If you were playing videogames before 2004, you probably remember point-n-click adventure games. You would load up the CD-ROM (remember those?) and then you would spend the next few hours clicking on every single pixel on your monitor until you figured out the mystery you had to solve. Lemuria: Lost in Space takes us back to those days, though it unfortunately doesn’t stand out in all aspects.
Lemuria: Lost in Space throws you into the robot AI feet of Abrix, an android designed to operate in extreme temperatures, eradiated zones, and really any other dangerous condition one might need to be a robot to survive.
The set-up is pretty simple; The Lemuria 7, a spaceship that has been missing for over 70 years, just popped back up in the grand old Milky Way again. However, there are no crew members and no obvious reasons why the ship disappeared, or even how it managed to show up again.
From that point, you are launched towards the ship with one goal in mind: figure out what went down and why. The story itself is quite interesting and has somewhat of a creepy air to it. While it certainly isn’t Dead Space or anything of that sort, the mood is set well. Lemuria: Lost in Space is filled with tons of side information, some useful and some entirely useless, that does help the game feel a bit more real as you scroll through some random engineer’s report. In the end, the story plays out well enough and makes for a nice little experience you can cram into a day if you’re looking for a little bit of sci-fi mystery to fill your time.
From a gameplay perspective, Lemuria: Lost in Space is very much a point-n-click adventure. You click on items in your vision, (the game is technically in first person) and see how you can interact with them. This operates on multiple levels; the most basic level is the clicking buttons and clicking where to go level of things. The next level is the deeper interaction part of it, you know going to a console and hacking it or reading through information. The final level is with your inventory system, which allows you to combine objects you have picked up with those in your environment like key cards and usable items like fire extinguishers.
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The environmental puzzle solving is the hallmark of the genre work in Lemuria, but it doesn’t stand out. It is never too hard to figure out what you need, and seems to lack that feel of discovery and “the light bulb turning on” moments that makes these games great. Other activities you will find yourself completing in your point and click adventure include things like hacking, fighting, and maneuvering around environmental hazards. Yep there’s a bit more to this game than your usual point-n-click, like combat.
Combat is pretty simple. You choose whatever weapon you want equipped and then click on whatever turret or thing that is attacking you. It’s simple and it works with no real problems to note. It isn’t good, and it isn’t bad. It’s simply a part of the game. This sort of middling lack of success or failure is present throughout Lemuria: Lost in Space.
Hacking, however, is a different story all together. Hacking, which is level based so the more you do it the more you can hack, and involves answering some sort of question to complete the hack. These questions, however, are usually math or science based and range from the basic level of knowledge to things you’ll need a calculator, an equation sheet, and the periodic table to figure out. However, there are no limits that I experienced as to how many times I could attempt to hack something, which often made the entire process a trivial guessing game.
Aside from those challenges, you also have to worry about your environment; things like fire and radiation pockets are throughout the ship and usually require you to find a way through or around the obstacles, although, this is why they sent a robot, right? Anyway, these environmental puzzles usually aren’t too challenging, but they do lack depth which can make them feel much more like a waste of time than they should.
Visually Lemuria is about average, and that’s about all I can say. It doesn’t look terrible for a point-n-click adventure but it certainly isn’t stunning. Things look alright and as they should, and nothing is so particularly bad that it will take you out of the experience. It works and that’s about it.
From a sound aspect, it’s off and on. Voice acting is fitting at best and uncomfortable and unnatural at its worst. It usually sits somewhere around acceptable and slightly awkward which is a bit problematic since much of the speech will be heard early on when you are still deciding if you like the game or not. The music side of things is pretty solid, being both mood-setting and fitting to the situation. The soundtrack is a part of this game I enjoyed very much and would recommend getting it if nothing else.
Lemuria: Lost in Space is a throwback to niche genre that has all but disappeared, sort of like the ship you are exploring…hmm. Unfortunately, the game does not really prove why the genre should come back and is mostly forgettable. While the story is interesting, if a bit played out, the gameplay side of things may not stand out enough to warrant the $12 dollar price tag. Then again, if you are looking for a new a point-n-click adventure, Lemuria: Lost in Space might do the trick.