When things go bump in the night...
Luckily the lost crown has no grandpa's, or bean casseroles thankfully, but instead takes you on a journey through a small english country town who has more dark secrets that may seem at first.
You play the role of an investigator/treasure hunter who came to the small town in search of the last saxon crowns, only to find out that the inhabitants aren't as welcoming and ordinary as you would expect. After settling in you start to notice a very eerie feeling about your new home, hearing strange noises and seeing shadows that shouldn't be there.
The Lost crown is simply a unique and terrifying point-n-click adventure which will keep fans of the paranormal intrigued and without sleep for a few days.
* Graphics 6/10 *
The overall graphics isn't that bad but not really good enough by today's standards either. Most of the environments and details in the game are actual photos, which give the idea that this town exists and the 3d models fit perfectly with almost no overlapping s.The entire game is played in black and white, where some objects will be coloured from time to time, to create and interesting feel (a lot like sin city's style). An annoying thing though is the animation, which is awful. Your character's walking loop is a bit stiff and it looks like his hovering instead of actually walking on the ground.When the characters interact, their mouths simply open and close like a nutcracker doll, so to sum it up, you'll be playing with puppets in a realistic looking environment.
* Gameplay 7/10 *
Now the game is a simple point-n-click adventure so not much originality there, but where the game gets real interesting is when you get to play with your ghost hunting gadgets! You'll get a bunch of interesting tools a little later in the game when you are hired by some company to photograph paranormal activity for research purposes, these range from a night vision video camera, an EMV, digital camera and a voice recorder which you'll be using a lot. (You'll get some really chilling results!)
Unfortunately the inventory system is a bit dull and like most adventure games you'll be moving the items onto characters only to hear the same kind of dialogue over and over (for eg. Why would I want to do that, nope, no way! etc.). The puzzles are mysterious and interesting and will take you deep down into places you would never dare venture, to try and solve them.
(especially the bathroom and the museum). There are unfortunately only 8 saves which aren't enough.
* Sound 8/10 *
Nothing is more scary than a sudden disturbing creak and bump when you're trying to get some sleep, and this game can get your hairs raising with its superb ambiance. At some points the sounds didn't make sense, like a sudden cough in a graveyard in the middle of the night mixed in with noisy winds and owls?
The dialogue and voice actors are plain average. This isn't the best voice acting ever heard in a game but it ain't the worst either, and the dialogue is interesting but can get very boring after awhile and unfortunately you can't always skip the dialogue either.
* Overall 8/10 *
The lost crown is a surprise hit with a bland presentation that anyone with an interest in adventure and the paranormal would soon find themselves immersed, just don't play this game too late at night if you are easily scared by noises. ;-)