REVIEW : Lemuria: Lost in Space (PC)
Lemuria: Lost In Space is a point-and-click adventure game that immerses you in the hull of the Lemuria 7, a spacecraft that has been missing for over 70 years. You play as a robot developed to hunt the ship for the crew who used to pilot it and discover what happened to them. There’s a lot to see and do, as well as a variety of challenges to solve as you make your way around the ship.
Graphics
I was surprised by how well-kept the ship’s graphics were. I was anticipating this game to be terrible at most when I first saw it, but it appears to be quite polished. This game looks quite decent, save from a few weird movements from some objects and creatures. Although a few unusual textures and models appear to be from a different game, the game’s excellent graphics wowed me overall.
Puzzles
The Steam page claimed there were more than 100 rooms on the ship with hundreds of riddles to solve was the first thing that attracted my eye when I was downloading the game. My mind immediately went to some of the problems in games like Space Quest or King’s Quest, and it got me psyched for whatever I was about to experience! However, I was more than disappointed when I realised that these puzzles were not as inventive as I had hoped. Finding the correct key card, item or hitting the correct switch to access various doors were the most common riddles. It was lacking in challenge and felt more like a homework assignment than a video game. Puzzle-solving required little to no originality, which was a massive concern for me.
Voice Acting
When you first start the game, you are presented with a lengthy exposition explained by narration. The narration is slow and lacks intriguing information, as well as information that you’ll need to know before starting the game. Once you’ve gotten into the game, you’ll be frequently contacted by your team, who have a conversation that’s borderline cringe-worthy. Throughout your adventure, you’ll be plagued by strange pronunciation, weird pauses, and endless, pointless messages.
Some voice performers deliver their lines well and sound like they belong in the adventure’s storey. Others seemed bored or disinterested in what they were saying. In all honesty, I wouldn’t have had a problem with the voice acting if there hadn’t been so much of it. Instead, it often drew me out of the game’s immersion.
Combat
To put it mildly, the combat, if you can call it that, is depressing. I’ll take you through my first experience with combat in the game. You’ll come across a laser gun sitting in a crate in the first few rooms. You instantly run into your first enemy, a giant robot, after finding said pistol. Isn’t it looking like things are going to become attractive? You open your inventory, put your new pistol on, and… click. To out-shoot the robot, you click and click as quickly as you can. That’s all there is to combat. Every combat feels like a mini-game akin to WarioWare (only it’s not pleasant). Nothing interesting, simply attempting to out-gun a robot that doesn’t appear to have any attack animations at all. This wouldn’t bother me as much if there weren’t an enemy lurking around every turn. The clicking becomes tiresome quickly.
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