Lost in the Woods

Yes.
I'm lost, totally lost and not in a good sense!
Lost in the Woods is a game by Snakins realized with RPG Maker VX Ace in 2013 for the event All Hallows' Event 2013.

The story is inspired by Eight Legged Freaks and Friday the 13th, and it's about four campers that spent the weekend... camping! Kelly, Kevin, Peter and Sue had fun in the woods until they meet some giant spiders! Yyykes! So they take some weapons and with just a couple of healing items, they start a dangerous trip to the car they parked outside the woods (that's a linear path, so they are NOT really lost at all!). What's all, the end, roll the credits!


Well that is not too hard: the path is basically a straight line to the parking!

Well, no ok, there is something else, the spiders. Giant spiders! The game is a simple linear corridor in which the four (bland) characters have to defeat spiders. Spiders and more spiders, giant spiders. That's all, this time for real... unfortunately there isn't much else to find here, not even a cottage, survivors, a mind-controlling entity that dominates the spiders, no. There is no story, and that's pretty sad... I mean, I'm ok if the ending is abrupt, but here abrupt is the name of the game!

Characters are pretty bland: Kevin and Peter are twins, and aside from aestetic they do not have any other differnce. Sure, we've a parti made of a stock broker, a teacher and two students but this means exactly nothing since there is no difference, they even have the same level (1), 0 energy points and 100 hitpoints each! No differences, no special attacks, no special skills, no special weapons... not even normal items, nothing. Sigh. The good thing is that you can finish this game in five to six minutes, but it's just walking and mashing the attack button. Enemies... well spiders, are also met in random encounters, so you do not even get the possibility to avoid them. And that's all this time for real!
I did not mind the use of RTPs, but this was a missed opportunity to make something interesting, the plot was ok, but it should have gone somewhere, even making one of the party members a were-spider that called the spiders to eat his friends at the ond of the game... nope! When I read the title, I expected some friends actually LOST in the woods, but no! They aren't even really lost if it takes them five minutes to reach the car!
The title should have been: "There were spiders, we fled". Sigh.


Enemies? Giant purple spiders or blue purple spiders. A great variety indeed!

Final Verdict
Uhm... Lost in the Woods is a sadly uninspired game... I cannot give less than 2/5 since there are no errors, bugs or problems with this game, unfortunately it's a dull game that lacks interesting dialogues and events, I've played shorter games that had more interesting situations and characters. I do not mind the shortness, mind this, because it's something that saves the game from being also annoying. Ok, you could say "but this is an event game, made in few time". Right! Pity that I played other event games (such as "I Expect You To Die", made in just 3 hours!) that were far better. And sometimes it's just an indea, interesting characters and/or enemies and/or locations... even a single map of a small furnished room may be interesting!