Successfully combining games with other mediums requires a delicate balance. Music-based games need functional and slick control methods to make them appealing, whereas movie games must resemble the source material without being restricted by the plot or world within the film. Lost: The Video Game, or to use its actual title, Lost: Via Domus, tries some neat new tricks to find this balance. Some of these succeed, some of these fail and others are almost functional but just miss the mark. For fans of the series, this is worth a purchase due to how faithfully it recreates the show's universe. It also throws in a wealth of Easter eggs and nods to the first three seasons, which die-hard fans will enjoy picking up on. For non-viewers this will confuse and irritate, with the effort gone into recreating the original story arc being lost in translation.

Plot-wise, this a bold attempt. Each level is broken down into a short episode that can usually be completed within forty minutes, complete with the familiar 'Previously on Lost...' voiceover and recaps of past levels, to remind you of what has come before. Combined with the original orchestral soundtrack, fans will be instantly comfortable with the feel of the whole package. Starting with the very first episode in which Oceanic Flight 815 breaks apart and crash lands on a mysterious island, you control a survivor suffering from amnesia and it's your job to help him regain his shattered memories and escape alive.

The movement is standard for third person game; left stick for navigation, right for camera, triggers for aim and shoot, and the face buttons for performing actions. Running around the jungle at first is simple, but, true to the show, it's easy to get lost in the dense vegetation. Visually the game is quite pleasing, with some crisp textures and atmospheric lighting effects shining through the trees. Your first task is to find your way back to the crash site, which is faithfully recreated from the show, by following Vincent, the show's resident canine, all the way back to the beach through the winding trees. The game eases you into the control method, although due to a lack of signposting, presumably in a bid to enforce the fact that you are in fact lost in an unfamiliar environment, it becomes almost too easy to lose your way at such an early stage of the game. Stray too far from the dog and you have to start over. Multiple retries are a common necessity in this game, and while a wealth of restart points goes some way to rectifying this situation, having to watch unskippable cut scenes each time you do so is both unnecessary and unforgivable.

Once you make it back to the crash site on the beach, the amount of painstaking care put into recreating the feel of the show becomes apparent. Leading man Jack tries desperately to resuscitate a dead passenger, Michael runs around like crazy trying to find his missing son ("WAAAAAAALT!!!") and druggie Charlie wanders aimlessly, staring into space, just as they all did in the pilot episode. However, it's fan-favourite Hurley who steals the show here, looking the most like his real-life counterpart and delivering the game's best dialogue. All the character models are great and almost all of them look like the actors, but some lack any real emotion in their facial animations and the awesome Desmond looks more like a wax figure left out in the sun too long than the psychic hard man we all know and love.

Chat to a character and they'll respond with some dialogue which is well scripted, but it's obvious that some of the characters are voiced by very good sound-a-likesm while others are the real deal. Again, I'm still unsure if Hurley's casting choice is a stand-in or the superb Jorge Garcia - either way, kudos! When you interact with someone you are presented with a number of possible responses. This is where the game almost enters point and click territory, sans pointing or clicking, but with the variety of dialogue paths and outcomes. Asking dumb questions won't get you very far but have very little impact on the game's outcome, which is a shame, because this would have worked a treat here. In some, very rare, instances, you may skip to a cut scene or obtain an item through your response, but not enough to have it count as a part of the gameplay dynamic.

Each mission plays a different way. All are third person, but most have different functions laid out on the controller. For example, while running around the mad crash site like a headless chicken for a while, Jack asks you to help Locke (or 'Cue Ball' as bad-boy Sawyer refers to him here - brilliant!) in stopping jet fuel leaking from the fuselage. To block the pipe you must access an electric panel and play a mini-game similar to Bioshock's hacking system and Pipemania's gameplay respectively. This is a simple puzzle game in which you must override switches by re-routing power supplies and such. Some are incredibly taxing and well thought out but offer only a mild distraction or annoyance, depending on how you view puzzlers.

Throughout the game you will visit beached galleon The Black Rock to collect dynamite, with several hilarious Hurley moments relating to the unfortunate explodification of a certain character (you will know what this means if you watch the show). Other missions place you in the infamous hatch, entering the 'cursed' numbers to avert disaster or getting chased by the mysterious and deadly black smoke monster, complete with disturbing roar and tree-smashing abilities. This really is a care package for all those diehard fans who have stuck through the twisting and often downright confusing storylines of the show. Other fan boy moments include finding a dead polar bear in a dark and dangerous cave system, finding Apollo chocolate bars (Hurley's favourite apparently) for bartering with other survivors and the chilling sound effect of the hatch override system.

The bartering system in particular appears clever at first, but all it does is place a monetary value on food and items of interest that you find scattered around the undergrowth. These can be traded for guns, torches and other items that are essential for your survival. There is never a shortage of items to trade however, so the 'every man for himself' ethos present in the first season never really hits home here. However, perhaps the most interesting aspect of the game is the flashback system. All your character can remember about himself at first is that he is a photo journalist. Camera in hand, you can snap items of interest in a bid to unlock more Easter eggs and other hidden bonuses. This sounds like a fun distraction, but by examining items you are told which ones can be snapped for unlockables, thus removing the challenge.

Flashbacks, however, are triggered by things people say or do. You are then transported back to a moment in your character's life before the crash and presented with a torn up photograph, representing his broken memories. Your job is to walk around the flashback scene and replicate that picture, thereby unlocking the memory and the facts therein. This actually works really well, although sometimes even though it appears that you are nailing the shot dead on, it won't register, resulting in a few retries. Once you get the photo a cut scene plays, feeding you a little bit more information on your past each time. This character's story is not bad at all, clearly written by one of the show's writers in the way it ties in with other character's back-stories.

This is a bold attempt at making a game worthy of the show's legacy. It sounds, feels and looks like the Lost we know and love, but some factors simply do not fit. Signposting isn't great, especially the first time you venture into the dark cave networks; it's fun for a while but gets annoying really fast. The sections when you are being pursued by the smoke monster are tense but irritating due to how easy it is to get killed in the later sections, especially the one where you have to outrun the monster at walking pace due to holding sensitive dynamite. Move too fast to hide from it and boom! Another retry.

As a big fan of the show, I can fully appreciate what Ubisoft have done with the source material to make it into something that may not be groundbreaking but, just like creator JJ Abrams, they sure know how to keep me hooked until the very end. Transferring the 'need to know' mystique surrounding the series into game format feels like a success to me, but this will alienate casual fans or those uninterested, although it seems unlikely that non-Lost fans would buy this in the place. In short, Lost is an average game, made more appealing by its ability to tell a story. However, this attitude rarely cuts it in the game world and Ubisoft seem to have missed a trick here.

While the atmosphere and character of the island and its locales are faithfully represented, sadly, the characters lack the same recognisable identity. They look and sound somewhat similar to the actors, but you still feel that you cannot relate to them, or their troubles, thanks to the poor facial animations and emotionless dialogue (save for a few characters). Lost: The Video Game relies on your love for the TV show and if this is wavering in any way then you won't appreciate what the game is trying to achieve. If this is the case then you can be forgiven, as it seems that the developer has strived to make this 'one for the diehard fans'. In turn this has raised fan expectations too high, excluding the casual viewer. As bald-headed nut job John Locke said, "This island brought us here for a reason." Will you have a good enough reason to play through the game? Wait for the price to drop a tad and find out for yourself.

Reviewed by Dave Cook for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).