Lost and Found Co. Review - Finding an Indie Gem
- Barely Magic Mike
- 5 hours ago
- 5 min read
I visited my parents this past weekend at the same time I played Lost and Found Co for review. At one point, when I had whipped out the game for a quick level or two, my mom, truly the furthest person from a gamer I could imagine, took an unusually strong interest. She admired the artwork, loved the cozy animations of each character inhabiting every sprawling level, and even sat down with me at one point as I tried to find an especially elusive item.
This moment felt like a microcosm of what’s so great about indie games – I remain convinced that for gamers and non-gamers alike, there’s an indie game for almost literally everybody, with most just unaware of the near-infinite sprawl of available experiences. Even as someone who’s only dipped my toe in the surprisingly massive hidden object genre, with none of the games especially grabbing me, Lost and Found Co stands out as a shining exception.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about how Lost and Found Co has made me a newfound fan of this genre in ways no other game seemingly could. For those unacquainted, Lost and Found Co is a hidden object game similar to an interactive Where’s Waldo, where you’ll spend a majority of your playtime carefully scanning each environment for items that may be heavily disguised or just hidden in plain sight. It’s far from the first game to do this and appears heavily inspired by the likes of Hidden Folks, Hidden Cats, and other games that I’m aware don’t all start with the word hidden. But where Lost and Found Co first makes its mark is in its gorgeous visuals. Every frame is bursting with color and painstaking detail, making each world so interesting to look at that you’re always finding new things no matter how long you’re searching for a single item. Nice visuals are great in any game, of course, but this is one of the few cases where the sheer joy of taking in Lost and Found Co’s whimsical worlds actively enhanced every moment I was playing.
Part of that is the variety of locales and fantastic use of color, and part of it is the liveliness on display. Hundreds and perhaps in some cases thousands of people, animals, and objects in each scene have some sort of cute animation attached to them, whether on loop by default when you enter or triggerable when you click. Clicking a drone in the shopping mall scene may make it zip away and scare the crap out of the guy standing next to it. Clicking a fox hiding in a field of flowers might make her jump in the air and coo with excitement. These charming animations are everywhere and often exist not for any gameplay-related reason, but just to make you smile.
They can enhance the gameplay too, though, as some items will be tagged with an icon indicating that something in the scene needs to be moved in order for your target to be visible. These are among the trickiest items to find if you’re not already clicking on a bunch of stuff to see what it does, but that’s not really a problem I had because clicking on things is a lot of fun when so many of them react to you. In any case, I appreciate the game’s transparency in calling out when an object is hidden out of plain sight.
Lost and Found Co also makes a respectable attempt to string its dozens of densely packed levels together with a narrative that is… fine. You’ll spend the game helping Ducky, who is a duck (who could see that coming, be honest) who’s been turned into a human by a dragon goddess because she’s looking to restore her shrine to its former glory by helping people find items they lost. It’s somehow both strangely convoluted and pretty basic, serving as little more than a cute excuse to stitch its levels together. The game has a sequence of linear story levels that progress the main plot, and then an absurd number of wholesome and often gorgeous side requests that are frequently more interesting. While some who get into the story might find it frustrating that the game does gate progression behind completing a bunch of side content, that content here is so good that I was never bothered by that. In fact, Lost and Found Co brings with it commendable value, with enough game here to easily spend at least a dozen hours, and that’s if you don’t do a lot of side content.
In order to progress the story, you need to not only get enough “Likes” on your new business’s Instapix page to unlock it, but you’ll also need to find every major item in previous levels. It can be frustrating when you spend half an hour finding one last item that you somehow missed, but the game’s hint system is one I highly recommend to avoid the occasional frustration. You can click on any of the findable items to get an often-clever hint that points you in the right direction without straight-up saying the answer. Then, if you bank enough Juju collectibles, which are grey, shimmering items that need to be clicked once you find them and realize they’re out of place, you can get an extra, more direct hint if needed. Most of these hints are really helpful to keep things light and well-paced, though I did run into a few that were needlessly confusing and arguably misleading. It was rare, but certainly frustrating when it happened.
In addition to the story and side requests, there’s also a decoration mode where you can place, rotate, and customize items for Ducky’s bedroom. I won’t pretend to have spent much time with this because I’m so not a “let me customize everything” kind of gamer, but it’s worth bringing up for those who like an in-game space to make their own.
I talked your head off about Lost and Found Co’s visuals but somehow haven’t yet mentioned the sound design, which by way of a bubbly soundtrack with catchy, chill vibes and a massive reel of cute sound effects for nearly each and every interaction, manages to be pretty great in its own right. The entire presentation here really knocks it out of the park, and the game is great to play on Steam Deck despite not yet having official controller support (though that is being worked on). I used the touch screen most of the time and it worked pretty great. Obviously, this next sentence caters to a much more niche audience, but I do want to throw it out there that playing Lost and Found Co on an ultrawide monitor is an absolute treat for being A. Supported by default and B. A great way to see more things on the screen at once than you would using a traditional aspect ratio.
I don’t have much more to say about Lost and Found Co because I’m not sure any of you need to hear more. Sure, even a fantastic hidden object game isn’t going to win over somebody looking for action or thrills. But the level of love injected into every inch of this game is something to behold, and though at $18 USD or your regional equivalent it’s a bit pricier than your average hidden object title, the volume of content and wealth of creativity on display justifies that price and then some. If you’re even marginally interested like I barely was at first, this one is a bona fide winner.
Pros:
- Every level is a work of art brimming with life
- Tons of quality content
- Side content is just as fun as the main story
- Objects are well-hidden and fun to find
- User interface and hint system are (usually) helpful
Cons:
- Having to find specific objects to progress the story can be frustrating
- Hint system can occasionally be unhelpful or misleading
- Story is cute but forgettable
Who’s it for:
Any and all fans of hidden object games
Casual gamers interested in something cozy and low-stress
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