A Normal Lost Phone
A salutary lesson on changing your passwords
$2.99 Developer Accidental Queens, accidentalqueens.com Platform Universal Requirements iOS 6.0 or later
A Normal Lost Phone is designed to be an enigma. You “find” a phone, you unlock it, you read through the owner’s texts, you unravel the story of the person who held this device before you did. You figure out their passwords from passing references, work out how to connect to Wi-Fi, and you snoop through this person’s life, loves, and feelings. Eventually you know them better than some of their friends, and definitely more than most of their family.
There’s a sense of unease to it all – it feels wrong, you shouldn’t have this much unfettered access to someone else’s private life – but it all takes place in a safe, fictional space where your feelings of guilt and intrusion are part of the story.
Of course, it’s still possible to overstep boundaries, and A Normal Lost Phone does this a little bit towards the end, with some rather strange choices that the player must make to continue the game. Nevertheless, once it was all over, and after all we’d learned about the previous owner of the phone, we were left smiling.
A Normal Lost Phone isn’t a typical mobile game experience. There are a few puzzle aspects, but they mainly involve careful reading. There’s a plot, but it’s one you’ll have to discover for yourself. Instead, the game asks you to take the time to notice the details.
the bottom line. It’s not a particularly long experience or one that offers much replay, but the story of this lost phone is worth it.