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Uru: Ages Beyond Myst

Uru: Ages Beyond Myst

List Price: $29.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not good
Review: This game is not user friendly. It is not like the other Myst games. I can't even get a start on the game. It won't save when you want to quit. Whe you do quit and come back to the game, it starts from the beginning again. The mouse curser is all over the screen and hard to control. I guess you have have to play it all in one day. The URU website is complicated and offers no help at all. I wasted my money on this game for which I can't play. I played the other Myst games with none of this type of trouble.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I was certainly impressed...
Review: Let me preface this by saying I haven't played Myst, and I have only played a little of Riven.
I have found URU to be a great game, the main problem being technical - it takes a big 3D graphics card, and there is an annoying lag between 'scenes' as the software is loaded, or whatever. Also, why are these games not able to be played with a joystick? I must be naive about something here.
Now that the negative is out of the way, the positive is that this a great game with logical puzzles, not impossible, fantastic story, and fantastic areas to explore. There is no boredom in playing, and there are several factors which personalize the game. The graphics and sounds are the best I've ever seen in a PC game. I'm 37, this has been a great game to play in the evenings for relaxation....

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
Review: I must say this was quite a step down from the previous Myst games. The avatar (why do we need an avatar in the first place?) was clunky and unmanageable, and could not use or carry inventory. In several places, one has to make the avatar move items *by kicking them.* Hello??? Don't people have opposable thumbs? That's just ridiculous. Also, in several other places, one is required to make the avatar jump ridiculous distances and do other such things that would normally result in immediate death. That, too, is illogical. I can't say I'm at all surprised that Uru Live tanked. Furthermore, the puzzles often made no sense as a way to move on, to open something, whatever...it was just "here's the next puzzle." And they weren't particularly imaginative; mostly, they required good reflexes to put the avatar through the exact motions required. The former Myst games were about using your mind to solve puzzles; this one is not. Oh...and there's Yeesha. Let me not forget her; she's a real gem with her red dreadlocks, her animal-print pareo and her tattooed face. We're forced to spend an inordinate amount of time listening to this woman drone repetitively on and on about the fall of D'ni. However, in the Myst tradition, the scenery is of course lovely; and that's really the only reason to buy the game. Buy it used, though!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Have The Developers Lost Their Minds?
Review: If you're like me and loved Myst, Riven, Myst 3: Exile, realMyst, you'll love Uru: Ages Beyond Myst but it has some major flaws...

1) Get Rid Of The Avatar! Myst games are a first person visual medium. It's almost like reading a book and books are the basis of Myst.

2) In earlier games your actions had obvious good or bad results. Uru has a tendency to nit-pick over your actions.
As if some of the puzzles aren't hard enough, we don't need inconsistent results with game actions. Another reviewer mentions a 'fish trap' problem. If we need to move something by 'kicking' it why make it hard? The trick was in figuring out you needed to kick it.

3) Why can't you just save the game where you stopped? It's bad enough that throughout the game you have to retrace your own steps (numerous times) but to do so because the game restarts only in certain places is just irritating! And running is a poor Zip Mode!

4) The first 'action' video scene I came across I nearly fell out of my chair! I don't expect this from a Myst game, it's against very idea of an immersive adventure game. Go play 'Unreal' if you want action!

5) Why is the Uru storyline tying into 'our' reality? This story is great fantasy and should be left in its' own context. Could this be a ploy to attract new buyers? Just like the 3D Avatar? See #1.

6)With all the latest technology in games why can't Uru have a place to store info? For taking notes, drag and drop for sketches and/or photos of important sites?

The mythology behind these games are what made them so popular.

All in all, my journeys have been tarnished by these problems to what could be the perfect immersive adventure game. I'm giving it 3 stars because it's Myst. Let's hope the next game doesn't continue in this direction. Myst IV later this summer.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Myst creators lose at their own game
Review: Let me begin by saying I am an avid fan of both Riven and Myst. However, Uru falls flat on it's face. What made Riven and Myst fun were the amazing graphics, the logic puzzles, and the world they immersed you in.
1. Uru does have good graphics and sound but Uru is not as compatible with graphic and sound cards as both Riven and Myst were.
2. You spend lots of time looking at the same stuff because of the idiocy of puzzles that require you to move something around, which is near impossible.

3. If you die, you go back to a spot very far away on your game and have to do all the same stuff to return you to were you left off.
4. I am not avid gamer but I don't think I'm alone in saying that I wasted way to much time trying to control my character. None of the point and click stuff that made Riven and Myst beautiful and easy to control.
5. Most of the worlds are designed so dark they are really difficult to see in.
6. To much excess! You can waste lots of time on stuff that has very little to do with actually winning the game. I'm all for touring but this took it to the extreme.

Again, I was crazy about the first two, but this one is simply not worth it. I hope they come out with another because this was truly a horrible way to end a great series.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Myst Revelations
Review: For all of those members of the myst comunity, I have great news. MYST IV IS COMING OUT SOON! It now has a deffinate title and it is Myst revelations. The New mexico cleft has been tweaked once again. First it was a greenhouse like building, next it was a crack in the ground with the yesha symbol everywhere, now it is an elaborate complex of houses and other buildings built across a beautiful new mexico desert lake. Yesha is older now, and this game follows the Myst storyline and yesha is about 12 to 14 years of age judging by the preveiw. There is otherwise no other iformation besides the fact that the actors seem to be bad. Rand Miller has lost his ability to be Atrus and the Sirrus and Achenar images have been tweaked yet again. Other than that, this seems otherwise a great game. The graphics look disputable, though. But hey, this is coming out in 2006. You never know about these things.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: My personal view of the game
Review: (...)this game revolves more on the Dni Civilization and the untouched world that this civilization has left for us to discover. Instead of having a villain we have an unmercifull world that hinders the completion of our journey. Instead of having an immersive experience playing this game as a first person perspective, we have the option to play the game as a third person perspective. It seems that a lot of game play elements has been traded with the earlier predecesors of the myst series, but it all sums up to a positive yet frustrating experience for the fans of the myst series. I say furstrating because the camera angles are horrible, the time it takes the game to load an age (world) is long enough to get you started to go to sleep, and the unability to save the game where you left it is very dissapointing. Another furstrating element of this game is that you literally die which is kind of scary for myst fans because you never die in myst. The whole aspect of die and kick objects in order to move them is unacceptable because what made Myst a unique game is that we had the ability to immerse ourselves without worrying about the boring cliches that so many games fell into like the whole thing about "die and comeback again". It is difficult to get used to the changes that this game has inclulded, but change is good. In fact, I strongly believe that the changes that this game has included was needed in order for the game to stand by itself among the other titles of the myst series. You might wonder, what are the changes that I am talking about? Well, these changes are the ability to have an avatar and switch to third person, the ability to jump brocken bridges, and a complete 360 degrees view of the world. In general, the game begs to be played and not be scrutinized by people who bought this "product" thinking that they would have another myst sequel. In order to come to a definite conclusion of the game, one must play this game and experience it with an open mind. For me, it was an excellent game with or without having the negative aspects of the game just because of the whole idea of knowing a little more about the Dni civilization.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Very Disappointed
Review: Running with AMD Athlon XP 2500+, Radeon 9600, and a gig of RAM, so no technical or performance problems.

The game itself is the problem. The user interface is terrible. Character movement is clumsy and imprecise.

The game itself seems pointless, an aglomeration of nothing in particular for no discernible reason. As many have remarked, probably the base URU was originally intended as a small set of training levels for online play, which at the present does not look like it is ever going to happen.

Running around the desert at the beginning for no reason at all with nothing much to do or see was the most fun I had with the game; and that was not much fun. It was all downhill from there. There is no coherence to the game experience that I could discern. The puzzles are just stuck in, they do not feel like part of the story. Indeed the "story," is really just a shell of a building without an interior; again the story itself was something that would be expected to develop in the online play.

Overall, I found the atmosphere, the music, the ambience, and the art to be rather depressing. I would like to say that there are some good moments that make up for it all, but if there are I never encountered them.

Reviews tend to be either love it or hate it when it comes to URU. I would highly recommend trying the demo first before buying the game.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: dumb
Review: this game is boring and dumb. all you do is walk around this stupid porely designed kingdom I don't recomend it. Age of Mythology is a better myth game

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A masterpiece
Review: It saddens me that so many people have written negative reviews about Uru, because Uru continues the legacy of the Myst series, and will immerse you in a way you haven't experienced since the original Myst. This game does have some flaws, but the only major flaw in my opinion would be the extremely slow loading time for the ages. But patience is a virtue, and believe me, it is worth it.
This game is on par with the other three Myst games, and I for one was not dissapointed. I think the greatest thing about Uru is the level of immersion. I was immersed in the world of the D'ni, and the world of the DRC. The other Myst games did not have anywhere near the amount of depth that Uru has. Wandering through the ages of Uru is even more enjoyable than those of Myst and Exile (Riven is on par depth wise), and the reason for the amount of depth in these ages is due to the many journals that you read (and none of it is required reading, but you will be rewarded for it if you do) these journals tell the stories behind these ages, and the stories behind the ages of Uru are even more intriging and beautiful than those of the previous Myst games. Having read the journals about the age of Gareesahn, I wandered through those dimly lit mechanical passages with a new understanding of the place. I would say to myself "ah, so that room is a locker room for the gaurds..." etc etc. This alone is worth the trouble of waiting for the ages to load.
But there is more. The sound effects are absolutely stunning, in fact they won the 2003 Gamespot award for best sound which only further proves the point. The music is so beautiful, and is on par with Exile (and that's saying something!). If you are not a Myst fan, then the loading speed will probably turn you off. But if you are a true Myst fan, then it is worth every penny and more! And don't let the fact that Uru live won't be released get you down, because they will release expansion packs instead and the first expansion pack is free!


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