Manufacturer: Ubisoft Find all Ubisoft reviews ESRB Rating: Everyone Platform(s): Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows XP Release Date: November 11, 2003 Average Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars	Retail Price: $29.99 Online Price: $14.62 A discount of $15.37! * Price is subject to change.
Features: Experience a new freedom of movement, a first for the Myst franchise: Explore each unique age in real-time 3D, moving your character effortlessly through the world without pointing and clicking. Create a realistic character: Choosing from a wide variety of facial and clothing features, you will be able to create a male or female avatar that you will use to explore the world. The range of character options allows you to appear the way you look, or the way you want to look. Explore the mysterious and graphically intense world of Uru. Uru's work-of-art style graphics will immerse and captivate you like never before. Follow an epic storyline: At the request of Yeesha, the eccentric daughter of Atrus, you'll journey through a variety of different ages, and discover the lost civilization of the D'ni people. As the story unfolds, you'll be drawn deeper into the D'ni civilization.

User Submitted Uru: Ages Beyond Myst Reviews (cont...)

As presented to the general public, this game appears to be next in the Myst series. In truth, it is not. Myst IV will be a future seperate offline game. Uru is in fact an offshoot of the Myst series whose entire raison d'etre was online play. The wonderful people at Ubisoft will tell you to "read the fine print" if you contact them about lack of this online play.

The version of Uru in the box is itself a redesign of content that was initially intended to be played online. I've played all three previous games and enjoyed Riven the most. Uru is more of a chore than anything. The online portion was a major debacle riddled with technical problems and lacking any real game play. Even with the first free expansion pack due out soon, I don't intend on replaying the main section in order to play that. It's just not worth it.

If you absolutely need this game, do yourself a favor at least and wait until it hits the bargain bins. It is certain to be offered at a discount bundled with expansion packs. You have been forewarned as I wish I had been. I don't intend on buying any expansion packs for this. Furthermore, I will wait for reviews before even thinking about purchasing Myst IV, which I'm very reluctant to do after this experience. Uru stinks, it really does.

Date: 2004-03-08
fish traps? What happened to this series?
To whomever at Cyan may be concerned or cares:

It took me about three days to beat Riven. It took me exactly 26 hours (minus sleep and food) to beat Myst III: Exile. As soon as my roommate gets done with Myst, I'll beat that too.

I'm not on my fourth day/night of Uru, and I have a few observations for whomever makes product/marketing decisions around there, or whomever wants to read this in general. I don't really care if you read it or not, but it'll make me feel better to write it.

... I just spent over an hour and a half of perfectly good screen time unsuccessfully attempting to correctly place two FISHTRAPS in a river using my feet. WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE THINKING!? You took a perfectly good idea and completely demolished it.


Here's why your first three titles were fun, and why Uru isn't, imho.

1) They were very binary. Do something wrong, *crickets chirp*. Do something right, *poof! presto chango*. Even when you had to go see if your action had positive consequences or not, it was very clear-cut. Or, as I like to put it, "Repeatable Results." Things work the same way every time.

In Uru, however, depending on how one jumps, leaps, kicks, walks, runs, etc., there are a finitely much greater number of possibilities. And, doing something "more or less" the same may not necessarily return the same results. Or, more simply put, "Marginally Repeatable Results." Attempt the same maneuver 100 times, you might get it right 80 times or so. Those other 20 create a severe amount of frustration in a game with so much complication already built into the objectives.

2) Your first titles had a distinct visual style, which very much led to the first point. While this style may have been the result of a lack of funding, technological difficulties, attempts to make the software package smaller, what have you, it made the games!! This style defined your demographic! No joysticks, no 3D engines, just a slideshow.

Uru, while attempting to catch up to the rest of the electronic gaming universe, completely abandons the low-res charm of the earlier titles. We don't WANT to have to move a character in these games. We WANT the SLIDESHOW!!

3) No freely moving objects. You click a button, you pull a lever, you zip down a ladder with a click of the mouse, and you're there.

Uru: see fish trap rant above. The rocks in Teledahn prison weren't so bad. They were still way more than I wanted, but nowhere NEAR as bad as those fish traps. If you went to so much obvious trouble coding the engine and animating the avatars... couldn't I just pick the stupid thing up and carry it where I needed it? It's not that much of a leap! In fact, unless I'm very much mistaken, it's a heck of a lot easier to code/animate than kicking stuff around.

4) Skip animations. This is HUGE as far as I'm personally concerned. There were so many places you had to go back and forth over the same ground in the first three titles, that when you pushed/pulled/opened, you just wanted to get it over with quickly.

Uru... You know what? I saw that wonderful elevator graphic the first ten times up and down. I'd rather just get back to where I need to reread the map as fast as possible. If there is a skip animation key, I sure couldn't find it. If it's there and I missed it, then I apologize for the rant.

5) Speaking of looking for keyboard shortcuts, I never saw a manual in the first three games.

Why do you all of a sudden put out a game with a manual? WHY!!!! This should be glaring error numero uno in the unbalanced equation that is Uru.

6) This one is more or less all of the above rolled into one. When you put in Myst and fired it up, you were in the game. You didn't have the first clue in heck where you were, what you were doing, or what you might be expected to do. That was so..... refreshing.

The stupid stupid stupid very very stupid Desert. I can completely understand it from with respect to back story, visual excitement, and kicking off things with a puzzle, but:
a- It was huge. I spent way too much time examining fence posts and scrub bushes.
b- I didn't want to have to spend so much time learning how to move my character. See above.
c- What happened to just getting into the thick of things? "Training courses" always have and always will completely suck. Noone wants them except the people who put them in the games. No matter how you spin it, that was a classically cliche training course, complete with help manual Zandi.


Why did you have to kill Uru: Live? Why didn't the subscriber base come calling? As far as I'm concerned, see above. I never would've paid to push fish traps around.

I hope that another Myst title comes out. I really really do. The overriding concept is great. The ball ride at the end of Amateria in Myst III? Awesome. I went back to the top of that building at least 5/6 times to do that over. The plants in Edanna? The first time I figured out how to get into the Idol's mouth on Village Island in Riven? All stupendous. I'm a sci-fi/fantasy buff, love the story, love the characters.

Believe you me, though: I'm reading reviews and watching demos first. If the next one is anything like this - count me out. The only reason I'm going to finish this Age and get to the end of the game is pure stupid stubborness. It won't be out of enjoyment.

Date: 2004-03-06
URU AGES BEYOND MYST
I JUST FOUND THE CONTROLS IN THIS GAME TO DIFFICULT TO CONTROL.THE GAME PLAYERS, WOULD NOT MOVE WHERE YOU DIRECT THEM, AND THE
ARROW KEY MOVEMENT, MOVED THE PLAYERS IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION
GAME WOULD HAVE BEEN GREAT, IF MOVEMENT OF PLAYERS WOULD HAVE
BEEN AS IN RIVEN, MYST III EXILE, OR EVEN MYST, TRYING TO CONTROL
THE GAME PLAYERS, TOOK THE FUN AND ADVENTURE OUT OF THE GAME.