Myst Uru: Complete Chronicles

Rating:
Summary: Too bad it isn't for Mac users...
Review: After years of playing the Myst series on our Mac, my daughters and I are very disappointed that we've been left out of the Uru adventure. I do have an old PC, but it won't support Uru either.

Rating:
Summary: Still Good
Review: I have to say that I dont agree with the other reviewers. Ok So I am a PC person, always have been. I didnt know until reading these reviews that Uru was PC only.
I have yet to beat Uru. I find it challenging and not in the least boring. The grafics are slightly lower quality than the Exile ones, however, It is real time grafics meaning that you walk around freely. Some of the puzzels are easier than previous games, however others are much more challenging. Also I find the plot line much more involved.

So I am rating this game 4/5 for the wonderful emersion, sound, and plot line. it losses a point for the mac incapatibility and the reduced grafics.

Rating:
Summary: Actually, pavlaki...
Review: I really wanted to play this game, being a fan of the previous three Myst puzzle games. I got it as a Christmas gift from my family and waited a little while before I loaded it. It never played. I got an opening sequence then crashed onto my desktop. The very, very hard to reach technical support (I never did get to ask my own question) had FAQ, two of which dealt with this type of crash. The answer was that you have to have NVIDIA GeForce 1,2,3,4 or FX; ATI Radeon 7000-9800 or better. I have neither, and even though my Dell is about a year old, I had no options. Too bad, the previews looked amazing.

Rating:
Summary: Great Game with awesome visuals
Review: I've followed the Myst series from the begining. Although my system barely made the System Reqs, I had a great time with this game! The customizable character, keyboard controlled character, 1st & 3rd Point Of Views made this game one the best in ones in the set yet! Stunning visual and audio effects made this game realistic I can't wait to get Myst IV in so I can try that out as well!

Rating:
Summary: Worth playing if you can abide with the differences.
Review: If you're thinking of buying Uru, one thing to bear in mind is that although Uru is linked to the Myst series, it's just not Myst-- it's an almost totally different game (which is why URU wasn't released as "Myst 4", and why "Myst 4: Revelation" wasn't called "Myst 5")...what Uru is is something very different:

Uru was originally released as a "massively multiplayer" online adventure game, but the online service has since ceased. So now Uru exists as a 'stand-alone' application for use with a single P.C. and this leaves us with something very unique-- an adventure-game by the makers of Myst, designed in the style of Myst, but based in a first-person/third-person-perspective, quake-style, 3D environment...

...this isn't such a bad thing if you're expecting it, however if you're expecting Uru to be just like Riven, Exile or Revelation, you're probably going to be disappointed...

...for instance, it's 3D environments render in 'real-time' with standard 3D textures, which just can't compare to the breathtaking pre-rendered graphics that make the regular Myst series so visually stunning; and instead of the usual Myst interface, you steer an on-screen character around Uru's environment using a combination of mouse and keyboard, as you would in an online multiplayer or 3D action game (although if you're anything like me you'll end up playing ninety-nine percent of the game in the optional 1st-person perspective).

It's not all bad however-- if you approach it with the right set of expectations it's actually very worth playing. What we have (since the demise of Uru's online component) is Rand & Robyn Miller's answer to Quake (but without the guns) which is, in itself, pretty exceptional...

...it features the same quality of environment as the average 'proprietary QuakeII engine'-based 3D action game, but on a smaller scale and with generally more invention and variety in the design of the levels. On the downside, the interface is clunky and the control system clumsy. For example, the left & right turn-rate could be a whole lot faster, and when in 'third-person view' the hotspots are only clickable when in direct proximity to the character.

Uru does take some getting used to, and can be disappointing if you don't know what to expect --I went from lamenting the fact that they ever even tried to make a game based in a 'real-time' 3D environment, to wishing they'd just used the QuakeII engine to eliminate the existent control-scheme issues; and I'm now quite interested in seeing what might be achievable for Myst with the new generation of proprietary game engines.

Ultimately, Uru is just not as good as the other regular Myst titles, and I wouldn't purchase Uru before purchasing Revelation, but having said that, Uru is worth playing, if you can abide with the differences.

Rating:
Summary: Game play abundance
Review: My Myst Uru: Complete Chronicles (CC) experience is unusual...

At the beginning of 2004, played Uru: Ages beyond Myst (Uru Prime), later played the To D'ni expansion pack, finally played the Path of the Shell (PotS) expansion pack. This trilogy was played on a 1 GHz, 512 MB RAM Windows ME PC.

That was a mistake.

Age loads were annoyingly slow, jump puzzles were arduous, game play was occasionally sloppy and Uru Prime, its 1.2 patch, To D'ni & PotS wouldn't install properly on my new computer.

Decided to replay Uru after upgrading to a 3.8 GHz, 2 GB RAM Windows XP Professional PC.

CC and upgraded hardware made a huge difference...

The above problems evaporated. With its images & sounds set on 'Ultra', CC became a vastly enhanced gaming experience. Images became real, three-dimensional. Sounds were varied and rich, you could feel their intricate textures.

Discovered only one gotcha, CC plays best on an 800 x 600 pixels setting. If your resolution is set too high, say 1600 x 1200 pixels, images are incorrectly rendered.

For others, there's another hardware gotcha,

"NOTICE: This game contains technology intended to prevent copying that may conflict with some disc and virtual drives."

If you have a single drive DVD computer, it's understandable: you'll opt for a DVD-RW.

If so, CC's anti piracy software may stop a DVD-RW installation dead in its tracks. Even if CC does install, it may not play properly.

So please consider this alternate...

A dual drive DVD computer is about $100 more than a single drive computer. In your dual drive computer, you have two DVDs:

A DVD and a DVD-RW.

This gives you the best of both worlds.

Rating:
Summary: ts'ok, kinda goony
Review: Not bad, not good, but not bad. The gameplay is much like other myst except for the annoying Avatar alwasy tripping up on rope. you have to get into first person alot. The online part sux too, especially if you make yerself look like a fat guy, no one'll talk to you. URU, not that flashy guy with the muscles, you freak! As for the single play. It is simply myst with a little man on the screen. Kind of like those Star Wars action figures of the 70's replacing camera scenes. If you like dolls, go to Toys 'R US.

Rating:
Summary: Want more? Look up and join us in Until Uru!
Review: The online game died. Uru Live is dead, but continues with a rebirth in the form of "Until Uru." It is several step process but there is live voice chat and lots of fun and friends waiting in the worlds/ages of Uru waiting for you!
Join us. There are several shards/sites that are on the list on the pop-up if you get that far. There are forums and sites to help you!
OH! OH! Use walkthroughs. Go to a site with the intitials of GB...actually one word. Step by step hints and more specific descriptions in their forums to solve the puzzles.
Game saves can be sent but are a bit difficult to insert correctly. Help is there for you! Just ask! Enjoy!
The best!
My user name at such game sites maryc64 as it is here. You may email me for help or more specific directions to solving puzzles, finding walkthroughs by finding me on that "GB" website.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Incredible
Review: This is an action/adventure gamers dream come true. You have the beauty, depth, engrossing story, challenging puzzles and overall top quality of a Myst series adventure game combined with an action style interface. Adventure gamers have been waiting a long time for something like Uru. I highly reccomend this game to any adventure/action game fan. The only tiny gripe I have is the lack of a sufficient save feature though the linking books do a good job none the less. But I still give this game all 5 stars and I have only just begun to play it and I am truly amazed at the quality and effort put into this excellent chapter of the Myst series.

Rating:
Summary: no Loss
Review: to MAC users everywhere - don't fret.
This game was total pants!!
(pants being a Scots term meaning it sucks!!!)
Nothing at all like the previous Myst games.

The graphics were mediocre at best -
nothing to compare with Myst 3:Exile.
the game play was a pedestrian search for pieces of cloth with symbols - none of the ingenious clue searching and then puzzle solving like the previous games.
There is no sign of Artrus and Catherine.
only their daughter - Yeesha - who sounds a bit like a tree-hugging hippy to me.

I played it - in a matter of hours rather than the months the previous games took me.
I didn't bother going online - and by the time I was curious enough to look at the online community - it had closed.
The whole concept of an online Myst was doomed to failure anyway.
Nonetheless - the game makers didn't have the online part right before they started - and it never worked successfully.

~You chaps didn't miss a thing.