Who’d have thought that jumping on the bandwagon and buying one of these Ayn Thors could genuinely replace the Steam Deck? Each to their own, but as the majority of us know, we didn’t get the Deck to play triple-A games, yet being able to play Lost & Found: A This Bed We Made Story on the little device was an absolute pleasure. It’s not a triple-A title, but it’s simply gorgeous. Or maybe that’s because I was infatuated with Sophie.
A standalone to This Bed We Made by Lowbirth Games, we follow the protagonist to her next gig working on a cruise. Has she moved up in the world? That’s subjective, but she appears to be happy, and depending on how you finished the last game, she has a great circle of friends – both from the first game and her co-workers on the ship. Fear not if you’re completely new to her story; it can be played independently of the first.
I did play the first game, and at the start of this little adventure, you can choose the story arc you finished with, or if you’re like me and completed all of them, you can choose your favourite. Regardless, it’s much the same as before, as Sophie is expected to wait on the guests (she’s a maid), which involves making beds, cleaning up, making hot beverages, and a lot of snooping.
Wait – ‘snooping’? That’s right. Sophie is an amateur detective/nosey so-and-so who has full access to the guests’ dwellings. This means rummaging through drawers (oo-er!), looking at treasured tat, and literally piecing clues together from ripped-up notes and ominous stains. Like the comparisons made to the original game and that sleepy but welcome monotony of Lake, Lost & Found: A This Bed We Made Story highlights just how much I actually enjoy cleaning.
But this isn’t about me; this is about Sophie, and she’s in a predicament. One of her co-workers’ prized possessions has seemingly been half-inched, and your boss, the Assistant Manager, has tasked you with finding the evidence through speaking with the guests and reporting back any clues. They don’t directly say, but insinuate it’s kinda ok to go through the passengers’ stuff without an, ahem, warrant.
Choices matter in this bite-sized experience, and just because you can rummage through clues doesn’t mean you have to. Dialogues are locked unless you explore, but even then, you don’t have to divulge your findings to the nosy guests. That said, I found on my first playthrough I’d snoop through everything, literally clean up after myself, then withhold any gossip, knowing full well that I was in the know and the protector of people’s privacy. It’s totally valid for me to break those rules, right?
Lost & Found: A This Bed We Made Story moves at a comforting pace. The devs have done a great job in selling the hospitality profession here as it doesn’t feel like a thankless task (at least in this standalone), and there’s some sort of joy in cleaning. Like first-person simulators, there are mini-games for scrubbing and cleaning – nothing remotely taxing, but therapeutic nonetheless. Equally, the actual investigating is the juxtaposition to tidying and cleaning: you’re doing dirty work, and it’s brilliant. I think we all have some sort of voyeuristic part to us – some just hide it better or are in denial.
Nevertheless, Lost & Found: A This Bed We Made Story isn’t anything seedy or particularly sinister but strangely compelling, given the duration. Games you can complete without completing a moon cycle are always refreshing, but the negative side here would be that it could have done with more time for character development, or simply for the joy of scrubbing. In some respects, this would serve as a companion piece DLC to the main game, though, as mentioned, it’s perfectly serviceable as a standalone. That said, I encourage you to seek out the original game.
Lost & Found: A This Bed We Made Story is best-suited to narrative-driven folk who are in no rush to finish their games, though equally don’t have the time to clear their backlog. This is satisfying in so many ways, from the stellar voice cast to the beautiful lighting and setting. However, the real treat is experiencing Sophie’s world for a couple more hours, even if it means smelling of Harpic and having to be on your feet all day.
