Lost Dimension gives us a gaggle of young heroes and asks us to play something of an end-of-the-world reality TV show with them.
A powerful stranger called The End pops up out of nowhere threatening apocalypse. He materializes in a major metropolis with a mysterious tower looming behind him as he issues a challenge: Mankind has a total of 13 days to send champions strong enough to battle their way up the tower’s levels and eventually best him in combat. If they fail at that task, well, Earth is kaput.
Now you might think the world’s governments would simply hit this guy and his tower with a nuke. But where would the fun be in that?
Instead they you send in as Sho Kasugai, along with a team of 10 other psychically and physically powered-up young people. Sho must read minds, converse with, and generally get to know these people and their abilities. One young woman has a punch with the oomph of 20 men, for instance, another person can levitate, another can heal almost any wound, another blazes with pyrokinesis.
Think of them sorta like an X-Men team with no seasoned Professor X to lead them. These heroes are also lacking any memories of who they are or how they wound up in this tower. And in true reality show style they have to grapple with their own mix of nice and nasty personalities.
You pick a handful of these colorful characters to match up against powerful teams of baddies in battle after battle. The task boils down to this: figuring out who to trust and what skills combine best for any given objective.
But here’s where the injected reality TV element really comes into play. As you’re forming opinions about your fellows and figuring out who is worthy of covering your back, The End lets you know there’re a traitor in your midst. In fact, there may well be many. Couple that knowledge with the fact that making it up the tower requires one of your teammates to be eliminated per level—zapped out of existence by a special laser-packing machine.
Choose culprits correctly and comradery grows, skills increase and your remaining team members become a well-equipped, tightly knit group. Choose poorly and, well, you end up with a tattered mess and the world pays the price.
If you’re getting the sense that a whole lot of baddies and quite a few good guys get killed in this game’s skirmishes, you’re reading what I’m writing here. Guns blaze, blades flash, fire erupts and explosions, well, explode. The vanquished fall and zap out of existence with no blood or gore, thankfully. But like many a reality TV show, there are still quite a few other forms of mess to contend with.
Female outfits can be cut a tad short or low. Foul language includes s-words, “d–n,” “a–,” “h—” “b–tard” and “jeez.” And on a more emotional level, after spending so much effort to establish close relationships, there is a surprising sense of loss when one of your favorite compatriots turns out to be a foe and “must” be done away with.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
