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Jan. 2nd, 2004 03:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaxjediI got Uru: Ages Beyond Myst for Xmas. In fact, the main reason people got me a new computer was so I could play Uru (I was loudly drooling over Uru for a month). Anyway, here is my review of it. Insert SPOILER ALERT here.
Uru is a prelude to the new Uru Live, which is a MMORPG based around the Myst series.
For those of you not familiar with the Myst storyline, the details of the backstory may seem a bit obscure. The game does generally assume that you know who the D'ni are and who Atrius is.
For those who don't know, Atrius is the guy in the Myst games who set up the Ages and created the Linking books on Myst Island. He's a descendant of the D'ni, a people who lived in a network of caves and used the art of creating Linking Books to travel to different dimensions. They used these dimensions as farms, gardens, vacations spots, birthday presents, etc. They became a very decadent empire, enslaving the peoples there for labor. D'ni culture fell about 250 years ago due to an incredibly toxic plague and betrayal from within (see the Myst novels for details on that).
The backstory is that it's the modern day and the caverns of D'ni have been discovered far beneath the surface of the Earth. You are called to a cleft in the desert, where a man named Zandi tells you to "follow the journey". You find the cleft home of Atrius on the surface. From there, you link across to several ages on a quest from Yeesha, Atrius' daughter. The plot of the game is really mostly a moral lesson and obviously a prelude to the Uru Live game.
The engine for the game is the new Uru Live engine. It's a 1st/3rd person game, much like EverQuest or Star Wars Galaxies. The graphics are surprisingly good for a realtime rendered envoironment. In fact, most of those same emvironments are in Uru Live, I'm told.
My biggest gripe with the game is because of the engine, there is a lot more dexterity required, in the Tomb Raider style of gaming. There are several places where what you need is to time you jumps just right. I'm with a lot of people on this - one of the attractions of the Myst games is the fact that it isn't an agility contest, it's puzzles.
The puzzles in Uru were the hardest of the series for me specifically because of this. A number of the puzzles took advantage of the engine and were a lot more kinestetic than previous games. As I'm not a particularly clever kinestetic thinker, they were a lot harder for me. For instance, in one part there is a little draw bridge on your path. After a while, I finally figured out that to get the bridge down, you and to run and jump at it to knock it down. No levers or puzzle, per se.
However, the puzzles make a lot of since in their context. In one age, all of the clues are intentionally misleading, and often the answer is in what isn't in the clue. This was the hardest part for me, as I'm used to looking at the clues and distil, and you need every single part of the clue to figure out the puzzle. This was the hardest partof it for me as I am used to distilling the information to it's essentials, But it makes sense once you find out that the age you are in is a treasure vault - it's designed to mislead people.
And some of the puzzles seem pointless. There is a sort of scavenger hunt part of the game to find 'journey cloths' and they are often in obscure areas, behind pillars, etc. I had to go through several ages a few times (resolving the puzzles and making the difficult jumps again) to find them all.
But even that makes sense. You see, a lot of this is obviously preparation for Uru Live. Given that it's a 3d environment, you need to be able to think spatially and kinestetically. Also, you'll be interacting with others in that environment. The misleading puzzles forced me to have to look at every detail and consider every one of them. Other puzzles are clearly exercises in lateral thinking. And the scavenger hunt forced me to look at everythign, just in case I missed something.
In a lot of ways, it an exercise in practical exploration. Which for exploring the D'ni caves, is something you are going to have to learn.
By itself, it was a good game. Not quite up to part with the others in the series in terms of backstory or playability, but coupled with Uru Live, it's a good game.
Uru is a prelude to the new Uru Live, which is a MMORPG based around the Myst series.
For those of you not familiar with the Myst storyline, the details of the backstory may seem a bit obscure. The game does generally assume that you know who the D'ni are and who Atrius is.
For those who don't know, Atrius is the guy in the Myst games who set up the Ages and created the Linking books on Myst Island. He's a descendant of the D'ni, a people who lived in a network of caves and used the art of creating Linking Books to travel to different dimensions. They used these dimensions as farms, gardens, vacations spots, birthday presents, etc. They became a very decadent empire, enslaving the peoples there for labor. D'ni culture fell about 250 years ago due to an incredibly toxic plague and betrayal from within (see the Myst novels for details on that).
The backstory is that it's the modern day and the caverns of D'ni have been discovered far beneath the surface of the Earth. You are called to a cleft in the desert, where a man named Zandi tells you to "follow the journey". You find the cleft home of Atrius on the surface. From there, you link across to several ages on a quest from Yeesha, Atrius' daughter. The plot of the game is really mostly a moral lesson and obviously a prelude to the Uru Live game.
The engine for the game is the new Uru Live engine. It's a 1st/3rd person game, much like EverQuest or Star Wars Galaxies. The graphics are surprisingly good for a realtime rendered envoironment. In fact, most of those same emvironments are in Uru Live, I'm told.
My biggest gripe with the game is because of the engine, there is a lot more dexterity required, in the Tomb Raider style of gaming. There are several places where what you need is to time you jumps just right. I'm with a lot of people on this - one of the attractions of the Myst games is the fact that it isn't an agility contest, it's puzzles.
The puzzles in Uru were the hardest of the series for me specifically because of this. A number of the puzzles took advantage of the engine and were a lot more kinestetic than previous games. As I'm not a particularly clever kinestetic thinker, they were a lot harder for me. For instance, in one part there is a little draw bridge on your path. After a while, I finally figured out that to get the bridge down, you and to run and jump at it to knock it down. No levers or puzzle, per se.
However, the puzzles make a lot of since in their context. In one age, all of the clues are intentionally misleading, and often the answer is in what isn't in the clue. This was the hardest part for me, as I'm used to looking at the clues and distil, and you need every single part of the clue to figure out the puzzle. This was the hardest partof it for me as I am used to distilling the information to it's essentials, But it makes sense once you find out that the age you are in is a treasure vault - it's designed to mislead people.
And some of the puzzles seem pointless. There is a sort of scavenger hunt part of the game to find 'journey cloths' and they are often in obscure areas, behind pillars, etc. I had to go through several ages a few times (resolving the puzzles and making the difficult jumps again) to find them all.
But even that makes sense. You see, a lot of this is obviously preparation for Uru Live. Given that it's a 3d environment, you need to be able to think spatially and kinestetically. Also, you'll be interacting with others in that environment. The misleading puzzles forced me to have to look at every detail and consider every one of them. Other puzzles are clearly exercises in lateral thinking. And the scavenger hunt forced me to look at everythign, just in case I missed something.
In a lot of ways, it an exercise in practical exploration. Which for exploring the D'ni caves, is something you are going to have to learn.
By itself, it was a good game. Not quite up to part with the others in the series in terms of backstory or playability, but coupled with Uru Live, it's a good game.
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Date: 2004-01-02 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-26 12:52 pm (UTC)http://www.livejournal.com/users/etherlad/146667.html
An interesting theory that might give you a glimmer of hope, or piss you off if it turns out to be true. :)