The Lost Bear (PlayStation 4) Review

After about 30 into The Lost Bear, it becomes very obvious that Odd Bug Studio are huge fans of Playdead's Limbo. Odd Bug Studio does manage to not outright copy Playdead, though, by having a totally unique feel and atmosphere that is more whimsical than bleak, and, most notably, present itself as a virtual diorama puppet show. The sensation can be best described as sitting in a lazy-boy sofa-chair in the middle of the woods, with a stage set up serving as the actual play area, and controlling the show with a DualShock 4.

The presentation is unique, but ultimately pointless since it has no bearing on the gameplay, and only really is just a visual flourish which does admittedly add to the storybook atmosphere of the narrative. There are some instances where the game presents some motion control gimmicks that feel like they are from a tech demo from the early days of the PlayStation 3's DualShock 3. The Lost Bear is full of these gimmicky little set pieces and they are the only moments where the VR is used to create an augmented reality that just don't feel natural and are a pain to control.

The paper puppet aesthetics are quite beautiful at times, and really do have a hand-made quality that makes this title not look like a video game at all. The characters and much of the level elements are richly illustrated and has this overall cosy feel to pretty much everything. Even as the story progresses and theatre area begins to match the tone of the darker moments, it still manages to look striking.

Whether or not the character animation will be appealing will vary depending on the user's willingness to accept the sort of cheap-looking paper figure approach to how each character is constructed. This kind of animation is fitting to the theme of puppetry, but on the other hand it looks kind of ridiculous and can come off as low quality flash animation.

As mentioned earlier, this plays very similarly to Limbo, as it's a very methodical platformer with some environmental puzzles, and a very big emphasis on visual story telling. After the initial intro, this does not really take breaks with the exception for a few transitions. Aside from the traps, pitfalls, and puzzles, do not expect this platformer to do anything different that has been seen in other similar games like it. The VR implementation only highlights just how out of place the motion control gimmicks are, which in turn make the VR more unnecessary.

This is a really standard step-based platformer, and if it weren't for its unique art style, there would be pretty much nothing about it to make it stand out. As for the story itself, much like Playdead's classic, there is a lot left open to interpretation being how these kinds of games rely mostly on what the player brings to the experience from within. Depending on the individual, The Lost Bear can be seen as a cynical parable, or a more straightforward modern day fairy tale.