Wii Gamers Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked Video Game Review
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The Parts Keeping the Ship Afloat (3 out of 5)
Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked includes a nice variety of fun, engaging, satisfying and inventive mini-games that ramps up the adrenaline at many points, keeping the energy high and your mind involved in surviving on a deserted island.
Life on a deserted island would be slow, and the game pace reflects this nicely by challenging you to stay busy collecting the resources you would need to survive.
Lost in Blue has fun gameplay that is a little slow at first, but picks up speed. Eventually, you’ll be creating a new home with creature comforts, tools that will make survival easier, and even working with another survivor to stay alive until help arrives.
The Parts That are a Shipwreck (2 out of 5)
Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked concentrates on resource micro-management, which really slows the pace of the game at points. This makes staying alive and surviving on your island a bit tedious after awhile. The game also features a few frustrating game play elements which make it tough to explore the island, lowering the overall enjoyment level below where it should be.
The graphical presentation in Lost in Blue is average for a Wii title. It lacks detail and textures that other, more powerful consoles do a better job of reproducing and creating. Lost in Blue’s sound quality is also average. At times, it becomes irritating and frustrating to listen to, which further reduces the entertainment value of the game.
The Graphical Picture (3 out of 5)
The Wii console is under-powered compared to the PS3 or Xbox 360 consoles, and Lost in Blue’s graphical presentation highlights the problems with many Wii titles explicitly. The game is saddled with flat textures, simple undetailed character models, and a lack of the lush environments and atmospheres that would have brought your island paradise to life if they had been included.
Sounds in the Game (2 out of 5)
The sound quality include in Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked is even worse than the graphical presentation, with a sound track that varies between forgettable and repetitive and voice acting and dialogue they would have been better off leaving out.
The Story Line (3 out of 5)
You play the part of Aidan Sanders, a 16-year-old male child of privilege who survives a sinking cruise ship with his pet monkey Hobo. Aidan wakes up on the beach of a deserted island by himself. You must help him fend for himself on this desert island, scavenging food and supplies on the island, working to build makeshift tools, and providing yourself with the necessities of survival. You will eventually build a raft and make your way to a nearby island where you will find another survivor of the cruise ship. The two of you will work together to survive and try to make it home.
The story line of Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked can actually take four different directions, depending on your choices. However, the game doesn’t really spend a lot of time developing the story line, plot, or characters.
Feel Like Playing Again (3 out of 5)
Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked is the first entry in this series to be featured on the Wii. Rather than create a new, inventive and innovative experience for the Wii gamer, however, the larger theatre only magnifies the inherent problems of the earlier titles.
You need to take into account your food, water, stamina levels as you play. They will be in a constant state of decline, at least until you get settled into your new home. You will need to rest, eat, and drink often, and you’ll spend a lot of time fishing and hunting for food, rather than exploring.
The playability of Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked suffers from problems that will make it hard for you to explore at times. You will need to climb ledges, but the camera position makes climbing back down almost impossible.
Shipwrecked has a nice mini-map that shows you the immediate area, but if you get lost (which can happen quite often), finding your way back to camp using the min-map is almost impossible.
The title also includes a co-op mode for you and friends to play, but it just isn’t as much fun as single-player.
Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked is an adventure that spans a total of 101 in-game days on the island, at a rate of 1 hour per minute of real time. Thus, this is one title that can keep you busy for quite a while. Also, you can replay Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked as the Lucy character once you beat the game using Aidan in the single player mode or play a mission-based mode centered on two supporting characters.
The Final Word (3 out of 5)
The concept of Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked is one that would seem to be perfect for creating an engaging and fun video game adventure. Unfortunately, the game isn’t as much fun as the concept would seem to indicate. Despite this, Lost in Blue is a game I recommend to gamers who have always wondered what it would be like to be lost on a deserted island, as well as gamers who like to spend time building and creating things and players who like a slower game pace.
