Lost Horizon (computer game)

Lost Horizon is a point-and-click adventure from Animation Arts that was published in 2010 and developed in Germany and which, among other things, also created Tunguska secret files . As part of a story that affects certain areas of classic cinema adventures , the player takes on the role of the daredevil Fenton Paddock .

action

Hong Kong , 1936. Fenton Paddock, former British Army officer and current pilot and aviation entrepreneur, receives an assignment from the local governor of the United Kingdom: Lord Weston asks him to look for a missing military force who was to explore Tibet on a top-secret mission . Among them was Weston's son Richard, who was also Paddock's best friend. After escaping the captors of a local gang of crooks, Fenton goes on a search and finds the first clues with the command's cartographer. At the same time he meets Kim again: both an old friend and the niece of the now deceased cardmaker. Together they both manage to escape after Fenton is chased again by attackers.

The duo make their way to the Himalayas , where Paddock and Kim discover a hidden camp of Nazi soldiers . Led by the scientist Hanna Countess von Hagenhild, they try to discover a secret that seems to be hidden in an old monastery. Fenton and Kim sneak into the camp as well as into the monastery and gradually discover the true background:

Both the British troops sent by Weston and the Nazis are in search of Shambala , a legendary empire hidden in the Tibetan mountains and containing a mysterious power that enables its ruler to influence human spirit and matter. In the monastery there is an entrance to Shambala, which can only be opened through certain medallions.

In the course of the plot, Fenton travels via Morocco and Germany to India to get hold of a second access artifact after Hagenhild's henchmen were able to take a first from him. Eventually, both the Germans and paddock get to Shambala. Supported by Richard, who lives and has also come to the Reich before, it is ultimately up to Fenton to keep the Nazis from their plan ...

Game principle and technology

Lost Horizon is a 2.5D point-and-click adventure . For polygons composite, three-dimensional figures act before hand-drawn, some animated scenes. The player can use the mouse to move his character through the locations and use the mouse buttons to initiate actions that allow the character to interact with his environment. Fenton can find objects, apply them to the environment or other objects and communicate with NPCs . As the story progresses, more locations will be unlocked. The camera shows what is happening from a frontal perspective; If the player leaves the field of vision within a room, the camera moves in the respective direction. Dialogues take place via context-related selection menus.

Production notes

Characters and voice actors

character	German speaker
Fenton Paddock	Stefan Günther
Kim Wuang	Farina Brock
Hanna Countess von Hagenhild	Kathrin Simon
Richard	Christian Baumann
monk	Peter Musäus
Shen / fruit dealer	Tobias Lelle
dancer	Ulrike Dostal
Bat 1 / Kim's father	Torsten Münchow
Thug 2 / soldier in the monastery 2 / stadium announcer / soldier at turbine	Crock Krumbiegel
Mun Tong	Ekkehardt Belle
Kleist / fight organizer	Hans-Georg Panczak
Gus	Norbert Gastell
Adjutant Huxley	Claus Brockmeyer
Governor Weston	Thomas Rauscher
police officer	Thomas Albus
Street boy Hao	Tobias John von Freyend
Helpful Chinese Nianzu	Harry bag maker
Wuang / shaman	Manfred Erdmann
Thomas / nomad	Philipp Moog
Soldier in barracks / Monsieur Lacoste	Andreas Neumann
Soldier by the truck / waiter	Philipp Brammer
Interrogator / Berber	Ulf J. Söhmisch
Soldier checking the truck	Gerhard Acktun
Stewardess / telephone voice	Sonja Reichelt
Textile merchant	Reinhard Brock
Professor Hayes	Niels Clausnitzer
Gendarme / Promoter / Thimblerigger / Glen / Station Guard	Daniel Curshen
Glenn	Max fields
Guard at the stadium	Ulrich Frank
Age in the village	Michael Gahr
Measuring judges	Gudo Hoegel
Mother	Anita Höfer
Man in stadium	Christoph Jablonka
Kim (young)	Leslie-Vanessa Lill
Scientist Schaumberger	Erich Ludwig
Kim's mother	Melanie Manstein
Count of Droste Schattenburg	Leon Rainer
Craftsman	Michael Schernthaner
Game aid	Christian Schult
Gendarme	Michael Schwarzmaier
Organ grinder	Kai Taschner
Edison	Walter von Hauff

successor

In 2015, Lost Horizon 2 was released, a successor also developed by Animation Arts and distributed by Deep Silver.

reception

Lost Horizon achieved a score of 77 from 24 aggregated ratings on Metacritic . GameRankings aggregated ten ratings to a score of 81%.

Awards

2010: German developer award , category "Best Adventure"

Trivia

The Shambala themed in Lost Horizon has real backgrounds. In the Tibetan faith it is the name of a mysterious kingdom. For the game it was obviously embellished a bit and added elements of the Shangri-La legend. In fact, there is the 1937 film Lost Horizon by Frank Capra , which served as inspiration for various computer games.
In the dialogues occurring in the game, the characters acting in each case are represented by drawn likenesses at the bottom of the picture. Here one fell back partly on the facial features of well-known actors. Among others, you can guess Heath Ledger (Richard Weston), Ernest Borgnine (Gus), John Candy (policeman at the Governor's Palace), Lucy Liu (stewardess), Treat Williams (German referee) and James Franco (Glenn Parker).
As part of the storyline Fenton Paddock also engages in the events of the Olympic Games of Berlin one. Here he has to help his former army colleague Glenn Parker to win the decathlon against local hero Erwin Huber . The decathlete Huber actually existed: he finished fourth in this discipline in 1936 behind three Americans. The name of the Briton Glenn Parker, however, was invented and composed of two other athletes: the then gold medalist Glenn Morris and the third-placed Jack Parker .
Shortly after the game was released, a possible bug was discussed in various internet forums , which in the end did not turn out to be such: At a certain point in the final, the player got stuck because an object that had been moved shortly before had disappeared. The problem only occurred with older, slower computers and was due to a graphic discrepancy between the 2D game surface and the 3D game characters.
In the Himalayas, Fenton Paddock finds a red tent peg in the tent in which the British soldier is "tortured" with German music. In the adventure genre, a Red Herring is an object that is actually completely useless and can only be taken with you. The herring can still be used in the game, for example to open a tool box, release signs and open a tin can.

Web links

Lost Horizon at MobyGames (English)

Individual evidence

↑ Adventure-Treff.de: Lost Horizon. Retrieved September 8, 2017 .
↑ GameStar.de: Lost Horizon in the test - the only thing missing is the whip. Retrieved September 8, 2017 .
↑ ^a ^b GameRankings.com: Lost Horizon. Retrieved September 8, 2017 .
↑ ^a ^b Metacritic.com: Lost Horizon. Retrieved September 8, 2017 .

[AT-1] Adventure-Treff.de: Lost Horizon. Retrieved September 8, 2017 .

[GS-2] GameStar.de: Lost Horizon in the test - the only thing missing is the whip. Retrieved September 8, 2017 .

[GR-3] GameRankings.com: Lost Horizon. Retrieved September 8, 2017 .

[MC-4] Metacritic.com: Lost Horizon. Retrieved September 8, 2017 .