J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars vs Paradise Killer
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.
Paradise Killer
Paradise Killer is an open-world murder-mystery game featuring visual novel-style storytelling, fun puzzles to enjoy, clues to track down, colorful characters to interrogate, and a gruesome mass murder of the council members of the Syndicate to solve. In this game, you play as the sole Investigator on Paradise Island, Lady Love Dies, and your own freedom hangs on the line as you hunt down every detail about the case.Paradise Killer is a blend of adventure and visual novel, featuring a storyline that’s just filled to the brim with mystery. As mentioned, the game starts off with a bang – the mass murder of Council Members as the Syndicate made ready to migrate from the current Paradise Island of #24 to what is dubbed as the Perfect 25.
Since the game is basically set in an entire dimension, Paradise Killer is very generous with every possible detail you might be curious about the game world as well as the many wacky and quirky characters that live in it. You can find out a lot of stuff – you are playing as a dutiful investigator, Lady Love Dies, after all! – by tracking down clues, finding hidden notes, and sometimes, simply by making friends and talking to them when their guard is down.
Being an adventure game that’s just filled with hidden stuff to find, the game also hides a whole lot of useful items in the most unsuspecting places, such as in cabinets that you can open or on apartment floors that aren’t as easily accessible. However, being as close to a god as you can be in Paradise Island, you can survive some impressive falls in this game so go hog wild and try to leap off buildings just to access some location with some hidden loot.
Without a doubt, Paradise Killer is in a class of its own! Yes, it is essentially an adventure game with visual novel elements and a strong investigative theme much like Ace Attorney (though you aren’t playing as a lawyer in this game), but it manages to bring all of these elements together and couple it with some truly impressive world-building to create a world that looks and feels mind-blowing to the player.