Lost Within

Lost Within is a survival horror game set inside an abandoned asylum. The protagonist when starting the first episode is Deputy Pearson. He is sent to Weatherby Asylum that will be demolished in 24 hours. He is there on the sheriff's orders to make a last pass and verify no one is still living there, such as junkies or teenagers, and is contact with dispatch to keep the station updated. It is littered with graffiti and rubbish. Quickly after entering he hears the voice of a kid and soon discovers there are many creatures there that are out to get him.

The environment is explored through a first-person perspective with free movement and a free camera. A circle in the bottom left corner is used to look around, swiping turns the character around, tapping somewhere moves him there and double-tapping makes him run. Optionally the device's gyroscope setting can be used to lean around corners. The main focus is on exploration through the many rooms and corridors. Objects that can be interacted give out a pulsating glow. The history and lore of the asylum is explained through narrative documents such as reports, notes and newspaper articles that can be picked up and read and are stored in a journal accessed through an icon in the top right side of the screen. There are many sequences where the character is pulled into interactive flashbacks that show what happened at the asylum as if he was there. Pearson often comments on what he sees and talks to dispatch, but soon busts his radio and loses his sidearm. Conversations have voice-acting, but are also shown through texts and portraits near the top of the screen.

Various components can be collected that are stored in an inventory, such as rags, wires, duck tape, nails, explosives, batteries etc. They can be combined to craft new items. These mainly provide defensive means, for instance small bandages to restore health or clocks whose sound is used to lure creatures in a direction. Crafted items appear as icons in the bottom left corner and are used by tapping the screen. Others items are keys to open doors, water bottles that destroy supernatural barriers, pieces of wood to barricade doors, traps, stethoscopes that temporarily detect creatures in the vicinity, doctor camouflage that make creatures temporarily ignore you, and spray paint used to mark walls or floors of locations that have been visited as many floors have a maze-like layout. Sometimes footsteps or arrows appear to guide the player. Pearson cannot kill monsters (called 'inhabitants') and has to outrun them or hide. Later on he gets to craft a stun gun that can temporarily disable them, but with limited ammo. Contact is not only based on line of sight, monsters can also sense when Pearson is nearby.

There are many 'jump scare' moments and minor environment based puzzles. The game is split up in three episodes that each consist of smaller objectives with checkpoints. There are optional collectibles such as pieces of photos. Each episode has a different protagonist. After Deputy Pearson in the first one, the second episode is about fire chief James Wade who goes to the asylum to investigate a fire. The third episode features investigator Ruth Wicks who received an anonymous tip that there is proof buried in the asylum about the disappearance of children. The game mechanics are identical for all characters and at the end of the final episode the stories come together.