Intro – in which the author makes his confession

Let me start off by saying
that I did not like this game. I mean, I REALLY did not like this
game. I was actually one of the thousands
of beta testers for this product so I could have written this review
back in November when my NDA ran out. But I just couldn’t bring
myself to go back and play the game again to get the screen shots.
So you will not see any screen shots in this review (that’s
the only way I could bring myself to start writing). If you want
to see screen shots, go to the Uru home
page.

But I realize that there
are people who would enjoy this game. So rather than giving it
the “F” which I felt it deserved,
I have given it a “B-” which I hope accurately rates
the overall game.

Please let me explain.

Adventure games can be
divided into two categories: Physical and Non-Physical. Physical
games include titles such as Tomb
Raider where you have to run, jump, solve timed puzzles and require
the gamer
to have a measure of manual dexterity. Some purists (not me)
would argue that this makes them “Action” games rather than
a true adventure. Non-Physical games, such as Myst, require no manual
dexterity and can be played as leisurely as you like.

Some people like both
types of games. Others only like one type or the other. I only
like Non-Physical style games. I
don’t like
having to jump onto pixel-perfect locations or to have ticking clocks
breathing down my neck. That’s just me. That’s why I
love Myst.

But Uru is a Physical
game.

Uru requires you to leap
clefts and jump onto moving platforms. There are timed puzzles
and many opportunities to “die” if
you miss. All the things Myst never made you do. All the things I
hate in a game.

Yet I realize that there
are many people out there who do like the physical aspect. After
all, how popular is
Tomb
Raider?

So, now that you understand
(and maybe even share) my prejudice, let’s get into the review.

Background

The story goes that D’ni, the ancient city of Atrus’ ancestors,
has been discovered by human archaeologists. They immediately do
what anyone would do in that situation; take control of it and only
let their friends in. But there is a rogue in their midst by the
name of Zandi who, working in consort with Atrus’ daughter,
Yeesha, wants to open D’ni and the Age books it contains to
the general public. So you and the general populace get to wander
around the ancient glories with the reluctant permission of the site
authorities.

There are a few ages
that you can explore on your own. Yeesha hopes that these will
teach you about the sins of the D’ni people
so that you won’t make the same mistakes. As the research continues,
more Ages will be “discovered” and opened to the public
at a rate of about one per month. There are also several Easter Eggs
in the beginning that will be recognized by those who have played
the other Myst games and read the Myst novels.

Review

STORY: “B-” Every adventure game has a story and Uru is no exception. But this is about the lamest story of any of the
Myst titles. In the previous three Myst games you had mysteries to
uncover and bad guys to thwart. Uru has neither. What there is to
learn about the ages you discover by reading the journals of the
archeologists. You learn nothing new, which isn’t about to
be published.

Instead of a villain
to thwart, Yeesha simply wants you to learn a lesson from the history
of D’ni. But she has no monopoly
on wisdom and her conclusions are highly colored by her beliefs.
A person could easily come to different conclusions than the ones
she wishes you to reach. And anyway, since when did anyone ever learn
anything from history? Wasn’t the Great War the war to end
all wars?

But you do end up learning
more about the fascinating story story/history of the Myst universe
and I count that for much.

GRAPHICS: “A” There is no question that the graphics
are gorgeous. To say that the worlds are beautifully rendered would
be to say the Mona Lisa was nicely painted. This is the one area
where the Myst tradition is faithfully carried on. If you like eye-candy,
then you will be in second heaven with Uru. My only complaint is
that the graphics end up being the center of focus for Uru. Instead
of using the graphics to highlight the puzzles as Myst did, the puzzles
are used as an excuse to lead you to more graphics. So why not an
A+? As beautiful as the world is, your avatar (the character which
represents you in the game) is a bit cartoony. They really don’t
match. Not a big issue, but enough to ruin a perfect score.

SOUND: “B+” This is a little hard to review as I did
not go out and spend money on the game (I was a beta tester, remember?).
In the version I played, there was only music in two areas; the opening
Cleft Age and later in a Museum. In both cases the music was perfect.
The Cleft made me feel like I was on a mystical journey to Ixland.
The Museum invoked feelings of greatness from ages past. But they
were the only places. There was no music anywhere else. I have spoken
to people who did spend money of the final game and they tell me
that there is more music in the game. If it is as good as the pieces
that I heard, then it is top rate. If it has been included in the
rest of the game, then it deserves an “A”.

NAVIGATION SYSTEM: “C-” Yes, I’m prejudiced, but
I can’t imagine anyone liking this system. First, there are
four different ways to navigate though the game; from first person
or third person perspective and with the mouse or the keyboard. And
you must use all four if you hope to finish the game.

Third person is the only
way to see your feet and must be used when you are in danger of
slipping off the edge. But you have no
control
over camera angle from third person. So you must switch to first
person to look around (but you can’t look down.) The mouse
is a convenient way to move and easy to control, but it only allows
you turn a few degrees left or right. If you need to really turn
sharply, and you will, then you need to use the arrow keys.

The result is that you
find yourself moving from keyboard to mouse to keyboard and back.
This usually happen just as you are “getting
into” the game and just ruined the experience for me. I wanted
to focus on the game, not constantly fight with the controls.

And there was no excuse
for this. All of the capabilities could have been built into the
mouse in first person just like they
were for
RealMyst. In fact, at one point in the beta test you could
turn completely around with the mouse, removing the need
for the arrow
keys. But
that ability vanished before the final build.

I played the game the
whole way through three or four times, but never became comfortable
with any of the navigation systems.
Your
millage may vary, which is the only reason I don’t give it
an F.

PLAYABILITY: “C-” Navigation
system aside, there are serious playability issues.

First, the “Suspension of Belief” is inconsistent. Every
game requires some suspension of belief – there are things
you could do in real life but can’t in the game and vice versa.
But the rules should be consistent. Uru will herd you through an
age and carefully keep you in the box. Then it will bring you to
a place where you have to jump out of the box. But why should I have
thought to do that when the whole game up to this point has told
me I can’t? If I can’t hop over a six-inch curb, why
am I suddenly expected to know that I can jump three feet up onto
a stone?

And none of it is consistent
with the original Myst series. There were many solutions I never
thought of because you couldn’t
do them in Myst. OK, so we are told that Uru is a different game
from Myst. Fine. So why didn’t Ubisoft place all the differences
into the intro/training age and then stay consistent with them? You
place a game into the Myst universe and people are going to expect
it to resemble Myst.

Second, here is no way
to save a game. You’ve painstakingly
worked your way across the Age leaping and jumping from critical
spot to critical spot. You make a critical jump, but miss and fall
into the abyss. But you don’t die, you automatically link back
to home base. This means that you must wait a minute or two (not
seconds, minutes) while your personal world, Relto, is loaded into
memory. Then you can walk over to your bookshelf, select it, select
the Age book and link back to the Age you came from. Minutes pass
again while it loads back in. Now you can work your way back across
the Age to try your critical jump again.

Miss that jump a couple
of times and you’ll be quitting the
game to go play Solitaire. Now, it may not be quite that slow on
your system. It may only take 20 seconds to load Relto and another
40 seconds to load your Age. But even on the fastest system it will
take over a minute of waiting/repeating before you can try again.
There is no excuse for this.

There is yet another
playability issue with Uru; you must move objects around in the
game, but you can’t use your hands. If you walk
into something small, you will kick it in front of you like a soccer
football. Remember that navigation system? Try herding a rock onto
a pressure plate. In real life you would just pick it up and place
it there. In any other game you would click on it, the object would
become your cursor and you would place it where you wanted it. In
Uru it becomes a major project.

And finally, many of
the clues to the puzzles are ambiguous or nonexistent. You look
at the clue and it seems to be
telling you one thing, but
it turns out to mean something completely different.
This ruins any satisfaction you might have gotten from solving
it for
yourself.

ADDICTABILITY: “D-A” That’s not “From D
to A.” That’s “Sometimes D, Sometimes A.” When
you are just moving around, the addictability is high as you just
HAVE to see what’s around the next corner or through that next
door. But when you hit one of those Playability issues, well, Solitaire
can start to look pretty good.

PUZZLES: “B” Puzzles
are a mixed bag. About a third of them are wonderful and truly
follow the tradition of Myst and
Exile. Another third are more of the type you would expect to find
in Riven. The remaining third are physical puzzles of the type you
would never find in Myst. And again, they seem to take a back seat
to the graphics.

So What Gives?

About the second time
you hit one of those playability issues, you will be asking yourself “Why did the developers use an engine
which is so inappropriate for adventure gaming?” The answer
is that Uru is nothing more than a teaser to get you interested in
the on-line game.

Everything starts to
make sense when you realize that everything is geared to the multiplayer
on-line game. For that, you need an
avatar and a physical game engine. So what is multiplayer like?
Well, we got to play a little and it is fairly promising.

Come visit scenic
D’ni

When you first sign up
you are assigned to a Neighborhood. Anywhere from 50 to 150 players
are assigned to each neighborhood. They all
look the same and they are gorgeous. You feel like you are in an
actual underground neighborhood of D’ni. You can meet others
and speak with them. Really speak into your microphone and really
hear their response in your speakers. The neighborhoods contain everything
you need for a nice get-together from auditoriums to meditation rooms.
There is even an outdoor “cafe” where you can play rock-paper-scissors
with a few friends. Trust me when I say that you will spend the first
ten minutes or more just wandering around in slack-jawed wonder.

From your neighborhood
you can link to the City itself. And it is GORGEOUS. There are
multiple copies of the City to go to, called
Caverns, just in case one gets too crowded. The City contains all
the important places you would expect; Palace, Museum, Port, Opera
House, and Public Library. You will probably spend two days just
exploring the City. Try to remember to eat. Try to remember to
breath.

By this time you have
met many other players and may have made some friends. You can
create your own private neighborhoods and
only give
your friends access to them (but only one private neighborhood
per player). You can even invite people back to your personal
Relto. Once there, you can unlock one of your linking books and
invite
them
into your personal games. Having trouble solving a puzzle? Invite
a friend to come in to play it with you. During that brief time
your computer actually becomes the server for this private multiplayer
game.

Each month you and your
friends can privately explore new Ages. The interaction is very
friendly. You can’t get physical with each
other. Try walking into someone and you will pass right through them
like a ghost. So no bullies or “PKers” to worry about.

All in all it is an uber-cool
concept and the graphics are some of the best to reach your computer
screen (they even rival
the
graphics
of Amerzone). If only they had a decent navigation system
to go with it….

Bottom Line: I have a
friend who purchased the game. Their opinion? “It’s
all right, but all of the good stuff only works in the on-line version.
I feel like I paid $50 for an ad.” I think that sums it up
fairly well.

Final Grade: B-

Like Myst?

Play: Dark
Fall
Read: The Myst novels
See: The Lord of the Rings

System Requirements:

• Operating
  System: Windows® XP/ME/2000/98SE (only)
• Processor: Intel® Pentium® III 800 MHz or AMD Athlon™ (Pentium
  IV or Athlon 2 GHz or greater recommended)
• RAM: 256
  MB RAM
• Video Card: 32 MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 1, 2, 3, 4, or FX; ATI® Radeon™ 7000-9800
  or better
• Sound Card: DirectX® 8.1-compatible sound card (DirectX 8.1-compatible
  EAX 3.0 recommended)
• DirectX Version:
  DirectX 8.1 (included on disc)
• CD-ROM: 4X
  CD-ROM drive or faster (not recommended for use with CD-RWs)
• Monitor:
  800×600 resolution, 16-bit color monitor (1280×1024 resolution
  recommended)
• Hard Drive
  Space: 2 GB (4 GB recommended)
• Peripherals
  Supported: 101-key standard keyboard; two-button mouse
• Internet
  Connection: Not required (ADSL/Cable modem recommended)