J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars vs realMyst
J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars
J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars is truly a game that's very unique. Despite its apparent appearance - it does look like "just another space sim", doesn't it? - the game is a fun and innovative, story-driven adventure game with a heavy dose of mystery added for good measure. In this game, you'll get to step into the spacesuit of Rachel Manners, a 35-year-old astrobiologist who initially embarked on a critical mission to explore and collect data on potentially habitable planets with a crew of of other elite and hand-picked scientists, but somehow, things went awry, and she found herself alone with J.U.L.I.A., the space probe's rather tempermental AI and Mobot, the reconnaissance robot.Driven by a need to know, you'll need to help Rachel search for clues which might potentially explain the mission's failure and the missing crew. You'll also get to travel to six widely varied planets where you can then get to work trying to reveal their secrets. There will be plenty of puzzles and mini-games in your journey as well just to give your brain some intense workout from time to time.
That said, the puzzles in the game can be a tad bit frustrating to solve, mainly because it's the sort of "trial and error" puzzle-type. So, unless you have a thing or two against this specific game mechanism, J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars is a really nice puzzle-adventure game to buy and play.
realMyst
realMyst is, despite the similarity of the name, not simply a remake of the original game so that the younger generation and experience the game themselves; it provides a whole new trove of content that is not present in the older version, including a new Rime Age, optional free roam and zip navigation modes, bookmarking your progress, auto-save option and built-in interactive guides to help you along if you get stumped. Aside from the improved musical scores, the graphics in the game has also been updated to match with the times, with not only a day and night cycle (you'll get a flashlight for navigating at night) and weather patterns, but also advanced, dynamic and incredibly realistic effects.If you truly want to try out Myst, this is without a doubt the version that you should get. It's just so much better than the original in so many ways and most importantly, it lives up to the original's legacy.