J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars vs Linda Brown: Interactive Story
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.
Linda Brown: Interactive Story
Linda Brown: Interactive Story is The Other Guys' forey into the interactive storytelling business after their pretty good sucess with the Sherlock-themed hidden objects game, Sherlock Holmes: Lost Detective. Similar to the latter, this game features an intriguing and immersive, romance-and-mystery-filled story where you'll be playing as Linda Brown herself. Meet a host of interesting characters (and you can even date some of them), travel to various locations as you follow the trail of clues, and make important decisions that will change the path of your narrative.However, unlike games like Episode or Choices, Linda Brown: Interactive Story has a gameplay that is a lot similar to any of the games Telltale Games produced. This means that characters in the game will remember your reactions or responses and act accordingly the next time you meet.
The only major downside in this game is that, like Episodes and Choices, there are special "premium decisions" that you can make to further deepen the storyline, but the diamonds needed to buy these special decisions can be pretty costly - $3 per premium decision. Due to this, it might be great to have the option of earning diamonds by watching video ads.
Overall though, Linda Brown: Interactive Story is still a very well-written interactive story that doesn't only have romantic elements but also an intriguing mystery that rivals most hidden objects games. If you enjoy a good mystery with a dash of romance, this is the game you should play.