The Lost Crown

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The Lost Crown review
Caitlin Roberts

Review

Black & white adventuring never was this good

Drawn in


I have been a longtime fan of puzzle/mystery adventure games, but it has been a long time since one truly held my attention and interest. Recently the genre has swung to the extremes for me; on the one end of the spectrum, many releases have been so short -and in the case of the CSI series, made shorter by being played in stand alone 'episodes'- that I can barely 'get into' the game before it is finished. The other end of the spectrum are the games which have made the opening puzzle -the one that actually allows you to enter the storyline- so frustratingly difficult or obscure that I all but throw my hands up in disgust before I have even really started. So it was with some trepidation that I started playing The Lost Crown.

Fortunately, and despite a slightly rocky start which I will expand upon later, The Lost Crown turned out to be neither of these. In fact, I got so deeply involved that I tended to forget to take notes, or screenshots, and actually delayed the writing of the review far past when it should have been completed simply because I wanted to finish.

A story to tell


Your name is Nigel Danvers, a slightly bored employee of the Hadden Corporation. One afternoon you get into some files which you should not have seen, documents which prove the existence of paranormal activity measurement devices that Hadden Corporation has developed. After the alarms are set off when the security breach is detected, you find yourself on the run with a pair of Hadden security goons on your tail. Ducking into the train station at Liverpool, you hop on to the only train available only to find yourself stranded the next morning at a station in the middle of seemingly nowhere. It turns out that the train can't continue on to the closest village due to a flooding in the marshes. Nor, you are told by the station master, can you get back on the train you just disembarked, to return to London. You are stuck, and your only choice is to hide out here at the small village of Saxton.

In Saxton, they appear to be almost expecting you; though they have you pegged as a treasure hunter. You are quickly drawn in by the village events, including a problem with missing cats, a May Day fair coming up in a few days, and, of course, the tales of mythical treasure to be found here, including The Lost Crown of Ganwulf. You soon find yourself immersed in mysteries just waiting to be solved and book a place to stay for a few days until things quiet down in London and your pursuers lose the trail.

Not all is as it seems in this quiet seaside town, however, and mysterious things almost immediately begin to happen. There are hints of paranormal activity in the area, and unexplained phenomenon are occurring around you. When you contact Hadden to try to work out a deal, he is not only fully aware of your whereabouts, but in a twist of serendipity, he informs you a package is on its way to you. When it arrives, you find yourself equipped with the latest in paranormal activity measurement devices, and your adventure truly begins. Your sometime partner in investigation, Lucy Reubens, is a local, headstrong, sarcastic psychology student. Together you hunt for clues that will lead you to the location of the missing crown, seek the cause of the missing cats, and search for ways to assist a number of tortured souls whom are haunting various locations in and around Saxton to find peace at last.

8.0

fun score

No Pros and Cons at this time