Disappointing even for its time
To understand "Lost Eden", you need to understand its origins. In 1984, David Lynch completed the unenviable task of translating Frank Herbert's sci-fi opus to the silver screen. Although critically panned, it became something of a cult classic. In 1992, Cryo Interactive - under the aegis of Virgin Games - released a game that owed as much to the movie as the original novel. The game - simply entitled Dune - was an odd mixture of adventure and strategy, but is probably better remembered - especially its later CD-ROM release - as being one of the earliest true multimedia experiences, with speech and video prominent parts of the game. Although only a moderate success, it was enough to keep the franchise alive until Westwood games took over the license and created Dune II, which set the template for all modern real-time strategy games and is far better remembered.
Meanwhile, Cryo Interactive, having lost the Dune license, decided to create a game based on their own intellectual property, a strange pre-historic world where dinosaurs and humans co-existed. It was, essentially, a clone of the original Dune albeit one where they doubled-down on the multimedia aspects that won them so much praise. Thus was born "Lost Eden".
Unfortunately, their efforts were largely for naught. While "Lost Eden's" production values still hold up well - if you take into account that there has been twenty years of technological advancement - this isn't enough to save the game. Yes, the computer-generated backgrounds, CGI animations and techno soundtrack are still appealing, the gameplay itself is completely lacking. The adventure-game sequences are totally linear, with "puzzles" that are little more than knowing to click the right thing in the right order (albeit with very little clues ever given as to what that order actually /is/). Nominally there is a strategy element as you strive to build up your armies to beat off the ravaging "Tyran" hordes, but this too is extremely superficial. It is entirely comprised of stumbling upon your allies by randomly clicking on a map and giving them the necessary items - also found by randomly clicking on the map - required for them to build citadels and armies strong enough to withstand the barbarian onslaught. Actual battles are all fought off-screen. The story is equally poor, with forgettable characters and goals and a dull deus-ex machina conclusion.
"Lost Eden" is an interesting historical footnote and its visuals and music still have some appeal, but none even when it was new this was not enough to carry the game, much less two decades on.
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