A Lost Man: Chapter I is a brand new, hand-drawn point-and-click adventure game in development by Studio Arkos. The game is scheduled to release on June 26th, 2026, and ahead of that launch, we here at Netto's Game Room were given the opportunity to check out the demo—something which is now available to the public via the Steam page.
Unfortunately, the demo is very short, but it is more than enough to give us a general idea of what we are in for with the final release.
A Classic Point and Click Adventure:
A Lost Man: Chapter I follows the story of a deserter during World War I. After running away from the battle, he is caught between the two fronts and must decide what to do next. This is where players are given complete control and can begin freely clicking on the environment to search the various points of interest. Double-clicking lets our protagonist run to speed things up a bit, but in general, the areas featured in the demo are not too large to begin with.
Featuring strictly left and right movement, the world places objects throughout for you to interact with, some of which are added to your inventory for later use. Items can also be combined to create new ones if needed, but the game takes a strictly old-school approach to all of these mechanics and asks you to discover such options through trial and error. It doesn't take too long to hit your first roadblock in the demo either, which can ultimately be cleared by learning more information.
With a few characters to talk to and a handful of dialogue choices at your disposal, progression is locked behind exhausting all of your available options and then backtracking to overcome the initial hurdles. It is all very traditional game design, and the demo makes it clear players will be spending a lot of time backtracking and searching for the little key details they might've missed. Thankfully, your mouse arrow does transform into different icons based on interaction types when hovering over objects, so mindless clicking isn't needed, but there are sure to be moments that will hang players up—especially when it comes to usable items.
A Unique Style:
While A Lost Man does seem to be a by-the-books point-and-click adventure game, something that we no longer see a lot of in today's world, one thing that does stand out is the art style. Featuring hand-drawn visuals with a grayscale color scheme and character designs that feel like they've been ripped right out of a comic strip, the game definitely stands out. With colors such as red being used to show the grotesque and bloody nature of war, and orange to demonstrate the safety and warmth of a nice fire in this dangerous world, the game does a great job of setting the tone with World War I as a backdrop. It is going to be interesting to see how this style continues to evolve with each new location you visit, especially as more characters are introduced and the horrors of war become more apparent. The demo gave us an up-close and personal look at a rather scary dog, which is a good indication that more moments like these will be awaiting players.
Final Thoughts
Sadly, when I mentioned the demo was short, I truly meant that it was short.
Even with experimentation, I was able to complete my first run in less than 15 minutes, and a second playthrough in roughly the same time—this time while searching for anything I might've missed. During that half an hour, I was left with an overall good first impression, but I can't help but wonder how long the game will be and how frustrating the item system might become. The demo allowed me to pick up multiple items that never got used, or I simply didn't discover how to use them, and sometimes you were able to pick up multiples of the same item as well. Do you need more than one? Is this a resource that you'll need to keep stocked? Or was it just something placed there to mislead me? While such tricks and in-depth puzzle solving are what draw many fans to this genre, it also isn't for everyone.
That being said, I personally feel like this game has the potential to become a "must-play," but that also completely depends on what comes next following the demo's abrupt cutoff point. The preview left me with a door to unlock, a basement I was told to stay out of, and a missing person to find, but who knows how involved any of this will truly end up being. It seems like it is going to be quite the journey—or rather, I hope it is—but even these tasks could end as quickly as overcoming the initial roadblock, that being getting past the dog.
Overall, I have hopes for this game, and I'd recommend keeping an eye out for it if you are a fan of the genre. This is only Chapter I however, so there will be more to come.
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