Toy Odyssey: The Lost and Found Review – Xbox One

Most children like to imagine that their toys come to life when they’re not looking. Otherwise, inanimate objects off having adventures on their own or protecting the house from monsters while the children are asleep are thoughts that would set a kid’s mind racing, and the idea that there could be a personality hiding behind that plastic exterior was certainly an intoxicating one during my childhood. In Toy Odyssey: The Lost and Found, this dream becomes a reality, with Brand, our protagonist, attempting to restore safety to the house.

Brand’s adventure is divided into nights, with each death, or return to the bedroom, marking the end of one night and the start of another. The house that you explore throughout the game is randomly generated, meaning that the room layout each night is different from the one before, but if you manage to make it back to the bedroom without dying, the layout remains the same as the previous night. This encourages cautious exploration and means that you can’t run headlong into combat with every enemy that you encounter, otherwise your night will end prematurely, and any progress that you’ve made will likely be lost.

Death doesn’t make a previous night’s adventure entirely meaningless, however, as you gain bolts for defeating enemies and opening boxes, and these can be used to unlock a variety of upgrades, from personal equipment such as hats and capes to bedroom defenses. Upgrading your equipment gives Brand more health, which means that your nighttime soirees will likely last a little longer, incrementally, until you can eventually wander out for much longer than you could initially. It’s a fairly addictive progression mechanic, as you’re constantly being rewarded for exploring, no matter how well or how badly each night goes, and with the changes to your avatar that occur with each upgrade, you can really feel as if Brand is improving as you progress.

The other area in which you can improve your chances at having a successful night of exploration is the bedroom itself, where you can upgrade defenses and crafting resources. While this is more of a passive upgrade path, it’s equally important, as your adventures out in the house leaves the bedroom open to attack from the possessed toys that you’re fighting, and should they gain access to the bedroom, they’ll steal a selection of your resources, which renders some of your previous progression moot. To build these defenses, though, requires a fairly substantial investment of resources, and considering that you start the game with no defenses, leaving the bedroom open to attack, it’s quite difficult initially to collect enough resources to get your defenses started.

Most of the objectives within Toy Odyssey are a little barebones, as they mainly require you to work your way from point A to point B, and once there, clear whichever room you happen to be in of enemies. As part of the narrative, this is often tied into you finding a certain toy that has a particular skill you might need. The fact that the rooms move around each night adds both variety and frustration to the experience, with a fresh approach being required after each death, but should you die upon having reached the room, you’ll have to start from scratch the following night.

Toy Odyssey is one of those games that provides a good amount of challenge and enjoyment to those playing it but isn’t really remarkable in any particular way. The room moving mechanic makes for a varied and unique adventure each time you play, and the steady stream of equipment upgrades, and character progression makes for a compelling experience that encourages you to play for just a little longer. However, there isn’t anything on offer here that is especially good or especially bad. If you enjoy roguelike games and want to try something different, you could do a lot worse than Toy Odyssey, but this isn’t a strong enough experience to recommend the title to players who are otherwise uninterested.

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Author: Jack Moulder
Born in England but currently living in Toronto, Canada, Jack's been gaming as long as he can remember, which just happens to coincide with his 6th birthday, where he received an original Gameboy and a copy of Tetris, which his parents immediately 'borrowed' and proceeded to rack up all the high scores that Jack's feeble 6-year-old fingers couldn't accomplish. A lover of sports games, RPGs and shooters, Jack's up for playing pretty much anything, so long as it doesn't kick his ass too frequently. He has a delicate temperament.

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