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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Sacred Rings, April 11, 2007
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
I thoroughly enjoyed this game, even better than its predecessor, Aura. The characters you meet in the game are much more interesting and realized, and the graphics are superb. Even though I STILL wish more computer games would use live actors rather than computer-drawn characters, the characters in here are some of the best I've seen.
To be sure, there are a few problems. First of all, in many cases, there seem to be puzzles just for the sake of puzzles. I mean, puzzles in a graveyard?
There are also two major bugs, and, as of this writing there are no known patches. However, there is a gameplay around them that I discovered. On the "letters" puzzle in the graveyard, do NOT touch any of your inventory against this puzzle, or they will disappear and you will not be able to retrieve them. Secondly, when clicking on Reina to begin the lightning spell, be sure to click on her with something from your inventory. Otherwise, when you arrive in the land of the Shadow Legion, you will not be able to access your inventory.
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Starts off well, goes downhill, May 24, 2007
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
For long ages the Keeper clan has had possession of the mystical tetrahedron that allows them access to many different worlds. Unfortunately, on one of those worlds they found the evil soldiers of the Shadow legion who, like most evil soldiers, want to take over the whole pie. You play Umang, a young member of the Keeper clan who gained possession of the tetrahedon on Aura the first. The Shadow legion is after you. Can you avoid them, sneal into their stronghold and carry out a number of tasks to make sure they never are a threat again?
Aura 2: The Sacred Rings is a lovely first person point and click adventure featuring beautiful sound and graphics, many third person cutscenes in which you interact with other characters, and a wide variety of puzzles from inventory to sound to mechanical. There are three main "chapters" to the game. In the first, you find yourself in a desolate valley inhabited by a strage man whose "house" turns out to be some kind of ship. In the second, you visit five separate worlds putting together pieces of a puzzle that will allow you to access the Shadow LEgion's stronghold (as another reviewer commented, this part reminded me very much of Riven). In the last, you actually are in the Shadow Legion's castle, where you must figure out your path without being caught by myriad guards.
I very much liked the first two chapters of The Sacred Rings, which comprise about 3/4 of the game. The puzzles were logical and it was easy to figure out what you were doing and why. However, once you hit the Shadow LEgion's castle, the game really falls apart. IN the first place, it's never quite clear why you go there or what you're supposed to be doing. In the second, a suplot introduced in chapter 2 suddenly takes precedence over everything else. In the third, here the puzzles become less logical. One in particular, involving turning the pages of a number of books, I don;t see how anyone could have figured out without a walkthrough. The castle is large and it's easy to get lost, and I found myself wandering through rooms having no idea what I was doing for long stretches of time. Sometimes I found machines that I knew did SOMETHING but I had not idea what. Sometimes I solved puzzles but I didn;t know why I was solving them. Consequently, I had a very hard time going back to this part of the game and finally printed out a walkthrough just so I could finish--something I hate doing.
There are a number of different endings to The Sacred Rings. Finding the right one is really a matter of chance, as by the time you reach the endgame you have no idea what's going on anymore.
All in all, I liked this game a lot for most of it. But the last quarter was so complicated, illogical and badly put together that it left a bad taste in my mouth. I give it four stars because I remember how I felt about it at the beginning, not because of how I feel now.
I completed The Sacred Rings in about 35 hours, a third of which were totally frustrating. It ran well with no glitches. Definitely play this game but prepare to be disappointed at the end.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
OK, but not great.... worth playing, though., April 17, 2007
Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars
I admit that sounds wishy-washy...and that's just how I feel about Sacred Rings.
After Aura, I was very excited about this sequel, even with its many delays. I dutifully marked my calendar with every announced release date. Now I wished they'd kept it in the workshop longer and given us a better game.
Not that Sacred Rings is awful- it isn't. It follows the Aura storyline and your quest stays true to making the ring/tetrahedron gizmo and your world safe. You brave danger and the stereotypical goofy sidekick and scarred bad guy leader to save the day.
However, there are places where it needs more work. Look at the mountains or other background areas and you are likely to see unfinished square edges. Game technology must be more advanced than that.
The voicework is not bad, but the facial movements do not always match the words at all; it's as if they changed the dialog. (Perhaps this was originally made in another language?)
The puzzles are at times too simple- just enter the clue you found literally laying on the floor. On the other hand, there are some that you must guess what to do. A couple of times I gave up trying to figure out what the designers wanted and clicked randomly with success. More frequently, I turned to a walkthrough. There are a couple of very clever puzzles, too- I loved the candle one.
I dislike games where you must wander about, hoping to find what to do next, and that's what I found myself doing in Sacred Rings. For some gamers, though, this is part of the fun.
Having said that, now I'm going to complain that I wanted more room to wander. There's an part where you can access several areas, via a very, very cool tram (excellent graphics here!) I would have loved to explore more paths, but we are limited to just one path and destination.
As for the graphics, it was average. I rarely found myself stopping to admire the view. As I mentioned above, the view was not always worth looking at, anyway. Interior shots were nicely done with detail and colors. Other than one rainy world, movement in the areas you explore comes mainly from torches and a waterfall.
If you are prone to disorientation and dizziness from movement on the screen, be aware that if the cursor strays to the bottom of your field of vision, you will find yourself virtually spinning as if in a tornado.
The interface is easy: right click to access and leave your inventory. Hot spots are easy to find, so there's no pixel hunting. Alt/tab lets you leave the game (to check the walkthrough)
Overall, it was average, at best. If there had been better graphics and puzzles, it would rate 4 stars. If you enjoyed Aura, you will want to play Sacred Rings.
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