Lost In Random

There exists a game known as Lost in random, one truly unique and nostalgic in tandem, it’s sure to succeed and gather quite the fandom and I'm here to assure that it’s not one to abandon. Are you ready to meet the cutest dice companion, together travelling the world rightly known as Random?

Developers: Zoink Games, Thunderful

Publishers: Electronic Arts, EA Originals

Reviewed on: PS5

Review code kindly provided

Written by: Gabriel Sewell

I think it goes without saying that Lost In Randoms art-style and setting is heavily influenced by the unique German expressionist art from the early 1920’s that went on to inspire none other than; Tim Burton himself. Although not widely known, this art movement was incredibly influential throughout his career in Stop-motion Animation and helped to create some of our all time favourite holiday films. The entire game feels like a homage to his work, from the eerie Halloween inspired towns drenched in thick miasmas of fog, to the aesthetically sinister characters that live in morbidly portrayed realities which often confront real world sociological issues. It’s surprising how well the development team managed to design a world that feels exactly like a stop-motion animated film made from real life miniatures that come to life on your screen, and I absolutely love it.

The world feels incredibly cohesive and exploring it can be a real treat, although the exploration can be fairly linear there’s still plenty enough for you to collect and side quests to discover that reward the player handsomely. Often I found myself exploring the area out of sheer curiosity and in awe of the detailed surroundings, stopping to chat to the uniquely voiced towns folk and just generally immersing myself into the Gothic realm of Random. Also, don’t forget to stop by ol’ Manny Decks to buy cards for your deck to use in battle, he’s a friendly ol’ chap that can be found around seemingly every corner.

Game-play can be split up into two distinct styles: exploring the world, and fighting. The combat uses what I guess could be considered; a deck based active turn based battle system in which with a roll of a dice you define how many points you’ll have to spend on your next move, with each card requiring a certain amount of points to use. However, you'll have to shoot the crystals on the enemies with your slingshot first to fill the gauge and gain more cards. Now, things get really interesting in the board game segments when each roll of the dice also dictates how many spaces the giant game piece will move on the board. I really enjoyed this mechanic and found it really fit into the world, although the deck building aspects in the game aren’t as in-depth as others it works as a great entry point into the genre and allows for a more seamless and enjoyable experience overall.

There are minor environmental puzzles to be found throughout your journey, none of which are particularly memorable but help to mix things up and break away from any tedium. Not that I ever felt any tedium to begin with, I think a great deal of the experience is in the wonderful story telling and magical world design. Also, the boss battles are phenomenal but I won’t divulge in order to avoid spoilers!

With such a cinematic influence it’s no surprise that the story itself is very well written and incredibly enjoyable, you play as Even, a girl whose sister is taken away by the evil queen. Led by a ghostly apparition she sets out to save her sister, meeting a friendly dice along the way. Together they travel the World of Random, stopping in several districts to help the various towns along the way. It’s all very heartwarming and enjoyable to experience. The voice acting is phenomenal too, bringing every character to life and although not every interaction will be perfectly lip synced if you look past that, there really isn’t anything worth complaining about.

Now that I’ve highlighted the games best features you’re probably left wondering, what about the music? Surely that can’t be as good? Well, it’s probably one of the game's best complimenting features. It’s mostly orchestral scores that really invoke the previously mentioned holiday/Halloween-esque films, creating an illusion that you’re watching a cinematic masterpiece. As a quick tangent the performance as a whole is very consistent running at a sturdy 60fps, although that’s to be expected when playing on a PlayStation 5 so I won’t discuss this any further, just yeah, it’s good!

Conclusion

Lost in Random is just shy of being a fully fledged masterpiece, that being said with the amount of charm and care put into the game I’m happy to consider it a personal masterpiece and a perfect game to play this Halloween. There’s something so special about not just the world or the story but the game as a whole, it captivates the player and excels at being something truly unique and enjoyable for almost every type of gamer.

Buy it, play it, thank me later!

3/3

Masterpiece

Author: Gabriel Sewell