about 30% of the way through the game, and I was happy that I managed to continue because to me, the story was intriguing and I wanted to experience the conclusion. The game became much easier for me to play as it went on. As your level increases, you can kill most monsters with a single blow, which helps a lot.

Lost in Shadow is fantastic, and I found myself stopping to look at the breathtaking visuals as much as playing. It is a very simple game in that the controls are standard platforming. Timing your sword swings and calculating distance is necessary for beating the shadow creatures in your way, but the real beauty of this game is the mindbending task of really focusing on the background shadows and exploring everywhere. The one downside I have noticed is that you have to be perfectly standing over a switch or memory to hit the button, but that is really a minor issue overall.

Lost in Shadow was one of my most anticipated games of 2011. I told all my friends about it. I even told one of my teachers. And I bugged the guys at gamestop all week waiting for them to give me the game I had preordered. I like to think that I had realistic expectations, though, all I really wanted was good platformer with some creative uses of the shadow mechanics. Sadly, Lost in Shadow fell short of my lowest expectations.

The games most noticeable failings is in combat. In game, you'll pick up a sword to deal with other shadow creatures that dwell in the mysterious tower. You'll only have a three hit combo to dispatch enemies with, but it's often not enough to kill the average enemy (spiders, early on), after slashing at an enemy you'll be stuck in place for about half-a-second, just enough time for the enemy to hit you back. You can eventually adjust your timing (or you can level up), but this makes every enemy encounter tedious.

The other problem this game has is level design. To proceed from each area, you must find three "Keys" to unlock the "Door" to the next level of the tower. One will be easy to find, but the other two are usually located on opposite ends of the level. You'll usually come to a fork in the road, you better pick the right path to take, or else you'll have to backtrack because there's a switch that you need to pull at the opposite end of the level to advance. It's almost as if the game developers thought they had a good game and that we'd enjoy having to walk all over every single inch of the level.

Speaking of which, I usually give mercy points to a game that tries to be "artsy," but save for a few parts, Lost in Shadow is very dull. I hope you like industrial machines, because you'll be hearing the "Whrrr, CLANK! Whrrr, CLANK! Whrrr, CLANK!" of machines dozens of times. They aren't very creative with their platforming either, you'll be running on pipes and ladders for most of the game. And the real world, that's casting these shadows, is rendered in that realistic brown, grays, and bloom. It all makes Lost in Shadow an unimpressive show.

The story is almost nothing. You're a boy's shadow making his way up the tower. There's more, but that's mostly it. This is all fed to you by the tiniest of drops littered through out the game. You have to search for memories throughout the level, and this increases your HP (instead of by leveling up, like any normal game might do). There's a few instances when the game does try to tell you a little bit more, but you know what? I couldn't read them. They scroll by too fast! Who's the moron who programmed it that way!

Oh, there's also "Shadow Corridors" mini-levels inside each level. Half of them are good. Some of them are what I wanted, good platforming with shadows. The other half are trial-and-error "puzzles" where you have to move the stage around. These would be fine, if there were only one or two "switches," but the shadow corridors are usually, five of these things in a row. And when you come out of a Shadow Corridor, all of the enemies in a level have respawned. Great, more combat.

There's a more, but I'd rather not rant anymore. I should mention that I haven't beaten the game. I'm 55% done, I'm on the 52nd floor. And I'm never going to finish this game, because I'm returning it this afternoon. I just can't stand it anymore. The level design is atrocious. I've begun to loathe playing it. This was the last straw: on the 52nd floor, there's a ladder, and at the top of that ladder are two sleeping monsters. One of those will shoot you automatically when it wakes up. You have to climb the ladder, and kill them before they shoot you. Remember how there's half-a-second in combat where you can't run away? There's half-a-second in ladder climbing before you can start attacking. So the damn thing wakes up, I get shot and fall off. And if you try again, it will always shoot you. You got to kill yourself, and then it will be back asleep when you try again.

Oh, and this game keeps track of how many times you died. I've died 24 times. Usually because of crappy combat, and dumb-ass design choices like those. There's supposed to be a story reason counting, but screw it I don't care anymore. Did I just rage-quit? Yeah, I guess I did. Congratulations, Lost in Shadow, you beat me. Other people can beat you, but I'm not one of them. Good for them.

So, for tedious combat, obnoxious level design, no saving grace story, and just overall unpolished gameplay, I give Lost in Shadow a 2 out of 5. Not unplayable, but it noticeably needs work. I cannot more strongly emphasize that you rent the game before you buy it. If you cannot rent this game first, do not buy it.

Not entirely sure why this game scored as low as it did in rankings, or why it is not more popular. As far as I am concerned, it is one of the only Wii games I have played through to completion. Rather amazing for me since I have tried and thrown up on most of the Wii games out there.

The game plays out in much of an "Ico" fashion, if you can understand what that means. Basically, you start the game knowing next to nothing about what is going on. You are a shadow torn from a child and thrown from a tower. Through the course of the game, while you climb the tower you gain bits of knowledge on what is going on.

Gameplay is enjoyable enough. Move with the nunchuck, push buttons on the Wiimote. At random times, you need to point at the screen to move things. All in all, I found the controls to be solid. Thank god it never made me swing at anything or wiggle the idiot stick.

Graphics are good for a Wii game. While you are only looking at shadows and interacting with the background of the game, the foreground has interesting objects and colors which look good and work well. The only downside I really found was the lack of music. There are some intense points where you get a soundtrack, but most of the game just sounds sad and lonely.

All in all, this is one of the games I would put in the Top 5 or 10 on the Wii. If you have the system, and enjoy platforming games, it should be on your list. I got nearly 20 hours out of it (amazingly long game actually) and would easily go back for another playthough.

Games like Lost in Shadow should be more out there but instead, this game really was "lost in shadow".

+ You play as a shadow of a boy while only being able to travel on shadows and manipulating light to proceed to the next level (You need to collect 3 eye tokens in each level to proceed).
+ It is a RPG because you do level up while having HP (hit points) and EXP (experience).
+ The monsters you fight are well designed & each one has a certain characteristic one must learn to fight accordingly.
+ The puzzles are well planned out. It does take some time.
+ The game (to me) is pretty relaxing. You arn't timed and solving puzzles is actually kinda fun.
+ Lost in Shadow is a lot like LIMBO but a little bit more colourful & friendly.
+ It is a side-scroller, but because of how original it is by only being able to travel on shadows & even manipulating light to form new shadows, it's pretty fun & always keeping me on edge.

This is quite an original game (even thought it's much like LIMBO) & it's a shame this game wasn't as popular as it should have been (like Little King's Story). I highly recommended this game & I can't believe the price I got it for on Amazon...I could see this game as 49.99$ in BestBuy or something. (=

As you may have read there was a lot of hype for this game prior to its release. Indeed Lost In Shadow introduces something conceptually new. The idea that one could play as a shadow is not what is cool by itself, but how successfully the game was designed to show interactions of the shadow of a boy with variously shaped geometric objects and their interaction with the sunlight.
Basically the way it works is as if the sunlight is directed from your perspective onto the environment. A shadow is cast and that is on what the shadow you play as can stand.
Once you are past the introductory levels difficulty goes up a notch.

The positive things I write about Lost in Shadow unfortunately come with some drawbacks. I run my Wii through 480p cable which improves visual quality on most games played from the Wii because the image is sharper. However, Lost In Shadow ,either by design or intentionally, does not look very sharp. It is possible that it was designed to make the shadows look somewhat blurry because of how shadows look like in the real world. Light diffuses and you see oblique shapes in one type of light, or really sharp shadows in different type of light (such as under a bright lamp at night) The blur effect also makes solid objects look less sharp than I'd like to. Lack of sharpness makes you fall of and die in different spots because you're not sure of the shadow's collision boundary.

I'd say this is a must-play Wii game that is appropriate for all ages, and not just a kids game. Exploration and puzzle solving may become difficult sometimes but that is how this game is designed, so I wouldn't fault it for that.

this game caught my eye because it seemed like a fresh idea for gaming, and it is to some extent, and it's not bad, but the manipulating of lights and shadows doesn't have a very large part in the game, at least not yet i've only made it to I think the 14 or 15th floor of the tower. this game is not easy it is definatly a challenging game I was just expecting a little more of an adventure, it gets a little repetative, basically you climb the tower fighting wierd shadow creatures and collecting memories and check point like things. and thats pretty much it, if that sounds fun to you then I say go for it it's definately worth the price tag.

The concept was interesting. I saw so-so reviews on YouTube but decided to buy this game anyway just because of the interesting concept. I should have skipped it altogether. The game is fun for all of five minutes before you loose all interest.