Yesterday, I told you guys I would be buying LOST: Via Domus no matter how horrible it turned out being.

After an annoying experience at Best Buy and sixty dollars emptied from my wallet, I’ve kept true to that promise and the game is sitting on the title screen as I type this.

Now, I won’t be reviewing it … so how will you know how bad (or good, but that is really less likely) it is? Well, in what I hope turns out to be a regular feature by our various editors, I am going to liveblog my journey (followed by a brief summary) through LOST: Via Domus right here and right now for you guys. As I play through the game, this post will be updated as frequently as humanly possible. Lets begin, shall we?

Updates will start flowing in a few minutes.

*WARNING: SPOILERS*


February 27th, 2008, 2:34 PM EST - A CG cutscene showing the crash was actually very cool, and it looks like someone was after him but they were thrown out of the plane as it tore apart… and my character wakes up in the jungle after a fade to black LOST logo.

February 27th, 2008, 2:39 PM EST - OMG there’s a dead guy hanging from vines… and there’s no voice acting when I examine him. That’s not very next gen, Ubisoft. Also looks like the smoke monster is messing with my character’s mind already.

February 27th, 2008, 2:41 PM EST - There’s Kate.. I wonder if you can have sex with her. Let’s go see.

February 27th, 2008, 2:43 PM EST - There’s voice acting here and Kate’s being a total bitch as I ask her questions.. there’s no sex option.. didn’t they learn anything from Mass Effect? I’ve gotten to the first flashback sequence too.

February 27th, 2008, 2:46 PM EST - Uh, I guess I’m flashing back to the plane and the guy is a photographer with amnesia so I have to take the exact photo in his flashback as the ripped up pictures he has. This is f*cking frustrating.

February 27th, 2008, 2:48 PM EST - Got it!

February 27th, 2008, 2:51 PM EST - So my character found out Kate was a fugitive. Meh.

February 27th, 2008, 2:52 PM EST - Following Vincent the dog to the crash site! *sigh*

February 27th, 2008, 2:55 PM EST - I’m at the crash site on the beach. Michael is screaming “WAAAAAAAAALT!!!” over and over. Heh.

February 27th, 2008, 2:56 PM EST - Wow, Michael’s voice work is terrible.

February 27th, 2008, 2:57 PM EST - And Locke’s is even worse.

February 27th, 2008, 3:07 PM EST - Just spent the last 10 minutes on an annoying “fuel-rerouting puzzle” that was sort of similar to the hacking in Bioshock. Not fun.

February 27th, 2008, 3:12 PM EST - Running around the camp looking for my backpack. Apparently, water bottles and other food I pick up are worth money for trading.

February 27th, 2008, 3:21 PM EST - “I’m gonna destroy that photo, and then I’m gonna kill you!” says the guy who was coming for me on the plane that I thought was dead, as he attacks me. *cut to black, LOST logo* and that’s the first episode!

How does episode 2 start? With an awesome “Previously on LOST” recap, then Kate, Jack and Charlie running out of the forest away from the smoke monster.

I’ve got stuff to do now and plans tonight, so I’ll be back around 10 PM EST to continue with updates.

February 27th, 2008, 10:50 PM EST - I’m back and booting the 360 now. Updates very soon as I play through episode 2.

February 27th, 2008, 10:57 PM EST - Need to go find my camera in the jungle. The smoke monster might be there.

February 27th, 2008, 11:04 PM EST - Jack won’t let me into the damn forest and I’ve entered another flashback…taking pictures of a girl in a bikini who says she’s gonna run off with a random fisherman if I don’t take the picture quick. Can I have sex with her at least?

February 27th, 2008, 11:08 PM EST - After finding out the girl in the flashback lied to the fisherman to steal his boat, my character lies to Jack in order to get him to go somewhere else so I can get into the jungle. Kind of dumb.

February 27th, 2008, 11:10 PM EST - F*cking Locke and his terrible voiceover… kill me now please.

February 27th, 2008, 11:15 PM EST - HOLY SHIT THE SMOKE MONSTER KILLED ME. GAME OVER! Gotta get back to where I was now.

February 27th, 2008, 11:17 PM EST - NOooonononononono! I have to listen to this Locke stuff again.

February 27th, 2008, 11:21 PM EST - Oh shit!!!! That dude who was after me started shootin’ in the forest and the smoke monster got HIM! HAHAHA! Time to make my way to the cockpit to find my camera. Why it would be there..? Well I have no idea.

February 27th, 2008, 11:23 PM EST - Encountered Michael.. he gave me a lighter so I can make my way through a dark cave to the cockpit. He’s gathering wood to build a raft.. um didn’t this not happen till the end of season one? I’m still at the beginning of the game for f*ck’s sake.

February 27th, 2008, 11:28 PM EST - There’s bats in the cave.. and for whatever reason if I go near them my lighter runs out of fuel quicker.. what?

February 27th, 2008, 11:31 PM EST - I was attacked by bats! Hahahaha, What the hell? GAME OVER! Be back when I get back to where I was.. *sigh*

February 27th, 2008, 11:35 PM EST - It happened again…. ugh.

February 27th, 2008, 11:46 PM EST - I’m dumb. I forgot I had torches to use that actually lasted a while … and I’m finally out of that cave.

February 27th, 2008, 11:48 PM EST - At the cockpit.. time for another electrical panel hacking thing. Bleh.

February 28th, 2008, 12:06 AM EST - After a big scare thinking I didn’t have enough fuses to do this puzzle, I found some nearby.. but it’s still frustrating.

February 28th, 2008, 12:11 AM EST - Got it. Moving on…

February 28th, 2008, 12:12 AM EST - A storage container on the plane that opened contained a broken laptop and my camera.. guess it’s time to leave the cockpit.

February 28th, 2008, 12:17 AM EST - HOLY SHIT IT’S THE OTHERS! I was about to be injected with something by Juliet… and then the episode ended. Wow, crazy stuff. Another previously on LOST recap and.. the beginning of episode three has me waken up on the beach by Hurley (who looks ridiculously weird in game) who tells me the other castaways think I might be an “other.”

Alright, that’s it for me tonight. I’ll pick up again tomorrow.

February 28th, 2008, 1:53 PM EST - I’m baaaaack. Loading up the game now!

February 28th, 2008, 1:58 PM EST - Talking to Locke and Hurley.. nothing interesting. Guess I need to find Sayid to fix the laptop.

February 28th, 2008, 1:59 PM EST - The battery’s dead…Locke supposedly found some in the luggage.. time to go back to him.

February 28th, 2008, 2:04 PM EST - Locke tells me I don’t need the laptop because the “island is a brank spanking new shot” or something. This triggers a flashback of me spying on the girl again…. she’s at some fishing store asking for info about something and Locke is there trying to sell camping gear… hearing the soundalike say “DON’T TELL ME WHAT I CAN’T DO!” is amusing.

February 28th, 2008, 2:08 PM EST - Since I saw Locke in a wheelchair and he doesn’t want people to know… it’s time for some blackmail to get the battery!

February 28th, 2008, 2:11 PM EST - I have to follow markers in the jungle to get the battery… Uh, ok. Jin is spouting Korean and yelling something about “OTHERS! OTHERS!”

February 28th, 2008, 2:14 PM EST - Sweet, it’s the hatch. Locke wanted to show it to me and I’m guessing my laptop battery has something to do with opening it.

February 28th, 2008, 2:38 PM EST - Internet outage had me unable to update for a little while.. playing again now.

February 28th, 2008, 2:46 PM EST - Locke is making me go through another damn cave. Oh well, the last one wasn’t that hard once I learned how to use torches.

February 28th, 2008, 2:47 PM EST - Oh shit! I’m seeing that girl again!

February 28th, 2008, 2:48 PM EST - Fell into a pit. Heh.

February 28th, 2008, 2:56 PM EST - I followed her out of the cave and she’s all bloody and disappears… tells me “Everything on this island happens for a reason.”… I jump down into this area and there’s a skeleton holding a book.

February 28th, 2008, 3:02 PM EST - I find a compass in the skeleton’s pocket and Locke shows up. The smoke monster roars and Locke won’t let me up until I throw him the compass. Once I get up he goes on about the island giving him the hatch and how it gave me the compass with “Via Domus (latin for The Way Home) engraved on it. I guess that’s the end of the episode. The next one start’s without a “Previously on LOST” and I wake up on the beach as the hatch is blown open. Guess I’ll be checking that out soon.

Gonna take a break and resume later!

February 28th, 2008, 10:34 PM EST - BACK! On the title screen again…loading up.. now.

February 28th, 2008, 10:36 PM EST - Weird.. this time it gave me the previously on LOST but not the clip of the hatch being opened. GLITCH! Ok, I’m walking around the beach…

February 28th, 2008, 10:50 PM EST - I need to find Sayid.. who’s at the hatch… I’ve been running around for 15 minutes trying to make my way around the forest and I found Desmond, the best LOST character…. let’s see what he has to say.

February 28th, 2008, 10:52 PM EST - Hatch is bad.. blah blah blah… met Jack in LA… blah blah blah… not a hostile.. blah blah blah… Whatever, I need to get this laptop working.

February 28th, 2008, 10:54 PM EST - Found Sayid!

February 28th, 2008, 10:58 PM EST - He won’t let me in unless I find out my name and confirm it with the passenger manifest… time to go back to the beach. But he will fix the laptop.

February 28th, 2008, 11:01 PM EST - Hurley trigged a flashback.. alright. I’m in the same place as last time.

February 28th, 2008, 11:06 PM EST - Learned a bit about the Savo guy that’s been mentioned in the previous flashbacks. Apparently I’m a reporter named Elliot Maslow and I’m stealing that girl’s story on him.

February 28th, 2008, 11:12 PM EST - Oh my god oh my god it’s like a dream come true! Sayid is trusting ME to enter the numbers into the computer.

February 28th, 2008, 11:21 PM EST - I’m still here. It’s so awesome to explore the hatch and enter the numbers.

February 28th, 2008, 11:38 PM EST - Ok, I had to solve 3 of those little hacking puzzles while exploring the hatch for easy achievements because Sayid got locked behind a door and it looked like that opened it… except it made things worse. Now I have to enter the numbers continuously and the room went all UV light on me and I can see the ink on the doors. It’s still awesome though. Let me figure out what to do now!

February 28th, 2008, 11:56 PM EST - I had to enter The Way Home… Via Domus… then I was able to open the doors. I planned to find the other UV ink pictures for an achievement, but I accidentally triggered the cutscene that ended the episode. Jack and Sayid come in and tell me they decrypted my laptop and all this shit is on it.. then they lock me in the room where they keep Ben later on.

I wake up in episode 5 in that dark room and the girl is appearing again, talking to me. What does she wanna tell me? I’ll find out tomorrow. That’s it for tonight, folks.

March 1st, 2008, 1:46 PM EST - Back.. starting up the game now.

March 1st, 2008, 1:50 PM EST - Dead girl says “Eliot, she can help you!”

March 1st, 2008, 1:52 PM EST - Kate’s keeping guard and says something about “Chenchy” being on my laptop. Flashback triggered.

March 1st, 2008, 2:01 PM EST - Had to take a pic of the girl on her laptop in a hotel lobby or something.. she wants help to find Savo.

March 1st, 2008, 2:01 PM EST - Told Kate I was a journalist and she let me out. Wow, this girl is easy.

March 1st, 2008, 2:22 PM EST - Back to the beach.. talking to Sun, Hurley, Charlie and whoever else is sitting around.

March 1st, 2008, 2:27 PM EST - Bought a gun from Charlie.. figure I’ll need it eventually.

March 1st, 2008, 2:37 PM EST - There’s a secret entrance near the door to the hatch.. leads to a sealed door.. time to find dynamite to open it!

March 1st, 2008, 2:40 PM EST - Hurley tells me I need to follow black flags near the hatch to get to the Black Rock to pick up dynamite… guess I’ll do that now.

March 1st, 2008, 2:44 PM EST - AHHHHHHH SMOKE MONSTER EVERYWHERE! Hiding in trees FTW!

March 1st, 2008, 2:51 PM EST - Made it past the monster.. was able to shoot an other.. and now I’m at the Black Rock.

March 1st, 2008, 3:06 PM EST - I got the dynamite from the ship, but now I need to make it past the monster again while not being able to run cause of the dynamite. *sigh* FRUSTRATING.

March 1st, 2008, 3:21 PM EST - To whoever designed this particular section of the game - F*CK YOU!

March 1st, 2008, 3:25 PM EST - I did it!

March 1st, 2008, 3:28 PM EST - Blew open the secret door.. what’s inside?

March 1st, 2008, 3:34 PM EST - There was this reactor thing and a computer. Used the computer to turn it off and a message showed up on the screen - “Elliot Maslow, We know what you did and we will find you.” Uh oh. End of episode.

Resuming later.. only two episodes left.

March 2nd, 2008, 1:47 PM EST - Starting up the game again now… what kind of scenarios devoid of fun will I encounter today?

March 2nd, 2008, 1:53 PM EST - This is actually really fun - the episode starts with the smoke monster chasing me and I get to actually RUN away from it while dodging things. It feels like a next gen Pitfall. Very cool.

March 2nd, 2008, 1:59 PM EST - That was probably the most fun 3 minutes of actual gameplay in the game.

March 2nd, 2008, 2:00 PM EST - Juliet shows up right as I’m about to walk through the security system and stops me. Can I have sex with her?

March 2nd, 2008, 2:02 PM EST - Juliet says I killed that girl and dumped her in the water. Triggers flashback.

March 2nd, 2008, 2:08 PM EST - I told Savo’s bodyguard who was guarding his elevator that the girl was a journalist. He started escorting her out (or maybe to kill her) while I took the elevator. Elliot’s pretty sure he didn’t kill her at least.

March 2nd, 2008, 2:16 PM EST - I’m in the Flame station.

March 2nd, 2008, 2:16 PM EST - …at the same time Kate, Sayid and Locke were here…

March 2nd, 2008, 2:40 PM EST - I was messing around for a while… just solved an electrical puzzle and went up to the main floor of the Flame station.

March 2nd, 2008, 2:49 PM EST - Heh, I told the computer there was an incursion by the hostiles… BOOM! C4 detonates and game over.

March 2nd, 2008, 2:50 PM EST - Well, it actually wasn’t Sayid who was talking, it was that guy that was after me holding Mikhail hostage wanting info about me. I shot him and Mikhail laughs at me.. then the others shoot me with a tranquilizer dart and the episode is over.

I’ll pick this up again later when I’m finishing the game.

March 3rd, 2008, 2:29 PM EST - and we’re LIVE! Time to finish this shit.

March 3rd, 2008, 2:32 PM EST - I wake up as a prisoner in the Hydra station.. I can see that flashback girl in the room.

March 3rd, 2008, 2:33 PM EST - “Don’t let it happen again, Elliot.” and it cuts to black LOST logo.

March 3rd, 2008, 2:35 PM EST - Tom is here now and he’s telling me I need to remember stuff about Hanso and Lisa. OK.

March 3rd, 2008, 2:39 PM EST - Flashback… The Hanso foundation has been doing research on ESP and working with people’s minds… this is really starting to tie in to last week’s episode.

March 3rd, 2008, 2:40 PM EST - Tom lets me out when I tell him they had the girl.

March 3rd, 2008, 2:53 PM EST - Ran around collecting fuses to open a door to a room where Juliet and Ben were sitting.. if they wanted to talk to me why the hell was the door “broken”?

March 3rd, 2008, 2:55 PM EST - Ben tells me they gave me the compass and it leads to a boat.

March 3rd, 2008, 2:56 PM EST - I have to bring him Jack by leading him to the Black Rock. I’m guessing this is before season three.

March 3rd, 2008, 2:57 PM EST - I’m back at the beach… I really hope I don’t have to deal with the damn smoke monster again.

March 3rd, 2008, 3:02 PM EST - Whew. Jack said he’ll meet me there and it let me jump right to it.

March 3rd, 2008, 3:08 PM EST - The others show up and take Jack and Kate.. they say I’m free to go.. and flashback time. Savo shot the girl and says “GET HIM!” to his goons. Uh-oh… then the flashback ends.

March 3rd, 2008, 3:14 PM EST - I grabbed my compass and shot the dynamite to kill the 2 others and save Jack and Kate… it knocks me out but Jack and Kate just leave me there and say they’ll come back later to help.

March 3rd, 2008, 3:26 PM EST - HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT. OK, so Juliet wakes me up and tells me I have 2 minutes to get to the docks to take my boat before Ben destroys it. Another Pitfall-like sequence commences as the others are shooting at me and I have to race to the boat.. I get there and Locke shoots the Others boat that’s approaching and he lets me leave.. because “my path is to go home”. I leave on the boat and what the hell do I see???!?! OCEANIC 815 CRASHING DOWN! Then I wake up on the beach AGAIN and the girl (Lisa) finds me. WOAH. Cut to black LOST logo and I beat the game… 935 achievement points just for playing through it.. shouldn’t take very long to get the rest.

This definitely ties into the most recent episode.. probably the only reason it wasn’t released till now.

Anyway, this has been fun and I’ll probably update this post later with a mini-review of sorts to summarize my thoughts.

Categories: Articles, Impressions, Liveblog, New Releases, PlayStation 3, Rape, Reviews, T.V., Xbox 360