Recenze Lost in Random » Vortex
A dark fairytale world, chance and fortune, rescuing a kidnapped sister and a great adventure. This is how the game Lost in Random could be described, which is another magical game after Fe from the Swedish studio Zoink within EA Originals. The game attracted to a unique dueling system with cards and a dice roll, an engaging story and beautiful art. So is it worth going to this world and tasting the experience it offers?
The world of Random is controlled by rolling the dice. Everyone who reaches the age of 12 must throw it in order to determine his fate. Each number on the cube then identifies where it belongs for the rest of your life. The higher the number, the better the city. Or at least at first glance. And so the poor Onecroft, the bifurcated Two-Town, the war-torn Threedom, the ravaged Fourburg, the intricate Fivetropolis and the breathtaking Sixtopia are offered. The story follows sisters Odd and Even, who live with their parents in Onecroft. When the moment of truth comes for the older Odd and he has to roll the dice, number six falls to her and disappears into Sixtopia together with the evil queen who rules this strange realm.
And here begins the long journey for Even and the players to save the Odd, as it is necessary to gradually overcome all the cities. Your companion is a dice named Dicey, who also stands by your side during fights with enemies and all sorts of queen hopscotch who are trying to stop you. The dice as a partner is indeed an unexpected ally, but what’s more, Dicey isn’t just a dice. Saving your neighbor, a long journey, an adventure, and some danger? Does that sound too common? Maybe so, but the way the game and the story are told is not common, mainly due to the plethora of all sorts of ideas.
Every city faces different problems, as do their inhabitants. Even so, he will meet a number of strange people and creatures. With some it’s just a stop to talk, others need help or can help Even. Using these interactions, we gradually uncover the secrets and pitfalls of this unusual world. The tasks are not monotonous and, together with the characters and the discussions with them, offer another view of local life. Although not all conversations lead to side tasks or necessary information, it is worth listening to them and gradually discussing everything possible. Sometimes, however, it is impossible not to notice that the game did not completely count on a different order of choice of replicas and the answer does not always fit exactly, but it is not essential.
The characters are all distinctive in a way, but some are, of course, more distinctive. For example, Seemore, who is not named by chance, the mayor of Two-Town and his colleague, the brave but lost Neeshka or the card merchant Mannie Dex, who took his fate maybe a little literally and sells the cards with his whole body. A special case is the narrator, who only does not comment on what he sees (me), or does not state the things to come, but aptly and humorously comments on the overall progress of the game. There are a number of interesting ideas connected with this, which would be a real shame to just reveal here. Although the game can be dark and serious, there were times when I laughed honestly and loudly with a lot of dialogue and interactions. There is definitely humor here, moreover it is nice and unobtrusive and there are a lot of puns, which is very nice. But let’s move on.
Beauty replaces beauty
What Lost in Random definitely attracts at first glance is the graphics. And in fact not only the whole artistic stylization, including animation. There is definitely something to admire and praise. The game plays with a slightly different color palette and amount of light in each city, as a whole the game acts as a mix of plasticine and wood. The environment is beautiful, but most of this impression is based on the characters, who act like wooden puppets, however, some movements also resemble plasticine animation. And it looks really impressive.
Regarding the art in the play, Tim Burton was often mentioned with reference to her theme, but during the performance I also thought about creators such as Adam Elliot or Aurel Klimt and Jiří Trnka. The game really looks like a charming and at the same time dark playable animator. As for the games directly, I couldn’t stop thinking about Alice: Madness Returns (thanks, editor’s note). However, it freezes a really noticeable repetition of character models, which are well done, but many of them really aren’t. As a result, you will begin to lose what name and story were assigned to which model and city. For me, this is literally the only flaw in beauty in this case.
Light playback and strong voice styling suits the characters and does not disturb them in any way. Many of the actors make really interesting creations on their characters, and meeting them is unforgettable thanks to the topics of conversation, whether funny or gloomy.
The atmosphere is impressively complemented by music. It also takes into account the setting of individual cities, supports the oppressive mood and in a while it can lighten everything again or even slip into comic recklessness, it describes moments of tension, adrenaline in combat and discovery and contemplation. It fully adapts to the story, environment and fight and works in symbiosis with the actual passage through the game. All this is enhanced by excellent voice-acting and very cleverly written dialogues. Leaving aside that at first the voices of the sisters seemed a little older than they should be, I can’t blame the single thing for dubbing in the game. His technical side is flawless and in terms of acting it is really a pleasure to listen to him. Light playback and strong voice styling suits the characters and does not disturb them in any way. Many of the actors make really interesting creations on their characters, and meeting them is unforgettable thanks to the topics of conversation, whether funny or gloomy.
In addition to the narrator, the most prominent characters in dubbing are, of course, Even and Odd, but I must also highlight the evil queen, Seemora, the mayor or Nanny Fortuna. And strangely, Dicey, though a mere cube, has something to say. Even if he is just incomprehensibly chattering, like some others in this world, he can have long interactions with him, from which you can learn many things somewhat unexpectedly. Perhaps the only thing missing for perfection is the tuned synchrony in terms of dubbing and animation of speech in the characters. At first, the non-sitting lip-sync seemed a bit like an intention that could reflect puppetry, but further and further in the game I dropped this view, because the overlaps would be too significant, it’s a pity. Overall, however, the audiovisual side will amaze and enchant.
Pitfalls and obstacles
I was a little embarrassed at the beginning of the fights, but the whole system is really well thought out and especially fun. The slingshot is not a weapon in itself, while wandering the world it is used to shoot down amphorae with coins, during a duel it breaks the crystals that charge the cards and randomly selects them from a deck of fifteen cards, which you can assemble yourself from acquired or purchased cards. Once you decide that there are enough of them, or that a matching card has appeared in the deck, just roll the dice. At that moment, the time stops during which you can pick up cards, but also move freely around enemies. Then just interrupt the throw, or attack and the game continues. However, each card costs points, depending on the number available to you, which falls on the dice.
It can happen that in the early stages of the game, luck will not be too inclined and you will not play more expensive cards, as the dots on the dice increase as the game progresses. It is therefore appropriate to pay attention to your deck, as well as to add new and better cards, which in later stages will not only help, but also make the whole gameplay special. In addition to regular fights, you can also come across special arenas operating on the principle of boards. Here, not only the cards rest on the roll of the dice, but also the progress of the piece on the playing area. These parts are offered by the fight a little differently thanks to different rules and principles, so it is an interesting specialty. I was not tired of the fights, but at the end of the game I had the feeling that some of the clashes may be too long, but fortunately the game was not running out of breath.
Unfortunately, the game is not spotless and I have to criticize the control on the keyboard and mouse significantly. This is simply quite clumsy and makes playing uncomfortable. Even ordinary movement spoils the impression of the environment and animation due to the continuous rotation of the camera. The fights didn’t go very well either, so I had to reach for the remote. DualSense had the disadvantage that the game was unable to recognize it, although I experienced vibrations while playing, so the interface did not change and the controls were a bit more complicated at first, but then there was not a single problem. In DualShock, on the other hand, the game has been fully adapted. With this, the title pleasantly surprised me right at the beginning and I believe that playing on a mouse and keyboard would not be very ideal and I would definitely not enjoy the game as much as I finally enjoyed it. Unfortunately, this can be an obstacle for PC gamers, and it would certainly help the game if the developers worked on the controls and especially the camera and sensitivities, as it would otherwise unnecessarily knock down a great game.
However, I will not hide my enthusiasm, Lost in Random simply fascinated me. At the same time, I think that five more praises here would probably not even be needed. Needless to say, what the developers promised, they really did. It really is an adventure, and not just any kind of adventure. If we add a fantastic audiovisual presentation and entertaining gameplay, we have another title under It Takes Two under the wings of Electronic Arts. And let’s hope it happens more often.
