The Lost Crown

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Hunt ghosts with a night-vision camera in a fog-bound English town.

Platforms: PC
Stores: Steam, GOG
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (83% of 525 reviews); 4.8 out of 5 from GOG players; Metacritic 71
Length: about 30 hours, its makers say
Players: 1
Controls: Mouse: point and click, with first- and third-person views.
Made by: Darkling Room (Jonathan Boakes)
Released: 2008

What frightens Ghost hunter Nigel Danvers comes to the fog-bound English coastal town of Saxton and investigates its haunting with a night-vision camera, EVP recorder and other real ghost-hunting tools, while the strange locals and the dead guard the secret of the Lost Crown; its maker even included photographs of unexplained entities he captured while researching it.
Content: disturbing imagery, creepy sound.

The Lost Crown is a point-and-click ghost story by Jonathan Boakes, maker of Dark Fall. As Nigel Danvers you search the fog-bound coastal town of Saxton for an ancient treasure, using a night-vision camera and EVP recorder to capture the ghosts that haunt it.

About The Lost Crown

The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure was written and made by Jonathan Boakes, the creator of the Dark Fall games, and released by his studio Darkling Room in 2008. It is sold on Steam and GOG for Windows.

Nigel Danvers arrives in Saxton, a small town on England's windswept east coast, famed for its legends of smugglers, pirates and ghosts. He is looking for the fabled Lost Crown, and he soon learns that there are people, living and dead, who will stop at nothing to keep hidden what should stay hidden. The world is drawn in stark black and white with flashes of colour, on fog-covered beaches, crumbling crypts and the old houses of the town.

It plays as a point-and-click adventure with first- and third-person scenes, puzzles built into the world and a lot of conversation with the town's odd locals. The ghost hunting is the heart of it: you film rooms with a night-vision camera to reveal what the eye cannot see and record electronic voice phenomena. The makers say a full play takes about 30 hours, and they included photographs of unexplained entities Boakes captured while researching the game.

Critics praised the sound design and art direction and criticised the voice acting and slow pace; Steam players rate it higher. It suits patient players who like slow, eerie ghost stories such as Dark Fall, Scratches or Black Mirror.

How to play The Lost Crown

Click to walk Nigel around Saxton, look at things and talk to the locals.
Pick up and use items to solve the puzzles built into each place.
Use the night-vision camera to film rooms and reveal what is hidden there.
Record and listen to electronic voice phenomena for clues from the dead.
Follow the legend of the Lost Crown across the town, the beaches and the crypts.

Screenshots

The Lost Crown screenshot: an old photograph of four grim men in tall hats, one holding a hook

The Lost Crown screenshot: a skeleton lying in a tomb, seen through a green night-vision camera

The Lost Crown screenshot: pale ghostly figures gather around a glowing light in a pillared crypt

The Lost Crown screenshot: the night-vision camera's screen shows an empty armchair in a dark room

Tips

Film every room you enter with the night-vision camera; ghosts show up only on screen.
Talk to everyone more than once; the locals' stories carry the clues.
Expect a long, slow game; play it in the evening with headphones.