Lost But Found Review

games, gaming, indie, job sim, job simulation game, PC, Steam, video-games, Wholesome

Job simulation games have been popping up everywhere in the indie game scene. We’ve seen card shops, hair salons, power washing, house flipping, and now, the lost and found at the airport. The nice part about this is while it is a job simulator, it’s also a bit of role playing. Will you reunite owners with their lost items? Will you sell all the gaming laptops to the black market and make cash on the side?

Basic Game Play

The game play is rather simple to explain. Using a top down perspective, you’ll oversee the table and conveyor belt of lost items looking to find their home. You’ll drag the items off of the belt, add them onto the table, and be ready to return the item to it’s owner. It won’t always be this simple though! Punks will try to steal your tips, the black market asks for goods, and a security officer gives you grief. The good news, you can pick your level of difficulty in this job simulation game. Are you working at a small airport during the off season or is this an international airport during Christmas? That is to say, you can make this as chill or as manic as you like with their four different settings:

Chill – This mode has no timers and you move at your own pace as you go. This is great to take your time, get used to the game, recognize the items that come along.

Relax – A slower pace but you’ll make better tips. Tips are nice. More on tips and earning money later.

Normal – An average challenge. At the end of the day, you’ll be tired. Probably be annoyed with the people asking so much of you. At least each day is a pay day!

Mayhem – This is basically the holidays at the airport. Everyone has lost something, is panicked, and there feels like no way to get through everything. But you’ll manage as a one person team right?

To make your shift a bit more fun, there will also be mini games including cleaning some clothes that come through and collecting stickers. Build your own collection while others reclaim their items. They won’t miss a few stickers here and there. If you clean the items, you’ll also get some additional tips. No one likes a soiled rain coat anyway. I anticipate that there may be additional mini games that I didn’t get on my play through but this is just one more reason to go back.

At the end of each day, you’ll leave the airport and go to your map. On the map you’ll be able to shop the black market, the security office, or the general shop. When you’re ready, you can drop money off at home for the family and start the next day at work. There are some locked locations still until a future update so we’ll see how that changes our daily routine.

The Story

With a job simulation game, you may not be looking for a story, but there is a loose narrative here. Each day you work to save up money so that you (and maybe your family) can travel the world. You are clearly the breadwinner of this household as each day you can bring money home. You literally leave the money with the children (and/or life partner) at the end of each shift unless you buy the power-up that stops this. Three days of not bringing money home and you’ll lose the game. So maybe take care of the kids. The game ends once you’ve chosen to travel the world. You don’t need to travel once you hit the financial threshold though. Keep playing if you’re looking for a high score to make it onto the leader board. Maybe you just really enjoy the rat race and working every day.

The story is also where you can choose to role play a bit. Working and being a straight laced employee isn’t the only way to make money. How about taking some of those items and selling them under the table? That’s right, you can literally put items in a box under the table and sell them on the black market. While you may not make as much as you did from tips, its a nice little addition to your savings.

The Bad

No game is perfect. I have to mention some improvements that can be made. Full disclosure, it does appear that the developers have been making updates since it’s release, so in time, this may not be relevant. The game currently is still a bit glitchy, but this is something they are actively working on. While I played I may have been a bit eager to sell items on the black market, sometimes putting the items in the box doesn’t work out so well. At times, they wouldn’t fit in the box even though it appeared there was plenty of space. Since the games release patches have already been released to fix the glitches. I hope to see more of these fixes come in time.

This probably isn’t a game you’ll be playing for hours at a time unless you’re going for a high score. The game play can get repetitive fairly quickly as it falls into a pattern. Although this may be what they were going for. How many of us with a 9 to 5 gig sometimes find ourselves going through the motions? If this is purposeful, it’s fine, but it can mean you only play an hour or two at a time. The repetitive nature may also change as more buildings are unlocked in upcoming updates to the game.

The majority of lost items are pretty standard, but one that does bother me as is animals in the cage. You’ll see a dog in cage or a cat in cage come through the conveyor belt and sometimes no one claims them. You’ll come back the next day and the animal is still there. Perhaps I’m being overly sensitive, but it feels harsh to hear the cries of the abandoned animals. I almost wish there was a setting for this just to not break my heart a little bit.

The Good

The mini game component can help the game feel fresh especially if you’re a collector. How many stickers did you collect? Have you completed the collection? Cleaning the dirty items can also give you a sense of zen if that’s your thing. If zen isn’t your thing, at least there’s the tips. The mini games help to break up the repetitive nature of the day.

If you’re a bit of a role player like me, you’ll also find yourself taking on the role of Lost & Found counter person seriously. The number of times I yelled at every lost boarding pass was probably too damn high. Why don’t they just get their boarding pass on their phone? Unless they also lost their phone? Also, why do some people need so much luggage? It’s excessive. Get a smaller case, take it as a carry-on, and don’t lose it. Also who is coming here trying to get their lost sandwich? You’re tipping me $25 for a sandwich when you can buy a new one for $10! Did I mention the people coming to claim the baby diaper? I have questions for you! All this to say, the game is as fun as you make it, so give into it a little bit.

Having the different paces of game are also pretty wonderful. I don’t want to play mayhem if I’m looking to talk while gaming or relax after a long day. If I want the challenge to get my heart rate going and test my organizational skills, I have the option.I appreciate the four different skill levels for a more cozy good time feeling with just a small bit of edge.

I also really like the idea of a leader board and being able to compete against others. I was pretty impressed with my score of 100,000 on Normal mode. That is until I saw the number one score as 1,000,000,000+. Time to go after that score. I may not know who you are, but I’m coming for you and that top score spot. Anyone feel reminiscent of the old arcade days when you see a leader board?

Overall

All in all, this game is great for people looking for another twist on the job simulation genre. Test your organizational skills and memory (where did you put that souvenir anyway) as you work. Pay your bills, don’t get fired, and hook up a homeless man with some left over items while working. I may have sent my homeless dude to Madrid once or twice. In terms of job simulation games, this one is a lot of fun in short bursts so if you only have a an hour or so, I highly recommend this one. Pro tip for us Americans, the torch is a flashlight. TSA definitely would have confiscated something on fire that would hurt people. This axe on the other hand? Well, it must be a cosplay prop, right?