Uru: Ages Beyond Myst

by Ubisoft

Product Features

• Experience a new freedom of movement, a first for the Myst franchise: Explore each unique age in real-time 3D, moving your character effortlessly through the world without pointing and clicking.
• Create a realistic character: Choosing from a wide variety of facial and clothing features, you will be able to create a male or female avatar that you will use to explore the world. The range of character options allows you to appear the way you look, or the way you want to look.
• Explore the mysterious and graphically intense world of Uru. Uru's work-of-art style graphics will immerse and captivate you like never before.
• Follow an epic storyline: At the request of Yeesha, the eccentric daughter of Atrus, you'll journey through a variety of different ages, and discover the lost civilization of the D'ni people. As the story unfolds, you'll be drawn deeper into the D'ni civilization.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00008Z0IA
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 1.8 inches ; 7.2 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: November 11, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (237 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,957 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Plunge into a world unlike any dreamt possible before. From the makers of the original Myst and Riven, this groundbreaking adventure beckons players to uncover the elusive secrets of the ancient D'ni civilization. Follow Yeesha, eccentric daughter of Atrus, to discover Linking Books, encounter descendants, and solve puzzles as you venture through visually stunning environments.

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Uru: Ages Beyond Myst is the next chapter of the Myst franchise and the most immersive and ambitious Myst experience ever created. The game is bigger, better, and more innovative than any of the previous Myst adventures. Players can move at their own pace, spending hours discovering visually stunning, real-time 3D worlds, solving a large variety of mind-challenging puzzles, and following an epic storyline. Players can continue to discover new areas of D'ni by downloading new maps, worlds, and puzzles.

The Story of Uru

The story of the D'ni civilization began when they established their underground empire on Earth some 10,000 years ago. While living beneath the Earth's surface, the D'ni practiced what they called the "Art of Writing," which enabled them to create links to incredible, alternate worlds of fantastic variety called "Ages," to which they could travel through "Linking Books."

The D'ni people thrived for thousands of years, but later met with a great catastrophe that all but ended their civilization. Their vast cavern was left uninhabited, and their Linking Books and Ages seemed lost forever.

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Then, in the late 1980s, a few humans from the surface discovered that cavern. One of these humans was Elias Zandi. He devoted the rest of his life to exploring and, eventually, restoring that ancient city in the D'ni cavern, preparing to one day reveal their discovery to those who were suddenly feeling irresistibly drawn to the cavern.

When he passed away in 1996, his legacy was divided between a foundation that he set up and his only son, Jeff Zandi. The foundation came to be known as the DRC (D'ni Restoration Council). As their name implies, they took on the task of physically restoring the ruins of the D'ni cavern. If you choose to visit the cavern at some point, you're sure to run into them.

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Jeff Zandi, on the other hand, was interested in learning why the D'ni civilization fell in the first place. He continued studying the teachings of Yeesha, by far the most talented of all the D'ni writers, and daughter of Atrus and Catherine. After years of learning, the younger Zandi is finally comfortable bringing others to an uru (a D'ni word meaning "large gathering" or "grand community").

On your way to the cavern, if you decide to join us, it might be a good idea for you to learn some of the great teachings of Yeesha. Experience the adventure of a lifetime, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst.

Game Features

• Experience a new freedom of movement, a first for the Myst franchise: Explore each unique age in real-time 3D, moving your character effortlessly through the world without pointing and clicking.
• Create a realistic character: Choosing from a wide variety of facial and clothing features, you will be able to create a male or female avatar that you will use to explore the world. The range of character options allows you to appear the way you look, or the way you want to look.
• Explore the mysterious and graphically intense world of Uru. Uru's work-of-art style graphics will immerse and captivate you like never before.

  See more pictures

• Follow an epic storyline: At the request of Yeesha, the eccentric daughter of Atrus, you'll journey through a variety of different ages, and discover the lost civilization of the D'ni people. As the story unfolds, you'll be drawn deeper into the D'ni civilization, and if you choose to download new content, the journey expands even further. You can explore new ages and areas of the D'ni civilization, unravel new mysteries, and adventure in a world that continually changes and expands. Exciting new content will be downloaded regularly, providing an adventure experience that is fresh and ever-changing.

Product Description

Explore vast worlds!  Solve scores ofmind-bending puzzles!Product InformationFrom Cyan Worlds the makers of Myst and Riven Uru: Ages Beyond Myst is thenext chapter of the Myst franchise and the most immersive and ambitious Mystexperience ever created. The single-player game will be bigger better and moreinnovative than any of the previous Myst adventures. Players can move at theirown pace spending hours discovering visually stunning real-time 3D worldssolving a large variety of mind-challenging puzzles and following an epicstoryline. Players can continue to discover new areas of D'ni by connecting toUru Live the online service of Uru. There players will be part of anever-expanding world that brings more areas to explore and more mysteries tosolve.The story of the D'ni civilization:   It began when theyestablished their underground empire on Earth some 10000 years ago. Whileliving beneath the Earth's surface the D'ni practiced what they called the"Art of Writing" which enabled them to create links to incrediblealternate worlds of fantastic variety called "Ages" to which theycould travel through "Linking Books."  The D'ni people thrivedfor thousands of years but later met with a great catastrophe that all butended their civilization. Their vast cavern was left uninhabited and theirLinking Books and Ages seemed lost forever.  Then in the late 1980s a fewhumans from the surface discovered that cavern. One of these humans was EliasZandi. He devoted the rest of his life to exploring and eventually restoringthat ancient city in the D'ni cavern preparing to one day reveal theirdiscovery to those who were suddenly feeling irresistibly drawn to the cavern. When he passed away in 1996 his legacy was divided between a foundation that heset up and his only son Jeff Zandi. The foundation came to be known as the DRC(D'ni Restoration Council). As their name implies they took on the task ofphysically restoring the ruin

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Good But Has Irritations, December 3, 2003

By 

David A. Lessnau (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Uru: Ages Beyond Myst (CD-ROM)

Overall, this is a pretty good game. Even though Uru presents the world in a fully immersed 3D view (using either 1st person or 3rd person), it's still very much like the rest of the Myst series. Personally, I'm not quite sure if I like the 3D perspective or not: I spent a lot of time switching between 1st and 3rd person (the game's written to work better with 3rd person) and trying to see things around me, but I'm still not sure if I prefer the old Myst "still-life" mode or Uru's 3d perspective. I suppose it's six of one or half a dozen of the other (EDIT: I'm now playing Myst IV: Revelations. It's written in the old "still-life" Myst style. I can now say that I much prefer that mode over the 3D, real-time view used in Uru).

Anyway, for the positives, the game is beautifully drawn (though I don't think it's as captivating as the earlier Myst episodes) and has great sound (Note: I've got a 3.0 GHz P4C with an ATI 9800 Pro and SB Audigy 2: all the graphic/sounds settings are turned to their highest). Since everything's static until you do something with it, there's no time pressure and you don't have to worry about dying. For the most part, the puzzles are fun, interesting, and doable. However, near the end, that changes (more later).

Unfortunately, I've got more negatives than positives:

- The game consistently crashed to the desktop every hour or so. There was really no rhyme or reason to it: one moment I'd be doing something in the game, the next, I'd be looking at my Windows desktop. I also had one instance where the game crashed Windows XP and caused a reboot.
- The game doesn't properly explain it's operating procedure. Specifically, it doesn't really explain that there's no SAVE process. In the game's defense, saving isn't really needed. As noted above, you can't die and nothing happens that you don't cause. Also, there are Journey Cloths that you touch that save your position (the game state is always up-to-date). Most of the sub-areas are small enough that coming back to the last Journey Cloth is no problem. The biggest problem is that the first time you leave the game you're really worried that everything will be reset when you come back. Of course, it's not.
- There's a device called a KI which appears to be associated with the Live (online) part of the game (i.e., it's not used at all in the single player version). Unfortunately, it's not well explained at all in the game and a good portion of one world is devoted to finding this KI. Also, when you get it, you're not really sure that you DO have it. It's basically added to your wrist when you use a certain machine. If you're not watching, you'll miss it's addition.
- In each world, there's a subquest for "Yeesha pages." They're added to your "Relto Book" and modify your home base. These are purely cosmetic changes with no value whatsoever. Sort of a worthless process.
- There are a LOT of totally useless, long, boring history books strewn around the game (in one room, there were around 12). Since you assume that everything you find in such a game is useful, you end up wading through them all. Yet, they serve no purpose whatsoever except for fleshing out the background.
- Each world seems to have a jump to a room which serves no purpose whatsoever. You jump there, look around at nothing of value, and then have to find your way back to where you were. Silly.
- When you put your mouse pointer over something important (i.e., you can manipulate it), it changes to a sort of bullseye thing. Unfortunately, it doesn't change unless you're close enough to the point and facing the right direction. You can pass right by important things because you weren't in the right spot when you examined it.
- Very early in the game, it gives you positive re-inforcement that closing doors behind you might be useful. However, later on this same activity can cause you trouble since it will make retracing your steps very troublesome. There's a similar problem with jumping down chasms: sometimes you need to jump down them in the right place (with very little indication that you should). But, most of the time, doing so will end up in your "death" and subsequent return to your home base.
- Several puzzles have NO indication how you are supposed to manipulate them. There are usually clues present that tell you what the answer should be. But, you just don't know how to change the state of the puzzle to get there. VERY frustrating.
- In one case, you push a button to lower a drawbridge and nothing happens. You think you've missed something and end up running around for long periods of time trying to find out what's wrong. It turns out that in this particular case the bridge is stuck. You have to body slam it to get it to drop. VERY irksome.
- Two of the puzzles require you to move objects into certain positions. BUT, you can't pick things up. You have to kick them into position. In the later puzzle, this is EXTRAORDINARILY frustrating because of the hidden nature of the need to position the objects and the degree of precision required. Also, most kickable objects serve no purpose whatsoever.
- One puzzle puts you in a pitch black location where you're supposed to do things. This requires an external light source (which you don't know you can get since you can't carry things). Also, once you get that light source, you're probably not aware that the pitch black area was even USABLE since when you ran across it you couldn't see anything there.
- And, finally, one of the Yeesha pages requires a very sensative set of running/jumping actions to retrieve. This kind of activity has no business being in a Myst game.

Most of the above irritations are pretty minor. The trouble is that the more serious/bothersome ones occur near the end of the game. So, that's what you tend to walk away with. Overall, the game is pretty good. Irritations or not, I still recommend it. One other thing to note: the Live or online portion of the game is not yet available (since I don't play such things, that makes no difference to me one way or the other). So, keep that in mind if you're looking for online play.

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Uru: short single-player game, no on-line play to date, December 8, 2003

By 

keviny01 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Uru: Ages Beyond Myst (CD-ROM)

Myst, the most popular computer adventure game series in the history of the universe, continues with its latest offering, URU. The theme in URU remains the same as in past Myst games: you find yourself in deserted, mystical places and you need to figure your way out of them by solving a series of puzzles, many of which involving manipulating exotic gadgets and machineries. Every Myst game is essentially a glorified puzzle game rather than a traditional adventure or role-playing game with fully-developed stories and characters. Like its predecessors, URU appeals you with simplicity and challenge.

For those who worry that URU may not run properly on their PCs, there is a playable demo for URU available in many game sites (such as gamesdomain.com) that you can download and try on your PC.

I encountered no crashes or bugs, and got pretty smooth performance (30 to 50 frames per second at 1280x1024, according to the FRAPS frame counter utility, available for trial at fraps.com), while playing URU on my Pentium4 2.4GHz with 768MB DDR RAM and a GeForce4 Ti4200 128MB graphics card. Windows XP users should have at least 512MB of system RAM, as recommended by the game, to avoid long load times while traveling from one game area to another, which you will often need to do in the game.

URU does not allow you to save your game freely. It does automatically save the progress you've made -- what buttons you've pressed, machines you've turned on, and so on. But it does not save your location, so you always start a game session in a "home" location. It does offer you a way to link instantly to a desired location so you can at least avoid re-treading earlier paths. But you will need to figure out how the method works, along with all other puzzles in the game.

Whenever a game has no save-game feature, it is a good bet that at some point the game will MAKE you do certain things over and over. Sure enough, this is true in URU, but thankfully only for a puzzle or two. It seems that the lack of save-game is due to the addition of on-line gameplay, which has no save-game.

For the first time in an original Myst game, URU offers freedom of movement in a fully 3D environment. Now you cannot "zip" past an area to save time as in past games -- you always have to run or walk there yourself. All the graphics in URU are generated in real time, as opposed to displaying pre-rendered static images as in past games. This is why URU comes in only one CD (thus no more CD-swapping as in past games) -- because all the images are not actually on the disc, but dynamically generated while the game is running. Generating real-time images also means that your PC must have enough horsepower for the task. So be sure to try the demo and see how well it runs on your PC.

The most intriguing aspect of URU is the long-promised on-line multiplayer gameplay (monthly fee will apply), in which you discover new areas and solve multiplayer puzzles. Sadly, URU LIVE, as it is called, is still not available as of now, and there is still no word of when it will be.

The best thing about the URU's single-player game is that it offers one of the most difficult puzzles ever in the Myst series, or perhaps in all adventure games. It requires you to perform an action far away in order to produce an effect in your current location, with almost nothing in either location that may clue you in. You may, however, find it annoying to do certain things without a save-game feature because of the large scope of the puzzle. But the game designers are to be congratulated for coming up with this devilish brain-teaser.

The rest of the single-player game isn't nearly as hard nor as memorable. The puzzles that involve powering up machineries are, of course, highly familiar to veteran Myst players. There are quite a few code-breaking type of puzzles, which can be tiresome because you see them in almost every adventure game. There are a few "finding-the-concealed-object" challenges, which are made more interesting with your ability to move and look freely. But with the freedom of movement, URU inevitably has its share of action-oriented challenges that involve jumping and running, and they are always the least favorite things among adventure gamers.

Unless you like spending time admiring the scenic beauty of the game's enviroment (yes, this is a very good-looking game), you'll find that URU's single-player gameplay is actually pretty short. The sheer size of the environment may give you the impression of a big game. But there are often large areas, long corridors, and imposing structures that offer no interaction, and only serve cosmetic purposes. Not to mention, there are quite a few "dead end" areas that offer nothing related to the gameplay. I finished the game at an leisurely pace in two weeks. Here is the hope that URU LIVE will be available soon...

56 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ATI Drivers May Need to be Updated - Fun after that, January 25, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Uru: Ages Beyond Myst (CD-ROM)

When I first bought this game, I could not get it to run, in spite of the fact that I had the high end of the system requirements listed on the box. I went to ATI.com and downloaded new drivers for free. The game ran beautifully after that.

Things I liked about this game:
1. The graphics. Incredible. I especially loved the 3-D environment that allows you to spin around and look at everything, and gives you more freedom of movement than previous Myst games.

2. The sound. Wonderful, rich sounds that fit perfectly into the game.

3. The story. Apparently, this a matter of taste, as I see most reviewers here on Amazon really disliked the story. Personally, I found the story at least as engrossing as Myst: Riven, although not on the same level as Myst: Exile. I enjoyed learning more about the D'ni people featured in the Myst games. The main story revolves around Yeesha asking you to restore four pillars in order to make things right for a new group of people, called The Least. I found the story very satisfactory.

4. The end. Again, this appears to be a matter of taste. Most people don't seem to have cared for the ending at all, but I loved it. I didn't feel like it was just a prelude for the online game, which I have no intention of playing.

5. The puzzles. They are definitely challenging. If you don't like a challenge, or you don't want to use a good walkthrough to finish, this may not be the game for you. I loved the puzzles (with a few exceptions), and as usual, found them to blend seamlessly into the game.

Things I didn't like:
1. Camera angles. They were pretty good most of the time, but often I would find myself watching my avatar walking somewhere on a path I couldn't see to an area I couldn't see. You can change the camera to first person, but the game will pull you out of it for puzzles, which interrupts the flow of the game.

2. Load times. It takes about a full minute sometimes for a new area to load. Granted, that isn't long, but considering how frequently you have to enter new areas, it can get annoying. This is probably an unavoidable drawback of having such lush graphics in 3-D game.

3. Jump, die, reload. Isn't that what most experienced gamers really hate about some adventure games? To be fair, you don't die, you're simply transported back to a central start point. Which has to load. Then you have to click to go back to the age you were in, and wait for that age to load. Then, depending how far you were from your last save point, you get to go find where you were when you fell. This can get tedious, especially when you factor in load times. One puzzle requires you to do quite a bit of difficult jumping, and I must have had to go through the above sequence 30 times. For that, I knocked a star off my review.

4. You can't save wherever you want. Jumping and falling would not be so frustrating if you didn't have to sit through the constant reloading of areas. You would not have to sit through the constant reloading of areas if you could save right before you jumped in the same area. However, this is not allowed. You never save in this game at all, except by finding and pressing jouney clothes. These save your place in each age. (Puzzles save themselves automatically once completed.) This isn't a huge problem, but can be inconvenient, especially if you're doing a lot of jumping and falling.

Overall, I really enjoyed this game, but there are definitely some flaws.