[Playing…] A Normal Lost Phone

The acclaimed game from indie studio Accidental Queens, A Normal Lost Phone, is available on Steam, iOS and Android phones, and even the Nintendo Switch, but the only real way to play it is on your mobile device, and you'll quickly see why.

A Normal Lost Phone It opens and looks like... a normal lost phone, complete with its own apps. It's like turning your phone into someone else's phone, giving the feeling that you are really using a phone that is not yours. Obviously this is not the same as opening it on your PC and controlling it with the mouse pointer, or opening it on the Switch, which although it has a touch screen and you can put it "vertically" it does not look like a phone.

The game starts with a notification: "You received 4 new messages from dad!" Obviously, almost anyone would do the same thing I did: start reading the messages between the owner of the lost phone and his father. This way, you can begin to piece together what might have happened to Sam, which is the name of the owner of this phone you've "found."

Accidental Queenscleverly limits the available functionality. The phone is prepaid and has run out of minutes and data so you can't call anyone or send text messages. But there is a saved Wi-Fi connection, and you just need to find the password. Reading through the various message threads reveals that the new phone was only purchased a couple of months ago (with the in-game clock setting the events to January 31, 2016 at 10 PM).

Reading the text messages gives an intentionally voyeuristic feel to the game. You could say it feels like spying on your partner's phone or something like that. Come on, that typical curiosity that some people (although many do not accept it publicly) have about spying on the private lives of others. You are knowingly digging into this person's life to try to figure out what happened and why they left their phone. Many of the message threads don't make sense to you, obviously, but they paint an accurate representation of what you might see on a "real" phone if you found one this way.

On December 1, 2015 (at 7:01 PM), for example, Sam sent a mass text message saying “I have a new phone! Now you have my new number! "Sam." And a handful of message threads are basically limited to that and a polite thank you message from the recipient. However, other threads begin to provide a lot more information about Sam's story and the game does a great job of trying to direct you to the right places to "progress the story." Those first messages from Dad wonder where Sam is, but scrolling up introduces the notion of a girlfriend (Melissa) into the narrative. So this might lead you to read the texts between Sam and Melissa. And those text messages, while providing much more backstory, mention another friend asking for the Wi-Fi password. So you can investigate those messages for clues necessary to connect to the Wi-Fi network we saw earlier that is saved, and unlock more functions of the phone, such as email, the web browser or Sam's dating app. But even something like the dating app will require a password. Fortunately, the game again does a good job of indicating the kinds of things Sam might use for a password.

It probably only took me an hour or so to really play through the entire story, but that story definitely took some interesting turns that I didn't suspect and wouldn't want to ruin here. I really enjoyed the way the story unfolded, largely due to the unique (for me anyway) new approach it presented. In the end, I appreciated the feeling of having been in Sam's shoes, if only for a few moments.

A Normal Lost Phone It has a very affordable price and more than in line with what it offers. Well worth the asking price, even for the sole fact that it tells an interesting story through a phone, the one that practically all of us use every day.

And by the way, this game has a sequel, less known but just as good: Another Lost Phone: Laura's Story, which I will talk about at some other time.