Animation Arts' latest adventure title, Lost Horizon doesn't exactly hide its influences. With its 1930s setting, a story centred around a mystical quest and Nazis obsessed with the occult, Lost Horizon plants itself firmly in Indiana Jones territory from the very beginning. But to be fair, cashing in on Indy seems to be de rigeur at the moment (see George Lucas) and, from our time with the preview build of Lost Horizon, it looks to be a dramatic improvement on the developer's last point and clicker, Secret Files 2.
The player takes on the role of Fenton Paddock (surely the least action-sounding name since Toby Picnic), a former British soldier now earning a living (or rather, making enemies) as a drunken rogue in Hong Kong. Paddock has a habit of getting himself into a bit of bother and at the beginning of Lost Horizon he's managed to incur the wrath of the Hong Kong Triads who want nothing more than to leave him at the bottom of the harbour in a rudimentary coffin. Once he's dodged an early demise, Paddock is asked by the governor of Hong Kong to track down a missing expedition in Tibet which unfortunately includes Paddock's brother Richard.
Before you can set off on your adventure however you'll need some maps and so begins the first major gameplay section of Lost Horizon. Amongst other activities you'll need to catch some flies to lure a bat, retrieve a ball from a tree, open a safe and distract a cat. Yes, we're in familiar point and click territory here but the good news is that the puzzles in Lost Horizon – in the preview build at least – seem a little more logical than those in its predecessor, Secret Files 2. There's little in the way of 'use rollerskate on UFO,' 'put donut in ancient hole,' or 'summon demon with pepperami' (only one of these is not a genuine solution to a SF2 puzzle). The meat of the game still involves collecting and combining items to use with environmental hotspots but it seems like Animation Arts has tightened things up a little. Lost Horizon seems to require some thought rather than simply the exhaustive process of trying out every item with everything else. 
Also improved since Secret Files 2 are the writing and voice acting. Although Lost Horizon still sports the odd dodgy accent, the majority of the voicing in the preview build is pretty good and, while Fenton Paddock may not exactly ooze charisma, he's far from irritating and offered up a couple of lines which raised a chuckle. In fact, dialogue actually has gameplay implications in Lost Horizon too. Some sections require the player to find the right path through a dialogue tree in order to advance, like when Paddock has to impress a girl in a nightclub at the beginning of the game. Pick the wrong option and you'll return to the start of the conversation which does shatter immersion a little but, so long as these sections aren't overused, they could add another welcome layer of gameplay to Lost Horizon.
Another way that Animation Arts has tweaked its point and click formula is by introducing a map screen. We begin in Hong Kong which is divided into a number of subsections, including the night club, harbour and governor's mansion. What this means is that puzzles aren't localised to a couple of screens but instead you'll need to travel between them in order to collect the items you'll need to advance. As such, there's a lot of to and froing which may not prove to be popular with everyone but at least it adds some welcome environmental variety. 
Our time with Lost Horizon ends with an action sequence in which Paddock and his lady accomplice/reluctant love interest Kim find themselves in a car chase, being pursued by the Triads. Kim drives the truck while Paddock has to find a way to shake the pursuers. The player can take control of either character here and will need to communicate and share items in order to succeed. The action sequence is a nice change of pace and we hope there'll be more throughout Lost Horizon.
Even from the brief preview section it's clear that Lost Horizon is a different beast than the Secret Files games with bigger production values and more gameplay variety. The story, derivative though it may be, starts well and before we've even left Hong Kong AA has established Paddock as a man with a darker past than we initially thought and sets him up with a love interest. Lets just hope, in terms of quality, we're talking more Raiders and less Crystal Skulls.
