Posted on: May 11, 2014

eVinceW21

Games: 134 Reviews: 25

Beyond Myst

Intrepid adventurers familiar with Myst will find a bit of a bastard stepchild in Uru. The Ages Beyond Myst was born from the desire to take modern day explorers to the fabled ancient subterranean city of D'ni in ways Myst and Riven could not - in real time 3D. Having initially been envisioned as a persistent online adventure, players will dress their own avatar and explore the ages beyond Myst in 3rd person. Because of the dramatic shift in context and presentation, players who are less intimate with the Myst mythos than your average die hard fan might feel a tad out of place in Uru wondering what any of it has to do at all with its predecessors. But the Myst essentials are all present. Namely, compelling puzzles and richly realized and beautifully rendered alien environments that are so vivid you can't help but get swept up in them. Some awkward controls, cumbersome platforming and the inability to pick up and carry physics objects needed to solve puzzles all plague the game's interface. Explorers might find themselves hard pressed to get involved in the game's narrative as the story is toned down a notch, weaving a somewhat awkwardly delivered tale about the follies of a lost civilization from a mysterious character players are never fully introduced to while piecing together bits and scraps of largely inconsequential exposition from journals and recordings that are little more than nonessential filler. Make no mistake, Uru's adventure is still one of the series best despite being rather removed from its predecessors and a bit cumbersome at times. Uru is every bit as immersive as its predecessors. The challenges are a bit less cunning than before, but enjoyable nonetheless. Uru stands as the quintessential modern Myst. A vivid reimagining for a new age. And a remarkable experience that is to be lived to be believed.

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Posted on: January 14, 2012

nitrogenfingers

Verified owner

Games: 330 Reviews: 48

Captures the magic the series is known for

I played Riven as a child and Myst later in life, and something in the story of creating worlds by writing books always spoke to me. Riven was of course far too difficult for me but I still enjoyed visiting those beautiful locations, solving some of the simpler pull lever-open door puzzles. Picking up Uru years later I was delighted to see how well they had brought together my favourite elements of the Myst universe. The game starts in visiting the Cleft where Atrus grew up, almost identical to how I'd imagined it. From there the player is taken to the vast underground city of D'ni, perfectly detailed, and to several other ages that tell the story of the darker side of the D'ni civilization, as well as the failed attempt by archaeologists to revive the city. If you're not familiar with the considerable lore of the series some of this will of course be lost on you but the overarching themes of the story are well clarified in journals and the ever expressive environments. Uru is a hard game, and like its predecessors before it this difficulty is characterized the obscure solutions it chooses for problems. They are much better than those in Riven, with much clearer clues and more obvious indicators of cause and effect. Platforming makes an unwelcome debut in this series, especially at Gahreseen but it doesn't detract enough from the rest of the game to be more than a mild nuisance. The reason I've always had a soft spot for the series and Uru especially is how much the game engages you in the story. It doesn't tell an especially emotive and certainly not present story- you'll feel more like an archaeologist uncovering the truth than actively taking part in it. It's the way the environments are so carefully detailed, and express so much of what the world was, with scattered journals and documents allowing you to piece together what happened. If Uru had better blended it's puzzles with this process it would be perfect. As it stands, it is merely excellent. The Myst series is interesting as I find it is simultaneously overrated and underrated, the graphics especially of the original being such a selling point and being so underwhelming today. As the series has evolved though the core that I have always loved, those detailed worlds and that unstated story that saturates everything you see. The player is narrator as much as he is narrated to, a rare and wonderful thing that shows us just what computer games are capable of. Nowhere are these qualities more refined, and better presented than in Uru.

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Posted on: May 22, 2013

TankGRRL13

Verified owner

Games: 19 Reviews: 3

EXCELLENT Game

Uru Complete Chronicles is an epic journey where very very much of the D' ni culture is revealed and explored. There are many different worlds and ages you will have to visit and some are very strikingly beautiful and other beautiful but also strange and unique. By the time I finished this game I felt it took me on a very long journey of discovery and adventure and I had experienced so many different places. It is truly in every sense of the word an Epic Adventure. ***The puzzles maybe very difficult for some users but there is help on the net in varying degrees of helpfulness.... from Hints all the way to walkthroughs. Many of the best are from www.MystJourney.com and the best video walkthroughs for all of the myst related games are on the YT channel Dilandau3000, he explains the puzzles and how they work as well as some of the background story and D' ni history.

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Posted on: June 19, 2013

Songe

Games: 12 Reviews: 1

Uru is alive and well

You can still play it online "Myst Online", but for those of you who prefer offline - then this is the one to get.

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Posted on: September 20, 2011

sugrebaer

Verified owner

Games: 18 Reviews: 1

Uru-Myst Worlds

Cyan Worlds/Myst - Best single player games ever. You are placed into a particular world to solve mysteries to advance to the next level. Graphics, sounds and challenging environments propel you into unbelieveable scenery, simply the best real life games ever coded. I own the complete boxed series, but find the versions on GOG easier to play, because there are no discs to replace when you advance to thenext level. And you save a lot of $$$ .

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