Having just finished watching the third season of 'Lost' — yes, I was a bit slow — I was practically salivating for the game-based-on-the-TV-series to come out.

Add to this the fact that I grew up playing the 'Myst' games over and over again and you'll understand how much I've been looking forward to this one.

Alas, the actual game is a mixed bag of goodies.

I'll get into the nitty-gritty soon, but firstly it must be said in all fairness that Ubisoft had an immensely difficult task laid out for them. To capture the atmosphere, intensity, mystery and sheer grit of the TV series, is not something you accomplish without breaking a sweat.

And as far as games go that are based on a movie or a TV series, 'Lost' the game is actually not all that bad. It could have been a lot better, but it could also have been a lot worse.

You play as a character that's not featured in the TV series, nor has your tale got anything to do with the show's plotline. You did land on the island together with the rest of the survivors of Oceanic Air flight 815 and you do interact with all the main characters from the TV series though, but if you were hoping to better understand what is happening in the show, then move along.

Your character wakes up with complete amnesia, only to discover that someone on the island is after him. Of course, he doesn't have a clue why and it's your job to take him through his steps so that he can unravel the mystery.

The one obnoxious pebble in my gaming shoe is the inconsistencies in quality. It's almost as if the different departments working on this game didn't talk to one another, or operated without good oversight.

Case in point: the game really lacks solid atmosphere. The graphics are good — although inconsistencies also occur here, what with certain parts of the game looking much better than other parts — but it's not enough to build atmosphere.

However, when you look at how the stylish start-up page, the flashbacks and the transition between areas and chapters practically drowns you in atmosphere, then the lack of atmosphere in the general gameplay is glaring.

Sure, the story is intriguing enough and one will finish the game simply to see what happens in this side story, but there's very little else to keep you interested.

The game does manage to reflect the TV series' ability to use the relative lack of sound to make a scene scream at you, but only in some situations. The voice-overs are respectable, although you'll be playing the "is this the real actor's voice, or a good substitute?" guessing game throughout.

If you were hoping to engage in a lot of brain-work a la 'Myst' style, then forget about that right away. Where the 'Myst' series forced you to think, 'Lost' is little more than connecting the dots. And, seeing as the game is not that long at all, there's not even a lot of that.

It literally feels like you're being led from one point to the next, with the mini-games being little more than exercises in trial-and-error. It requires more brain time to figure out what the hell is going on in the TV series, than the game requires of you.

Incidentally, if you haven't watched the TV show yet, then this game will be utterly... lost... on you.

So the bottom line is that to fans, 'Lost' does succeed in at least keeping them interested. As a puzzle-solving adventure game, however, it doesn't really make it on any level, nor will it attract new fans to the TV series.