First off, let me just say that I am all for the “lost phone” genre. There are far too few games that revolve around using someone’s phone as a game despite it being such a brilliant concept. I first got into it with 1.51exfiltrati0n.ipa, based on the TV show Mr. Robot. I honestly never expected to see another game like it, but then I came across Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story from Accidental Queens. As the title suggests, this is not Accidental Queens’s first such game, but I didn’t play the first and didn’t miss out on a thing; this is a spiritual successor, not a direct sequel.
For those not familiar with what I refer to as the “lost phone” genre (there’s probably a much better name for it), the premise is simple – you’ve discovered a phone and the entire game is played out on that phone. In Another Lost Phone‘s case, that phone used to belong to someone named Laura, and it’s up to you to deal with it. The SIM card is missing, so you’re unable to merely call one of her contacts and let them know you have it, but you’re far too curious of a person to do that anyway. There are bunches of texts, emails, calendar entries and all sorts of things on the phone, but not everything is unlocked at first. Using a healthy amount of deduction and plenty of snooping you’ll not only unlock all sorts of secrets on the phone, you’ll unlock a snapshot of around a year of Laura’s life.
I’m not the hardest to surprise, but after playing every narrative game I can get my hands on it’s becoming harder and harder to make me feel that WHOA! feeling from a story. Despite that, it definitely hit me hard with this one! Laura’s phone is quite full, and while there are important clues and pieces of information in the various messages, photos and apps on her phone, I often found myself devouring every bit of information I could out of curiosity. The puzzles are great as well, and you’ll need to use everything at your fingertips to solve them. There were lots of “aha!” moments, even though I did have to use a walkthrough for a couple hints.
I’ve gotta admit: when I first saw that this game was rated M, I was concerned this would be a dirty or gory game. With no hint at just what’s being uncovered, I really didn’t want to find someone’s porn stash or discover the phone belongs to some serial killer who purposely loses their phone and tracks down whoever finds it after they solve their puzzles. Luckily the game is rated M for “Strong Language” and “Suggestive Themes”, none of which are any kind of inappropriate for anyone in the recommended age group. I’m rather easily squeamish, especially in narrative games, and I can happily report that nothing here bothered me in the least.
Another Lost Phone uses the phone theme brilliantly. Want the music off? Go into the music app and turn it off, or skip to another song. Curious how long you’ve been playing? The “time” shown tracks it (I personally took a couple hours, although like I said I did use some hints). While I’m not sure what exactly it’s like on mobile, playing on the Switch with the system held horizontally like a giant touch screen phone was fantastic. The game boasts HD rumble, but most of the time I was confused as to why my “phone” was vibrating anyway.
There’s so much more I want to say about this game, but it’s the kind of game where going into detail at all ruins the game’s surprises. If you enjoy narrative games or puzzle games and don’t mind doing a good amount of reading or hunting for information, don’t hesitate to grab Another Lost Phone. Again, the game does heavily rely on reading, so if you’re the type that skips through every bit of text in a game that they can, this won’t be your kind of game. The writing was excellent, though, so great in fact that I never once doubted this could’ve been someone’s real phone!
You can pick up Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story on: Switch (reviewed), Android, iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Steam (Windows, Mac, Linux)
I received a free review copy of this game from the developer.