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"Via Domus" redirects here. For other uses of "Via Domus", see Via Domus (disambiguation).
"Video game" redirects here. For video games that reference Lost, see Outside references to Lost/Video games.
This information was revealed through the semi-canonical Lost video game
Lost: Via Domus
LostViaDomusCover
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Characters:   Beady Eyes · Elliott Maslow · Lisa Gellhorn · Zoran Savo · Rico
Episodes: "Force Majeure" · "A New Day" · "Via Domus" · "Forty-Two" · "Hotel Persephone" · "Whatever It Takes" · "Worth A Thousand Words"




Lost: Via Domus (originally known as Lost: The Video Game) is the first official game of the series for video game consoles and PCs. The game was developed by Ubisoft Montreal under the direction of producer Gadi Pollack. Announced on 22 May 2006, it was released on February 26, 2008 in the USA, February 28 in Australia and February 29 in the UK, and February 13, 2009 for Steam users. The game is available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PCs, using the YETI Game engine developed for the Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and Beowulf games. It was officially unveiled with a screening of its trailer during the Comic-Con 2007 panel. 'Via Domus' is Latin for what can be translated to "[the] way home".

The game follows a character new to the Lost universe, Elliott Maslow, a photojournalist with amnesia whose background is revealed over the course of the game through flashbacks. Elliott has not ever been featured in the show. However, the producers have stated the game's storyline is not canon to the show [1]. Part of the game, including the DHARMA stations and the blast door map, is considered canon (See Canonical merit, below).

Synopsis[]

Elliott Maslow is a passenger on Flight 815. After the crash, he lost his memory. He initially searches the Island for his possessions to try to regain his memories. A man named Beady Eyes, who was also a passenger, threatens to kill him. Elliott eventually discovers the Swan station. While at the station,

MainMenuVD

The main screen for Lost: Via Domus

the other survivors review the content of a laptop computer he had on the plane and find it full of information on matters like chemical weapons. Elliott is briefly imprisoned at the Swan. After he escapes with Kate's help, he discovers the entrance to the walled-off portion of the Swan and blows open the door with dynamite from the Black Rock.

After Elliott shuts down a reactor at the Swan, he follows his compass to the fence around the Barracks, where he meets Juliet. Juliet opens the fence for him and then he enters the underground portion of the Flame. He eventually reaches the surface structure of the Flame and finds Mikhail held captive by Beady Eyes. Elliott shoots Beady Eyes and is then captured by the Others.

Elliott is taken to the Hydra Station where he meets with Ben Linus and Juliet. Ben offers him a boat and a way home in exchange for luring Jack into a trap at the Black Rock. Elliott leads Kate and Jack into the trap. But then he has second thoughts and helps Jack/Kate to escape by firing a bullet into some dynamite. Elliott is left behind wounded by Jack and Kate. He is later found by Juliet and brought to some cliffs near the ocean. He then runs to the beach to grab the boat Ben offered before the Others destroy it. As the Others reach the boat, Locke appears and shoots the Others which saves the boat for Elliott. Locke then wishes Elliot well and allows him to sail away. However, at a later point at sea, the sound associated with the day the Swan implosion is heard. Elliott looks to the sky where Oceanic 815 is breaking up in mid-air, then he passes out. He wakes up at the crash site on Day 1. Everything seems to be repeating itself when suddenly Lisa stumbles out of the wreckage, covered in blood, and yells happily, "Elliott! Elliott! Oh my god, we made it. We're alive."

Flashbacks[]

Elliott is a photojournalist, romantically involved with his colleague Lisa. Lisa is writing an exposé on Zoran Savo, a shady character with ties to the Hanso Foundation and Thomas Mittelwerk. He wants the story for himself, and to that end he tips off Savo's bodyguards to Lisa's reporting. Savo orders her to be executed; Elliott escapes with photographs of the entire affair, but Savo finds out. He orders Beady Eyes, his bodyguard, to follow Elliott onto the plane and destroy the photographs.

Characters[]

Many characters from Season 1, 2, and 3 of Lost appear in Lost: Via Domus. Walt, Rose, Bernard, Boone, Shannon, Nikki, and Paulo are among the main and supporting characters that are not in the game.

Locations[]

Main article: Locations (Via Domus)

Many locations from Season 1, 2, and 3 of Lost appear in Lost: Via Domus.

Gameplay and change[]

Via Domus dialogue scene

A dialogue scene.

Via Domus consists of several types of gameplay. Much of the game is spent in interactive conversation with other characters, while the rest consists of jungle exploration, wiring repair puzzles, rediscovering Elliott's past with the use of flashbacks, photography, and collecting important objects. Bonus content can be unlocked by taking photographs of objects that had importance in the show, such as Kate's plane, Charlie's guitar, Kelvin's DHARMA jumpsuit, and the book Turn of the Screw. These will also allow you to gain achievements on the Xbox 360 version of the game.

Electricpuzzle

One of the many wiring puzzles.

The game's producers have taken artistic license with some of the show's continuity so as to include more action. For example the Others now stalk the jungle with rifles, willing to kill anyone who comes within range, as well as the Monster being much more active.

Canonical merit[]

The producers have stated that the storyline of Lost: Via Domus is not canon to the show [2]. However, these aspects of the game are official canon to Lost:

System requirements[]

The Windows version requires the following:

LoadingVD

The game's loading screen, with different Lost quotes

  • Windows XP or Vista
  • 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo / Athlon 64 X (or 3.5GHz Pentium 4/Athlon)
  • 1GB of RAM (2GB recommended)
  • at least a 128MB DirectX 9.0c-compliant shader 3.0-enabled video card (256MB recommended)
  • 5 GB of hard disk space

The supported cards are

  • ATI RADEON X1300-1950 / HD 2000 series,
  • nVidia Geforce 6600, 6800, 7xxx and 8xxx series.

Rating[]

Lost Via Domus-Xbox

US NTSC Xbox 360 cover art

In Australia, the game is rated M (recommended for mature audiences) due to "moderate themes" and "moderate violence". [4]
In the US, it is rated T (for teen) for alcohol and tobacco, blood, mild language, and violence by the ESRB.
In Europe, the game is rated by PEGI as 16+.

Trailers[]

There have been three trailers launched to promote Lost: Via Domus. The launch trailer was shown at Comic-Con 2007. The second trailer was released later on, and included more game footage and information about the plot. The third trailer was released after Via Domus was in stores.

Reception[]

Lost: Via Domus was received with average reviews by critics and the fan community. On GameRankings, the game has a an average ratio of 58% [5]. Metacritic's score for the game is 52 [6]. Many sources indicated that only fans of Lost would enjoy the game, while others would not understand the plot [7] and/or enjoy it [8][9].

Negatively received components included: the poor voice acting [10] (with IGN calling Locke an "old timey prospector" and Sawyer "Huckleberry Hound" [11]), the short length of the game [12], the "poorly implemented" action sequences [13], and the appearance of the characters [14] (Jorge Garcia commented on his blog that Hurley was the scariest thing he'd ever seen in a video game [15]).

Positively received aspects of the game were: the ability to explore many well-presented existing and new Island locations [16] [17] [18], the twist ending [19][20], the dialogue options [21], and the flashback sequences [22][23].

Sequel[]

As presumed, Zygos Games had heard rumours that Lost: Via Domus might be getting a sequel. If so, the game was set to be released in 2010, after the show's end, but it would not be a direct sequel of Via Domus. Ubisoft hoped that this would help bypass some of the heavy limitations of the original game, for instance they weren’t allowed to show all of the island. However, nothing concrete was ever apparently developed for a sequel.

Credits[]

Trivia[]

Temppackshot

A pre-release promotional cover

  • When the initial trailer was released, most people assumed the main character Elliott was Jack for many reasons; The trailer was short, of low quality and the only promotional material available at the time, Jack is usually the main character in Lost, Elliott and Jack look similar, and no other information had yet been released.
  • Elliott chases visions of Lisa around the Island in much the same way Jack pursued visions of Christian. ("White Rabbit")
  • Elliott escapes the Island in a small white boat on a compass bearing of 325. ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 2")
  • Once Juliet deactivates the sonar fence at the start of "Whatever It Takes", the player can pass through the fence and head right into a small clearing (rather than left into the Flame). Here one can find a capsule from the Pearl; picking it up will warp the player to the Pearl station, where they can access the Pearl's computer to check the status of the other stations on the Island.
  • There are a number of ways to die in this game. You can walk near a jet turbine at the crash site, fail to turn off the gas to the jet turbine, not push the button while in the Swan, enter 77 into the Flame's computer, fall off a cliff, walk in between the sonar fence pylons when they're turned on, get shot by the Others, run for too long while carrying the dynamite, or you can get beaten to death by the Monster.

Recurring themes[]


Bloopers and continuity errors[]

Please note, that although the series' producers state this game is only loosely canon, the fact that the story reboots itself to the first day of Oceanic Flight 815's crash on the island at the end of the game means that ALL of these continuity errors really mean nothing. Meaning technically nothing that happens in the game contradicts anything in the TV series.

  • The game opens with Elliott talking on the phone moments before the crash. However, in the show we know that the plane, six hours after leaving the airport, lost any kind of communication with the outside world. ("Pilot, Part 1")
  • Shortly before the crash, a voice asks passengers to sit down while Cindy chases Charlie to the bathroom. However, in the show it is Cindy herself who announces this. ("Pilot, Part 2")
  • The day after the crash, Elliott witnesses Jack, Kate and Charlie coming running out of the jungle, chased by the Monster, even though they were able to walk back to the beach camp without further encounters with the monster. ("Pilot, Part 2")
    • Furthermore, Jack is still wearing his full suit when they run out of the jungle, even though he only wore his suit pants and white t-shirt on the mission to the cockpit.
  • Locke tells Elliott to hide in the bamboo groves if the Monster attacks, yet at this point in the timeline Locke had never even encountered the monster.
  • Michael is shown collecting wood for the raft on day 2, when he really starts building it weeks later. ("Special")
  • The beginning of Episode 4 depicts the explosion of the Swan Station hatch, and the next morning Locke can be found on the beach. However in the show, Locke spends at least a day in the Hatch before returning to the beach.
  • The ladder in the hatch is shown to descend all the way down, but we know that the ladder barely descended a few feet because it was broken. ("Man of Science, Man of Faith")
  • Hurley mentions his encounter with Dave on Day 45, although in the show Dave was not seen on the Island until Day 62. ("Dave")
  • Although Episode 6 clearly takes place prior to the end of Season 2, checking the Flame computer will reveal that the satellite and sonar communications are already inoperative, prior to the discharge that supposedly caused this. ("Not in Portland")
  • In episode 7, Ben tells Elliott he can leave the island if he just brings him Jack. However, we know that Ben had planned to take Jack, as well as Kate and Sawyer to convince him to do the operation. ("Exposé")
  • There is a typo in the help pamphlet on page 2 (XBOX 360-game controls) where the B button is labeled X and vice versa.
  • The door that leads into the Flame has a Swan logo on it. ("Whatever It Takes")
  • At the end of Episode 5, Elliot goes behind the magnetic wall in the hatch and turns off the machine so that he can follow his compass. However, minutes before the Swan's implosion in the season two finale, Eko makes a point of removing Charlie's metallic belt and throwing it at the wall, where it sticks. Hence, the reactor was never turned off. ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1")
  • The last half of Episode 7 appears to occur mere hours/minutes before the Discharge, however Jack, Kate, and Locke do not appear where they would be expected to be in that time frame. Jack and Kate should be trekking across the jungle with Sawyer, Hurley, and Michael, but instead are with Elliot at the Black Rock. Locke should be in The Hatch, but instead is there to greet Elliot as he departs the island.
  • Many of the dialogue subtitles incorrectly read "Dharma", however it should be "DHARMA", as it is an acronym.

Did not appear in the game[]

SawyerCaves

Sawyer at the caves

There were many things that were supposed to appear in Via Domus but never did. Many screenshots from the launch trailer never appeared in the final version.

  • Early production videos of the game showed Shannon as being in the game, but she never did.
  • In the trailer, Locke was seen inside the Swan, but he never appeared there in the game.
  • The unidentified "Flash" Logo appeared in the trailer, but never in the game.
  • A picture showed Sawyer at the caves with Michael, but he never appeared there in the game.
  • A picture from the trailer showed a metal door that never appeared in the game.
  • The box art features main characters from the series - however, one character on the box art (Eko) never appears on the island. He is only briefly seen standing on the second floor at the Hotel Persephone during a flashback, and one main character appears in the game but not on the box art (Michael Dawson). Michael's absence from the box art could be explained by the fact that the box art utilizes Season 3 promotional materials and Michael was no longer a main character in Season 3.

Cultural references[]

Unanswered questions[]

Unanswered questions
  1. Do not answer the questions here.
  2. Keep the questions open-ended and neutral: do not suggest an answer.
For fan theories about these unanswered questions, see: Lost: Via Domus/Theories
  • Who was Elliott talking to on the phone in the opening scene of "Force Majeure"?
  • How did Beady Eyes acquire a gun in "A New Day"?
  • What was Jin doing in the jungle at nighttime in "Via Domus"?
  • Why were many of the Others stationed in the jungle and shooting people on sight?
  • Why didn't Juliet and her crew simply tranquilize Beady Eyes and capture him on Day 65?
  • What was Beady Eyes doing between days 1 and 65?
  • How did the time loop cause Lisa to be alive, and a passenger of Flight 815?


Gallery[]


See also[]

External links[]

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