Jessika (PC) Review

Supposedly taking place at a bustling cafe shop, gamers play as, well, themselves. There is the chance to choose a personalised username, which will be referred to throughout the adventure. However, who you are bears little consequence as this revolves around the characters that are virtually met. The action itself is confined to the screen of a laptop the character uses for their work. They have the role of an employee for a data retrieval company that helps families and friends find answers when their loved ones commit suicide. This means helping them through retrieving the recently-deceased's passwords and usernames as they believe some clues as to their deaths may be found by following their digital footprint. A basic tutorial is available to get accustomed to the interface of the laptop, which consists of basic settings, the messaging app and email service, as well an encrypting system.

Soon after chatting to co-workers via the messaging app, a new case is provided: the suicide of a woman named Jessika. Subsequently, those in control are tasked with contacting Jessika's father and, upon doing so, begin to search for some answers to her tragic passing. This is done through the aforementioned encrypting system, entitled the Decryptor Tool. Through basic hacking mechanics (that become increasingly challenging over time), video logs Jessika recorded prior to her death are discovered. By watching these videos, and further communication with the late Jessika's father and the character's co-workers, it soon becomes apparent that there is much more than meets the eye. It is not long before darker, twisted sides to her story are found, along with what led her to taking her life. One of the key elements of [i]Jessika[i/] is the messaging app where the character can keep in contact with not only their clients but co-workers, as well.

When browsing through several chats, not only can more about the character's co-workers and the company they work for be found out, but also information about their role and past experiences in the company. It is recommended doing this to avoid several instances of confusion when conversing with co-workers. There are several instances that feel as though vital information is missing in the middle of a conversation, only being able to rectify this by going back to an older conversation with a different co-worker.

The Decryptor Tool mentioned before is the main element that will be used the most in [i]Jessika[i/] and is vital in uncovering more of her story. The way that this system works is by a basic search function where the player must put in keywords that will bring up the relevant videos. Each video aids in understanding the motive as to why she took her life.

Organising these videos can be tricky and remembering what was said in them even more so as the information contained within one video can wildly differ from another one. [i]Jessika[i/] deals with very intense elements that will leave people increasingly uncomfortable. Suicide is obviously the main factor, which is a sensitive subject already, but the use of racial slurs and hate speech does not help alleviate the pressures already present within. At first, the performance of the actress portraying Jessika seems unimpressive; however, as the video clips become more intense over time, so too does the quality of performance from the actress. As unpleasant as the clips become, the portrayal is undeniably believable, at the very least. It is definitely recommended playing this in German, the language it was originally recorded in. This comes with subtitles and is better than the English dubbed version, which comes across as awkward and unable to deliver the same performance as its German counterpart.