It distinguished itself early on with software features, then innovative among MUDs (and still less than ubiquitous),[3] such as an overland-map-style environment,[4][5] realistic combat,[5][6] a language barrier,[6][7] and a limb model for characters supporting anatomies significantly different from that of humans,[6][8] that earned it positive critical response.

The game's Web presence has become an important part of its service offering, including an extensive, mostly player-edited wiki and spawning several players' character blogs.

[17] In December 2019, Matthew "Chaos" Sheahan retired from his position as owner and lead developer of Lost Souls, passing the responsibilities to Wesley "Starhound" Reid.

Lost Souls's command structure and character model are unusually extensive for a game and are noted as presenting a considerable amount of information to be learned.

Among the more unusual races are the nyloc (magickally created shadow-beings), zuth (giant centaur-shaped reptiles), rachnei (anthropomorphic spiders), and phaethon (bronze-skinned elves with wings of fire).

Examples of affiliations range from the Aligned, a group of artists and poets attuned to cosmic order, to Ordo Zephyrius Mutatoris, magicians who control air and weather, to the Erisian Liberation Front, Discordians described as "guerrilla theologians" who invoke an array of gods in the name of chaos.

Like many MUDs, Lost Souls is heavily influenced by popular fantasy literature, with much content being visibly an adaptation of material from these sources.

Despite these efforts, Lost Souls retains the stamp of many literary and gaming influences, the most marked being Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber, J.R.R.

Though the Ain Soph mudlib is not public, Lost Souls developers do make efforts to contribute to the MUD and general programming communities.