Lost & Found: A This Bed We Made Story Review (PC)

There comes a point in every housekeeper’s career where the golden rule of thumb becomes as clear as the blood-stained bedsheets. If something doesn’t belong to you, then you probably shouldn’t touch it, let alone make a claim that it holds a darker, more complex historical meaning than the eye could ever dare to comprehend. For Sophie, though, snooping is a common practice, as is it the one thing that drives her to linger for a lot longer than a nine-to-five shift. Cleaning is an afterthought, but learning more about the little details that prevail over a ship’s narrow hull is an essential piece of the puzzle, and, from the looks of it, something that continues to shroud the mind of our young and awfully nosy heroine.

Lost & Found: A This Bed We Made Story is a self-contained DLC for, well, This Bed We Made—a first-person investigative drama that documents the brief arc of Sophie, a curious hotel chambermaid who, after unearthing daunting clues and dubious details during a routine clean, embarks on a quest to indulge in her habits of snooping to connect the dots belonging to heartbreak, lust, and an untimely murder. Lost & Found, in short, takes us a little further into the future — to a new setting aboard a transatlantic ship, where fresh curiosities linger in the depths of the hull, and far greater questions frame an otherwise peaceful cruise liner. Sure enough, Sophie reprises her role as the nosy maid. Old habits die hard, apparently.

While still a mere extension to the original story, Lost & Found harbors a significant portion of material in its newly constructed two-hour episode. Graphically, it retains the beating heart of a claustrophobic world in which condensed corridors and dormitories each hold the illusion of an ordinary scene, yet also possess a darker atmosphere that lingers on your mind the more you peel back its layers. Like before, it pours its heart and soul into capturing a deeply intimate story—an affair in which the goal isn’t to judge and condemn, but to gather the information, connect the dots, and to understand what is taking place, and above all, why passenger’s belongings are disappearing without a trace.

In the two hours that you share with Sophie, you are given the opportunity to sift through the lower decks of the transatlantic ship as it embarks on a long and turbulent voyage. As a newly appointed stewardess, it falls to you to pass through the rooms, complete odd jobs that correlate with your career path, and to slowly but steadily illustrate the grand picture that brews in the cistern of the ship. With belongings amiss and a questionable plot afloat, the job seems simple: to lean into old habits, and to figure out what is happening aboard. All that you need to do is act on your true desires to ruffle a few feathers and poke around in places that the common stewardess wouldn’t normally touch with a ten-foot barge pole. That, in short, is your ultimate superpower.

A walking simulator at its core, Lost & Found is, above all else, a minimalist experience that honorably favors a path that is far less beaten. With there being no abrupt jump scares, combat, or deadly consequences, you find yourself in receipt of a simple journey that, unlike Sophie, doesn’t wish to overstay its welcome. The ship pulls you ashore, and the questions keep you aboard. The rest, really, is entirely up to you to figure out. With rooms aplenty and a host of characters to meet, interview and oftentimes collaborate with, your goal is to explore the nooks and crannies of the ship, and to decipher the evidence as it falls before you.

Lost & Found might not posses a great deal of gamified content in its two-hour campaign, though it does provide a thoroughly engaging detective story that builds on a lot of the signature elements that This Bed We Made initially introduced to the world. As far as gameplay goes, it mostly keeps to the same style as its predecessor, with a combination of exploration, light investigative procedures, and character building. And for the most part, the game sees you carrying out a lot of familiar tasks, which of course includes poking around in private quarters, as well as asking questions that the average stewardess wouldn’t usually ponder.

There is one problem with Lost & Found, and that’s its lack of meaningful choices. See, while the game does offer you a variety of choices to make throughout the campaign, at no point does it feel as if your actions have a certain impact on the overall story. Say, if you converse with your in-game boss and choose whether or not to inform them of the thief, you still receive a promotion offer. To that end, it doesn’t make a lot of difference in the grand scheme of things. It’s a small gripe, but it does soften the blow, nonetheless.

Verdict

Lost & Found: A This Bed We Made Story builds on its previous bedsheet-bound crime exploit with a new twist, setting, and a sizable number of opportunities for fledgling corridor sleuths to ruffle a few feathers and tend to general housekeeping duties. With a new mystery to share and a plethora of clues, rooms, and suspects to pique your curiosity, the DLC, as a whole, delivers a unique whodunit experience that, frankly, is a credit to the game’s creators.

Needless to say that, if you did enjoy mindlessly and vigorously snooping through the corridors of This Bed We Made’s bloodily bruised hotel and poking through various trinkets and private affairs, then you will more than likely get a kick out of filling role of a stewardess in this self-contained expansion for the base game. To some extent, it’s the same basic gig, only with a much shorter story and fewer options to manipulate the outcome. But, in a true This Bed We Made fashion, with just as much snooping. Don’t blame Sophie, though. Let’s just put it down as being in the wrong place at the wrong time.