- Developer: Zoink Games, Thunderful Group
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- Release Date: 10/9/2021
- Price: £24.99 / $29.99
- Review code provided by Electronic Arts
Introduction to the Lost in Random Review
Regular readers will know that I love games with unique mechanics. When I first saw the trailer for Lost in Random I was already hooked. The dark atmosphere of the world alongside a unique twist on dice roll combat, well, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this game. If it isn’t clear that I am going into this Lost in Random review with high hopes, well that would be an understatement. Let’s see if it managed to live up to the hype.
A Twisted Tale of Loss
The story of Lost in Random at its core is a tale of loss for the major characters involved. This is told to us from the very first scene of the game, where we are shown two young friends battling against monsters with their reality bending die companions. Though a stray attack kills the one friend and is lost in her grief, the remaining character, later turned The Queen, twists the world in her image and hides all knowledge of the dice, making it impossible for others to undo her new world.
Thus we get to the sibling pair of Even and Odd in the new world of Random. The world of Random is separated into six different cities, each with different traits associated with them. Upon the age of twelve, the children of Random roll the Queen’s black die. This roll determines which of the six cities that child will live in. Through some underhanded trickery on the Queen’s part, Even’s older sister Odd rolls a six and is essentially kidnapped by the Queen to live in her palace.
After a year has passed, Even is awoken one night by a nightmare and a mysterious floating ghostly figure. She decides to follow the figure believing her sister to be in trouble. Thus starts the journey of Even meeting her own dice companion, Dicey, and traveling through Random to save her sister.
Dimension the Dice
The combat aspect of Lost in Random‘s game play is a rather unique system. On one-hand there is a real-time action component. Where you run around shooting a slingshot at blue boils on enemies in order to build up energy while swinging and shooting manifested weapons at enemies to defeat them. On the other hand you have the Dicemension mechanic.
By building up energy, you can roll your die companion Dicey and get energy to draw and play cards from your deck. While in the Dicemension, time is at a standstill while you choose what to play next. Cards in your deck have various effects, such as manifesting new weapons for Even to use, healing Even, applying debuffs like poison to your weapons, and even special actions.
Both of these systems together can make for a jarring but rather interesting game play experience for sure. One I can certainly say I enjoyed immensely, but that doesn’t mean it was perfect.
Where Did My Dicey Go
Yeah there were a few interesting glitches when throwing Dicey around. The one time I threw him and he just fell through the floor of the fight. Thankfully, ordering him back to me did work and it popped Dicey back to me. Though my energy had been expended. This however only happened once throughout my whole play time so your guess is as good as mine as to why it happened.
Love That World-building
I will be honest here. While the game play premise is what got me interested in Lost in Random to start with. The world and story behind it is what kept me there. While playing through the game you can complete various side quests and many expand upon the lore of the world. One development I found interesting is that there are beings in the world that remember a time prior to The Queen warping reality, though it is fragmented and fading.
There really is a lot that I don’t want to spoil here. Let’s just say that if you love deep world-building, then you will love the world of Random before you are done.
Pick a Card, Any Card
Where there are card battles there are usually deck building elements, and Lost in Random does not disappoint. You will primarily get new cards from the card seller wardrobe family. Cards come in four different types, but I will be honest when I say I mainly used two of them, basically the Weapon cards and support cards like healing and cost reduction cards.
It wasn’t that the other cards were designed poorly. Well most of them weren’t (the laser line between Dicey and Even card knows exactly what it did). It just felt like there wasn’t a whole lot of useful diversity in the game is all. I would have loved to see more variation in cards.
Now What Use Is That
Now, when you have a big expansive world such as that of Random you would need a way to help the player navigate it right? Well those behind Lost in Random did think of this and put a map in the game, and I use the term map loosely. Just look at that map, it is not very useful for navigating and might as well be window dressing for the art style of the game more than anything else.
Final Roll
Overall, I had a lot of fun doing this Lost in Random review. The game was basically exactly what I expected, a vibrant tale with a unique combat system that deserves the attention. Despite some issues I had with the game, it didn’t take away from the overall enjoyment. If you love lore based games then Lost in Random is right up your alley.
Pros:
- Interesting story and setting
- Unique gameplay mechanics
Cons:
- Map is relatively useless
- Limited card selection
- Minor glitches
Verdict
Lost in Random leads you through a world of loss, grief and confusion. Just don’t forget your own Dicey
