Lost Patrol - why it was flawed and what it could have been

[laffer]

Lost Patrol is a game I played a lot back in the day and I have very fond memories of that game.. it has brilliant atmosphere and a cool song playing all the time.. gets a bit repetitive eventually but it's great. I do however now see that it is flawed in some ways.

Anyway - one of the guys involved has a Youtube account and I asked him a little about the game.. first about if he considered it slightly flawed as well as I seemed to remember reading something like that in an interview once.

Here is his reply to that question -

Hi laffer. Yes, I'd agree it was flawed, as the game that came out wasn't the one we were developing, it started out being far darker. Ocean started getting flack from Germany about the content, so we were told to take out the more violent parts and also knock it back to one disc, as they thought it wouldn't sell enough to warrant two. Being one disc meant that there was no room for the full game sequences we'd developed, the interrogation scenes, happening upon other US troops and trading info/gaining members, extra supplies for carrying out missions whilst they were in country, etc. I would really have liked to release it as it was meant to have been, but we were small and they did what they wanted.

I also asked how it's possible to finish the game without using that rest cheat (where if you rest for very short periods of time at once, you don't lose any food). Here is his reply to that -

This is a long time ago, but to complete it fairly means that you have to use the terrain properly, taking into account what say, going directly over mountains will do and how many extra rations they'd need to survive in climbing conditions. The swamps too slowed down progress and upped food consumption. The best way to go is longer, but you also happen upon food supplies if you do it. Stick to lowlands, stay near rivers. They're more heavily populated and more liable to have enemy troops near them, but the land is flatter and easier to traverse. The game also assumes that by travelling near water you'll aso be regularly filling your canteens too, giving you more travelling time.

Hope this helps,

Ian

Developers from those days seem to be very cool - they very often take the time to answer questions which is awesome

[s2325]

Maybe ask why PC version was so bad.

[s2325]

My Lost Patrol remix in the Zone

[Adropac2]

I mostly liked the fab music, i was quite rubbish at the game.