Rating: 
Summary: URU review
Review: Incedible graphics, very good puzzles in one of the worlds, but not enough Myst and Riven style puzzles of pure logic, too many jumping and action puzzles. I like the avatar creation and the ability to push objects of ledges. Oh and one more thing STUPID FIREFLYES,WHY CAN'T YOU JUST GO IN A JAR OR SOMETHING, IT IS REALLY ANNOYING TO LIGHT A CAVE WITH SOMETHING THAT IS SCARED OF WATER!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: The good and the bad...
Review: First of all, let me share my specs with you. This computer is barely 6 months old, with a 128 MB NVidia GeForce 4, a SoundBlaster Audigy2, a swimmingly lovely 17" LCD monitor, plenty of free hard drive space... and only 256 mb of RAM. Maybe that explains my problem, I don't know, but I do know that a load time of 2 to 5 minutes (I can see a clock from here, I've checked) for each and every Age is RIDICULOUS.The look of the game is fantastic. When I brought the resolution down to 1024x768, the movement was smooth (I originally tried it on 1280x1024, but managed to wear down my system's virtual memory and nearly crashed). The sound is absolutely stunning. It's the first time this sound card of mine has had a workout, and it's delightful. I don't have the darkness issues others have complained about; I think the combination of my video card and the LCD monitor, which tends to be brighter, are behind this. As for the game play itself... it's a mixed bag, it really is. The plot feels very different. In all the other games, you're on a quest for Atrus, or his family, and someone has carefully positioned things behind a series of puzzles for you to find. Uru is, yes, designed with Uru Live in mind. However, having been a Myst geek for ten years now, I keep getting a major kick out of all the backstory bits that keep relating to the books. The world of Myst is still very clever, even when the execution is flawed. As others have said: the running, the jumping, the lack of clues, the kicking, and the load times... those things are all annoying as hell. It's a shame, really, because they detract from some of the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen. Upon reaching a D'ni "art gagllery," I just stood and stared for a solid ten minutes, because the detail and color of the room, combined with the excellent, haunting music, were everything that a gaming environment *should* be. Unfortunately, it's cold here and my fingers have mild arthritis, so I still haven't been able to coordinate myself through the rest of the Age I found that book in, because I keep falling off a ledge and having to start over. I don't regret the $30 I spent, because I love all facets of the Myst universe and I'm looking forward to seeing what Uru Live offers, but it's a bittersweet thing. After seeing how many things they fixed for _Exile_, I was looking forward to more.
Rating: 
Summary: It's just not Myst
Review: I expected this game to be similar to the other three in the Myst series. I was disappointed. The game is OK, but it lacks the charm and challenge of the other three. You don't feel like you're the first person to explore this world, and the puzzles are too easy. The graphics are stunning, but the Sims-like characters shatter the illusion that you're really there. Also, where the other games had a strong plot, this one doesn't have one at all. I've only completed one of the ages, and I'm having trouble bringing myself to finish the rest. I also found several problems with playability. While I love the concept of a 3D world to explore, there were so many difficulties with it that I stopped in frustration several times. First, some puzzles involve moving loose objects around. The only problem is you can't pick anything up. You have to kick the object and hope it goes in the right direction. Second, there is NO ZIP MODE, so you have to walk all the way from puzzle to puzzle. This becomes very tedious after awhile. Third, this game takes a long time to load, and every time you enter a new age, which you do a lot, you spend several moments looking at a blank screen. The main problem, however, is that this game does not stand well on its own. Its purpose is to get people into the internet game, and the age I beat left me very disappointed. In the other games, when you see towers off in the distance, you can always find a way to get to them, and when you have random pipes sticking out of the ground, they always connect to a macine that you must turn on. In the age I defeated, you can see strange towers in the distance, but you never get to them. I went to the internet site to see if maybe you could get to them there, but even on Christmas day, it was so slow that I had to give up. While this game has many good concepts (like the ability to play with your friends in a 3D world), it just doesn't live up to its predecessors. All in all, if you are looking for the next Myst game, wait for Myst IV to come out.
Rating: 
Summary: A Myst game for gamers
Review: There are a lot of complaints people have with this game that I didn't. Let's deal with them. First of all, let me say this - the part of the box that says "minimum system requirements" is actually (gasp) the *MINIMUM* system *REQUIREMENTS*. If you DON'T HAVE THEM, then DON'T COMPLAIN when the game doesn't run. If you have a cheaper version of a graphics card, and Uru doesn't like it, oh well - it tells you quite specifically what you need. Being true 3D, it's a lot more than the previous bunch. My system is by no means incredible or new, and it looked profoundly gorgeous and ran with nary a hitch. Second, a lot of people seem to be having trouble with the fact that there are running and jumping puzzles. Well, with Exile, when they added the ability to free look, there were quite a few puzzles based around pointing something somewhere. Now, they add the ability to move freely, so of course there are going to be some puzzles involving that. There aren't many, and to anyone who's ever played a third person adventure game, they're basically trivial. Third, there seems to be this general backlash towards the game design in general. Less emphasis on story (which I simply don't understand - there were journals and backstories everywhere, just like the last three...but whatever), more open-ended design, etc. It seems to me that these guys weren't trying to make another Myst game, they were trying to make a good adventure game, and they displaced it from the rest of the mythology on purpose. This is a game designed to appeal to everyone, not just the people willing to click through an endless slide show. Fourth, people seem to not like the puzzles. I don't get this at all. Aside from one fairly arbitrary solution at the very end of the last age, all of the puzzles made sense and I felt were quite clever. Exile had this feeling going that each puzzle was in isolation and I never felt like any of them really related to the game that much; here, each puzzle is an important part of whatever world it's in, more like the first game than either of the other two. There was only one age that followed the solve, move on, solve, move on mentality, and it was themed - each puzzle had an obvious solution that turned out to be completely wrong, and something else had to be done. It was genius, I thought - every solution made me think "oh, THAT makes sense!" once I finally got it. It's not perfect - the not picking up objects thing was irksome, the load times can be annoying on older machines, and the ending is a little weak. But this is a Myst game that finally felt to me like a real adventure game, not an austere exercise in puzzle solving. I felt like I was part of it. So, I'd reccomend this more to broad gamers than specific fans of the Myst franchise (as if the plethora of one-star reviews wasn't enough to make that clear), but I didn't think that it was anywhere close to as bad as most of the people here are making it out to be. One of the best games I've played in the last year.
Rating:
Summary: Beware
Review: If your PC hardware is an *absolute* fit, and I mean *absolute*, for the requirements, then try this game. However, I would advise *against* buying it from a particular, unnamed online retailer which has a HEFTY restocking fee, if you know what I mean.
Rating:
Summary: Difficult to run, and not what I expect from a Myst game
Review: First off, the dang thing keeps crashing. Eventhough I'm well within their system requirements the game still struggles. Now, this may not be too bad if you could save a game in a location. Nope, everytime you crash, you are back to where you started - yes, the work you've done is saved, but it would nice if they character was where you left it. I mean, it's getting really old running across that desert. I also believe this game lacks the charm and otherworldness of the other MYST games. Although the other MYST games didn't have the true 3d motion I thought the graphics were much better and more captivating. Much was given up to gain the 3d motion, and I think it was a bad deal. This game reminds me more of a MYST knock off than a true MYST game (more on that later). Another thing - this game is really really dark - hard to play at anytime other than night - my monitor is at it's lightest and brightest and I still can't see stuff. I also found out later that this really isn't really part of the MYST series - but rather an offshoot - I guess that explains the poor quality. I'm hoping that MYST IV is more worthy of being a MYST game
Rating:
Summary: BEAUTIFUL BUT ANNOYING. PLUS, IT IS INCOMPLETE.
Review: I've got a good enough machine to manage to run this monolith without hitches, but it is not one of the smartest decisions I have made with my wallet. Ubisoft unarguably redefined gaming graphics with Myst, and one can see why, some of the 3D shots on Uru are also simply mindblowing. And no, this magnificence is not limited to stunning visuals. If you have a subwoofer (Altec Lansing in my case) you'll be quaking every once in a while with the howls and bassy booms of the intriguing landscape around you. But: That's pretty much all I can say about this magnum effort -- it looks pretty. As for the game itself, some of the "puzzles" are annoying especially if you are unfamiliar with the lonely cultural haunts of Myst. There're no clues. Feels bit like a Solitaire on steroids. It starts off OK, but the latter half of the game is basically trial and error, at least for me. Even more disappointingly, once I floundered through the entire CD (took me a couple of after-work days) there really is very little point now for me in playing the entire game again. Unless I want to test my Lansing woofers again that is. I'm hoping that the online interactive version of the game will save me from buyer's remorse or this CD was not the smartest purchase I have made, despite the beauty and all that. Caveat emptor.
Rating: 
Summary: Uru, What Happened Here?
Review: This game is dark. Dark as in hard to see what the heck you're doing. Our system more than met every qualification, some things were double than necessary requirements. We were lucky enough to have one of the 'supported' video cards. We crashed, crashed, crashed. We updated every single driver for every part of our machine (it was less than a year old.) One has to figure that they took more than one year to develop this game. The only way we were able to complete this game was by turning our sound to almost nothing. Just try to do some of the puzzles that way. Run, jump? Myst was always about using your mind to solve puzzles. Not your hand-eye coordination. The storyline is 'dragging.' If I want to get preached to, I can go to church. The clues. Gee, all this linking just to get a clue, what fun! Link to here, to link to there, to get a clue, to link back to give it a try. Try to take these notes in the complete dark because your 'hoping' to get not miss a 'save point.' And, what is with those saves anyway? I can't save where I want, only at these pre-determine points! My reward, a landscaped hut and a t-shirt. I haven't played 'URU live.' I don't care. I can't wait to get this OFF my machine. I'm not sure I'll buy any more Cyan software. (I only wish that the people who made Seventh Guest and Eleventh Hour put out a new game.) The only way to finish this game without going crazy was by getting a walk-through. ... Even with this 'walkthrough' it was hard to find everything. We never did finish landscaping our retreat. Doesn't really matter as this is coming off anyway. I requested this game for Christmas. What was I thinking?
Rating:
Summary: Buy a New Computer
Review: As a big fan of the Myst series, and a purchaser of all of Cyan's previous products (Myst, Riven, Realmyst, Myst Exile, Myst Masterpiece, etc.), I eagerly looked forward to playing this game. I am writing this after watching the game crash half a dozen times after the introductory video. After surfing through a maze of Ubisoft technical support websites, I have learned that although the rest of my system specifications exceed those listed, the video card on my one year-old high-end HP computer is not one of the two (count-em, two) video cards compatible with this game. If you happen to have an NVIDIA GeForce 1,2,3,4 or FX video card, or an ATI Radeon 7000-9800 video card, perhaps you will be able to get this game to run, and can assess which of the mixed reviews set forth here are accurate. If, on the other hand, you happen to have a video card made by an obscure manufacturer such as, oh, Intel, you can watch your PC crash spectacularly when trying to run this overwrought software. For my own part, I'm sending this back for a refund.
Rating:
Summary: Run, jump, and kick...sounds alot like soccer...
Review: I could hardly wait for this much anticipated sequel to the wonderful Myst series. I own Myst, Riven, and Myst III-Exile, and have enjoyed their quiet, haunting atmosphere and challenging puzzles. Uru, I'm sorry to say, is a grim disappointment. I had no problem loading and running the game. Load times were not slow, and I experienced no crashes. The playing of Uru, however, was boring and frustrating. When playing, I didn't get the same feeling that I was "really there" as in the previous games. Also, in many cases, there was no feedback when you performed a certain action. In the previous games you would hear a gear grinding, water flowing, or see something take place, etc. In my case the "avatar" was used only when necessary as I found navigation to be much easier in first person rather than moving my "puppet" along. My main issue, though, was that of having to run and jump accurately. IF YOU HAVE LIMITED DEXTERITY OR PROBLEMS BEING REALLY QUICK, OR JUST DON'T WANT TO PLAY A GAME WHERE THIS IS CRUCIAL, YOU MIGHT THINK TWICE ABOUT BUYING URU. This would not have been so frustrating if I could have saved the game before every attempt, but YOU CANNOT SAVE THE GAME WHEN YOU WANT TO, and IF YOU "DIE" YOU GET SENT BACK TO THE START OF THE LEVEL. This causes the game to be tedious to those of us who had no problems whatsoever playing Myst, Riven or Exile. From other reviews I have found that I am not alone in this. Also, instead of simply picking up an object and putting it into place, you get to kick it around and into place (why can't you just pick it up???) I regret purchasing this game, and wish that Cyan/Ubisoft would renounce any association between it and Myst. If I had wanted "Tomb Raider", "Mario Brothers" or "Legend of Zelda" I would have bought them.
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