LOST BROTHERS Preview for Steam Early Access

Produced and developed by BitLight, Lost Brothers is a first-person adventure game where the protagonist, John, attempts to follow a mysterious woman trapped in a landmine using nothing but a compass, map, and a walkie-talkie he finds in the forest. Among this already mysterious journey into a landmine with a labyrinth to find an unknown woman, John confronts his inner conflicts as he visits the forest where his brother went missing years prior.

Sound

Pros

• The music is initially quite enjoyable to listen to, especially in the beginning where the story establishes its premise under the nighttime stars while camping.
• Because of the generally calming and predictable nature of the music, there are no surprises/random and unfitting soundtracks. In addition, the music is also not poorly produced, so it does not sound awful on headphones, which is the preferable experience (in my opinion).

Cons

• The music, at first, is nice until the player realizes that the music does not deviate from its default all that much throughout the game, making for a less-than-exciting experience.
• At one point, the music loops over and over so much that it just sort of becomes white noise to the player.

Graphics

Pros

• Setting design of areas that do not require much light are actually not that bad at all.
• The sky and flowing waters are perhaps the best animated features of the game.

Cons:

• Dialogue font is regrettable — it’s like Comic Sans, but only ever-so-slightly better.
• Graphics design in terms of settings in lower lit areas are not that bad, as aforementioned, but it’s a shame that there was not as much effort put into every other graphically designed area of the game.

Plot

Pros

• Starting off on a visual backstory with a mysterious objective to fulfill, the story is actually quite interesting and enjoyable in the beginning.
• Dialogue is not terrible and is not overly dramatized.

Cons

• The plot overall honestly is not very amusing as time goes on. It trails off and does not give much transitional attention from the backstory to the main plot.
• The plot is almost hard to keep track of because dialogue will just play without warning or acknowledgement. There is also no way to check dialogue history or recheck the current objective.
• There are very little achievements or sub-goals to do that helps keep the player interested throughout the game. It really is just quite a lot of walking.
• The player’s character is sort of rude for no reason. This, in conjunction to the fact that the plot is not incredibly serious/attention-grabbing in the first place, hurts the connection and sympathy the player should have for their character and the story.
• Despite having somewhat of a choice in dialogue, there really is no difference in what the player picks, as it does not have any actual influence to the story or ending.

Gameplay

Pros

• Controls are easy to remember and easy to get used to. Navigation is quite efficient using the mouse in conjunction with the arrow keys/WASD keys to move.

Cons

• The player is somewhat supposed to be using a “compass” that is confusing and not actually super pertinent to the player’s progress. After a while of trying to figure out which way pointed north and which way pointed south (there were two points with no distinguishing feature of where north is), I finally gave up and continued walking on trails that lead me to my intended destination anyway (this moreso is applicable in the forest part of the game).
• Pressing shift in addition with walking seems to make the player go at a faster pace(?) but the difference is so slight that it barely makes any difference.

Check Out the Lost Brothers Steam Trailer:

Lost Brothers is available for PC for $8.99 via Steam Early Access.