‘J.U.L.I.A.’ Review – A Tale Of Woe

Space. The final frontier. The vast expanse of nothingness.

Much in the same vein as 2001: A Space Odyssey, J.U.L.I.A. features a story centred on a solitary human trapped in the depths of the Universe. Rachel Manners, an astrobiologist, formed part of an elite team of scientists on a crucial mission for humanity. However, she is now alone, with the craft abandoned and orbiting an unknown planet.  After awaking from her cryogenic sleep, Rachel has to find all the answers to the questions that now plague her existence – why is she the only person who survived? Where is the rest of the crew? What do the vast reaches of this Solar System conceal?

Created by Czech devloper C.B.E. Software, J.U.L.I.A takes the form of a ‘puzzle adventure’ game. Instead of using the point-and-click form of normal adventure games, J.U.L.I.A. uses a series of intertwined puzzles, mini-games and menu-based interfaces. In theory, this is because J.U.L.I.A. focuses more on the narrative than the gaming experience. The game mostly centres around the interactions with the two ‘companions’ for Rachel – the probe’s A.I, the eponymous J.U.L.I.A. and the remote-controlled landing craft MOBOT. In practice, using this form of game was a poor design choice, as it doesn’t provide much in the way of personal affection to the three main characters. This is unfortunate, as without a consistent reminder of the bland and uninteresting protagonist Rachel and her ‘shipmates’, they instantly become forgettable until you reach a cut-scene.

The cut-scenes also betray the low budget of J.U.L.I.A., with the voice acting feeling stilted and stereotypically British for Rachel, andthe voices of J.U.L.I.A. and MOBOT sounding like text-to-speech software. The 3D modelling also lacks the sheen of  better-funded traditional adventure titles such as Telltale’s Sam & Max series, with it appearing to emulate late 1990s and early 2000s-era cut-scenes instead, but it’s forgivable for a small development team. The FMVs do, however, showcase the game’s appealing feature – the story. As the narrative progresses, you do become genuinely intrigued as to why Rachel was placed in this situation, but you do not feel any kind of attachment to her as a person at all, only the situation she is in.

This intrigue quickly dissipates as soon as you reach the actual gameplay. There are a few key areas that warrant what could be politely described as mini-games that you access from the main overview of the probe. The first of these is a game where you scavenge materials from nearby planets. This takes the form of using a probe to scan the surface and then using the same probe to harvest the material by moving your mouse across a picture of the planet, clicking when the graph and the pointer indicate that there is a material present. It really is as boring and monotonous as it sounds.

Once you’ve harvested the material, you can use it in order to repair your ship or create upgrades. In the first instance, to repair parts of the ship, you have to pay ‘close’ attention to a repetitive video, dragging the flashing material when a red flashing square comes up to the area in question in order to fix the problem with the probe. If you’re looking for a challenge, you certainly won’t find it here – J.U.L.I.A. is rarely challenging, apart from when certain puzzles throw you a curveball by requiring you to complete a puzzle differently to the blueprints. The puzzles are fairly enjoyable, but there are certainly better puzzle games out there.

Once you’ve explored one planet, it’s on to the next one to discover more answers about the problematic questions. It’s unlikely you’ll choose to progress, however, as J.U.L.I.A. feels incredibly dull and formulaic. The story is undoubtedly an intriguing and well written one; it’s just a shame the gameplay feels rather boring in comparison. Go to one planet, harvest it for materials, send MOBOT down, build an upgrade or complete repairs and then move on to the next. Whilst the story is supposed to be the glue that holds the experience together, in reality it is overstretched by the dull nature of the title. Whilst there are new mini-games introduced, involving things such as the rearrangement of images in order to restore corrupted memory clusters, none of them feel like much of a challenge, and that’s what puzzle games are supposed to be.

This is the underlying problem with J.U.L.I.A. – it forgets games are supposed to be fun. Whilst technically the game is fairly sound and the story is well-written, the gameplay around it is almost completely void of enjoyment. In fact, coupled with the musical soundtrack, it feels more like an educational budget CD-ROM from the 1990s than a game. If you enjoy puzzles and the intrigue of the story, there may just be enough to keep you interested in J.U.L.I.A. but don’t expect the thrills, humor or indeed gameplay of an adventure game. It’s merely a puzzle game with a decent story. If that excites you, then maybe even the ludicrous £19.99 price tag may not ward you off.

Find out more about J.U.L.I.A. by checking out its official site.

Review summary Pros:

A better story than most puzzle games; the puzzles can be enjoyable, even if they're not overly challenging

Cons:

Pricetag is extraordinarily steep; little to no investment in the characters; some of the gameplay is just downright boring or non-existent at times

Rating: 55%