I have been playing through the Myst series for the first time this year, in release order. Myst, Riven, and Exile all had their problems, ways that they showed their age; but I still overall enjoyed them.
Not this one, though.
First, this calims to be playable on Mac, but this was not my experience. Yes, it technically ran, but 8 FPS is not what I consider acceptable. I at least had the option to switch to a different machine but we're already off to a bad start.
Next, we get a sharp reminder of early 2000s control schemes. A bad reminder; satisfying and comfortable controls have been the standard for so long, I forgot this was not always true. Part of the problem is that Uru thinks it is a third-person game, defaulting to that and often switching back to show off their character animation. I found the first-person camera less awful and spent most of my time playing that way; but the first-person controls were bad even by the standards of 2003.
The sound mixing is pretty bad, too. I eventually had to manually adjust the volume settings, putting non-dialogue down at 50%, in order to be able to hear key speeches over background. I'm not quite sure why I bothered, though, as I found the writing pretty awful.
And finally, we have the puzzles. Now, it's pretty much a given for a game from this era that there will be nonsense puzzles. That's not what I'm complaining about; that's what guides and walkthroughs are for. No, I'm complaining about the pseudo-physics puzzles, like where you have to put physics objects on floor plates. Except, you can't pick things up; you have to walk into them and hope they bounce off in the right direction.
This is just AWFUL.
I'm running out of space, so let me finish with one complaint. I literally couldn't finish this game. There is a jump needed in one section, where every time I tried, I clipped through the floor. Retrying takes up to a minute to get back in place. Just unacceptable; look elsewhere.
