''The Lost'' is an unreleased

third-person shooter Third-person shooter (TPS) is a subgenre of 3D shooter games in which the gameplay consists primarily of shooting. It is closely related to first-person shooters, but with the player character visible on-screen during play. While 2D shoot 'em ...

survival horror Survival horror is a subgenre of survival of the players as the game tries to frighten them with either horror graphics or scary ambience. Although combat can be part of the gameplay, the player is made to feel less in control than in typical ac ...

game developed by

Irrational Games Irrational Games (known as 2K Boston between 2007 and 2009) was an American video game developer founded in 1997 by three former employees of Looking Glass Studios: Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier. Take-Two Interactive acquired t ...

. Set to be released in 2002 for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

and

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

game consoles, ''The Lost'' went through a rocky development period until it was completed, and cancelled.

Story

''The Lost'' is heavily inspired by

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

's ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and ...

'', particularly ''

Inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * Inferno (1953 film), ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * Inferno (1973 fi ...

''. The setting is present day, and the main character is a waitress and medical student named Amanda Wright. Amanda is a single mother who has lost her only daughter, Beatrice, in a tragic car accident. Desperate and suicidal, Amanda makes a deal with the devil. Selling her soul, she is given the chance to plunge into the bowels of a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

-esque hell in an attempt to rescue her daughter's soul. The only aids she has in the bowels of hell are Virgil, a strange reptilian creature who Amanda must free from an enchanted sword, and four hellish beings called the Entities. While in hell, Amanda meets several Entities. She is able to trade identities with these beings, and each Entity is playable, with their own special abilities. *Shadow: A thief-like character, Shadow specializes in stealth and deception. *Light: Adept in defensive spell-casting, Light can also provide healing spells. *Corruption: An

emaciated Emaciation is defined as the state of extreme thinness from absence of body fat and muscle wasting usually resulting from malnutrition. Characteristics In humans, the physical appearance of emaciation includes thinned limbs, pronounced and protrud ...

mage who performs powerful, offensive spells. *Instinct: A sword-wielding character that is best used in close combat.

Development

''The Lost''s development period had always been relatively rocky. Playable models of the game had been described as unstable, with a jittery framerate. The developer chose to switch to a different graphics engine partway through the project, moving from the

LithTech LithTech is a game engine developed by Monolith Productions and comparable with the Quake and Unreal engines. Monolith and a number of other video game developers have used LithTech as the basis for their first-person shooter games. Monolith in ...

engine to

Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, M ...

Unreal Engine Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game ''Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genres ...

. Also, Crave Entertainment changed ''The Lost''s traditional publishing model to a budget game model. Eventually, legal problems amassed, and the completed game was cancelled. In March 2008 it was reported that all development and rights to ''The Lost'' was acquired by FXLabs, who later released the game for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

under the title ''Agni: Queen of Darkness''. ''Agni'' is thought to feature redone art but keeps basic plot and gameplay elements intact.Irrational's 'The Lost' Turns Up... In Bollywood?!
/ref> It was also released in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

as ''Inferno: Where Death Is Your Only Ally'' and in

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

as ''Netherworld: Beyond Time I Stand''.

References

External links

''The Lost'' at IGN.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lost, The Cancelled PlayStation 2 games Cancelled Xbox games Horror video games Irrational Games Third-person shooters Video games developed in the United States Video games featuring female protagonists Unreal Engine games Works based on Inferno (Dante)