Lost Lands: Dark Overlord starts off in a dark wooded area while you are busy on your phone and your son, Jimmy, wanders off. When his teddy bear is drawn into the forest, Jimmy chases after the toy and is dragged into a portal within a tree. You must enter the other realm to find Jimmy and save him from the sinister forces controlling the mysterious land.

Lost Lands: Dark Overlord has a lot going for it – the graphics and animation are well done, it contains bonus content, collectibles, achievements, integrated strategy guide, interactive map with active areas and fully customizable levels of play.

The storyline is intriguing for this type of game and I liked the concepts of the other worlds. However, for some reason Susan, the mom, and main character, annoyed the crap out of me, so I found it difficult to get into the game. Maybe it was the fact she was paying no attention to her child and let him wander into a dark forest to be kidnapped by evil creatures. Or, maybe it was her blasé attitude that really this was totally normal, and she could just go inside this glowing tree herself and find her son, no biggie.

But, from the start, Susan rubbed me the wrong way and probably tainted my view of the game to a degree.

That’s not to say I didn’t like Lost Lands: Dark Overlord at all, I really did enjoy the game and some of the features. The music wasn’t intrusive so I actually didn’t turn it down for once. I also really liked the detail of the other worlds, they reminded me of those created by Tolkien. 

When you first pass through the portal, you come across a friendly gnome-like creature who offers his help finding your son. He gives you a few clues about where to go and what to find, and you set off on the first part of your journey. For the most part, I found the gameplay logical, but I was glad to have the strategy guide close by when I got stuck at a few points. 

If you are expecting a hidden object adventure game, you may be disappointed. Lost Lands: Dark Overlord is rather light on the hidden object scenes. In my first half hour of play, I had only stumbled across one or two. The HOS are a good mix of finding silhouettes, progressive scenes requiring interaction, and traditional lists.

I always like the scenes that require you to use each piece you find because it adds to the challenge of discovering objects in the right order and combining them to be able to uncover the next pieces. The few HOS I came across were well done and not overly challenging.

There were far more mini-games throughout Lost Lands: Dark Overlord than HOS, but that works for me. The games aren’t original – rotating, ordering, and sorting-type puzzles – but they are well-themed to the game and keep it interesting. 

There are achievements to be earned if you can complete HOS and mini-games without hints or skips, in certain time frame, etc. I don’t seek out the achievements, but it’s fun to see them pop up on screen. In addition, there are several series of collectibles to be found throughout the game.  Collectibles don’t usually make the game for me, but, in this case, it made up for the lack of HOS I encountered.

If I put my feelings for Susan aside, Lost Lands: Dark Overlord is a well-developed game with an interesting storyline and great content.