Aura: Fate of the Ages

by Dreamcatcher

Product Features

• First-person puzzle exploration game takes you to four magical worlds
• Meet and interact with numerous characters on your journey
• Explore unbelievably realistic and beautiful graphics and environments
• Discover and solve inventive, original and indigenous puzzles
• For 1 player

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0002BIDEM
• Item Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: June 30, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,735 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

In unique worlds of illusions and reality, in magical, mechanical and ethereal lands, take on the quest to find the artifacts cleverly concealed throughout the lands. Four parallel worlds await you on your journey: The Ademika Valley - the gateway and the world of secret research and sacred rituals, Dragast - the mechanical world and the kingdom of mountains and snow, Na-Tiexu - the esoteric world of astronomy and magic, and lastly, the beautiful Island of Unity, each with different environments to explore, challenges to encounter and a variety of indigenous puzzles to solve.

Features:

• First-person puzzle exploration game of exceptional depth and quality
• An original fantasy-based mass-appeal unique storyline
• Numerous characters to interact with along your journey
• Mouse driven, with an intuitive point-and-click interface
• Unbelievably realistic and beautiful pre-rendered graphics and environments
• Original orchestral musical score and immersive ambient soundtrack
• Inventive, original and indigenous puzzles

Product Description

AURA: Fate of the Ages is an exciting first-person puzzle exploration game, with a unique and original storyline. Since ancient times, a clan of "Keepers" has guarded sacred rings that alow travel to(and, some say, create) new worlds. Legend holds that if these rings are united with powerful ancient artifacts, will gain immortality & godlike power. One power-hungry acolyte seeks to unite the artifacts with the rings, while another fights to stop him.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

121 of 124 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun puzzler for those who like Myst-like games, August 5, 2004

By 

Lisa Shea "medieval swordfighting enthusiast" - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Aura: Fate of the Ages (CD-ROM)

In Aura, it's hard to avoid the comparisons with Myst. Parallel worlds for you to explore. Puzzles that range from imaginative to tedious. Clicking around, searching for clues.

If you love the Myst series, you'll feel right at home here. You're tossed into the world with pretty much no explanation, and really, you know that you need none. The plot is pretty silly. The graphics are gorgeous. All you are doing is wandering from room to room trying to solve the puzzles.

Some puzzles involve pulling levers to turn machinery on. Some involve spinning lights to turn machinery on. You get the general idea. Clues are strewn around to help you - it should never be a random clicking to get something to work. Of course if you *interpret* the clues properly, it works. If you are baffled by the clues, you can get quite stumped.

This is definitely a game that benefits from team play. The more brains you have looking at something, the more likely it is that ONE of you will spot what should happen. Sometimes it just involves looking more closely at the details of the screen.

Like all Myst-like games, there are some ANNOYING puzzles where you have to look down and sideways to see that lever hiding in the corner. If you don't spot it, you can waste days wandering from room to room, having no idea what you've missed.

Still, when you finally get the puzzle, it's a great sense of achievement. In general most of the puzzles make at least SOME sense, and the graphics are nice. I've found this in the bargain bin recently, so if you see this at a cheap price, pick it up. It could help exercise your little grey cells for a while!

65 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Starts well, but loses focus, August 14, 2004

By 

Doug Urquhart (Southport, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Aura: Fate of the Ages (CD-ROM)

If, like me, you like the kind of game where you spend hours trying to operate unknown, alien machinery, you'll love the beginning of Aura. There were more than enough Big Bronze Wheels, Levers, Steam Pipes, Colored Lights and Electric Arcs, all beautifully animated, and emitting the right kind of satisfying clunks, buzzes and whirs.
(there was some kind of back story involving assembling the Great Zoggin and protecting it from Belphar the Evil, but you can choose to ignore it with impugnity - the point is to turn on the machines so that you can reach the next stage).
The game makes a sterling attempt to be non-linear, at least within the major sections. It's better than a lot of Adventure games in this respect.
The cut scenes are frequent and nicely animated. The user interface is intuitive and easy to use. The ambient sounds and background music are appropriate and non-intrusive. Interaction with CG characters is natural, and doesn't fall into the 'ask the right question or you'll have to start again' syndrome.
So why four rather than five stars?
The game is set in two locations. The first is mechanistic, and the puzzles are logical. The second is 'magical', which means that some of the puzzles are just a tad unintuitive (i.e. daft). There's one in particular, involving a bird, where I had to resort to a walkthrough, and I think it colored my view of the rest of the game.
The ending was abrupt, with the promise of a sequel. I really wish game developers would stop doing that.
On the whole, though, a nicely contructed game, and well worth the money.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Aura: The Fate of the Ages, October 25, 2006

By 

B. K. MORTON (Utica, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Aura: Fate of the Ages (CD-ROM)

This game is not bad. I don't know - maybe I'm just a bit jaded after finishing the entire Myst series and a few other miscellaneous "adventure games", but this is a pretty good "beginner's game" for someone new to adventure gaming.
The puzzles really aren't that hard, and God knows they give you enough hints and clues for most of the puzzles. However, like the other Adventure Company games I've played, it is heavy on inventory, and there are at least two items that are hard to find - especially if you don't realize you're supposed to be looking for them!
The graphics are absolutely gorgeous - possibly the best I've ever seen (and, as a Myst veteran, that's saying a lot!). However, I wish game companies would stop using computer-generated people. They always - and I mean always - look awful. They really should stick to live actors.
The music is very heavily synthesized, and comes across as heavily pretentious. (The music for the third world of Na-Tiexu reminds me of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir".) Then again, maybe I'm just spoiled after hearing Tim Larkin's wonderful scores for Uru and Myst V.
I've read reviews about how buggy the game is, but I found the 1.04 patch and installed it, and had no problems, except that it would crash if I tried to delete old saved games.
There's a sequel called "The Sacred Rings" that's still in production as of this writing. I'm looking forward to it.