Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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119 of 122 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun puzzler for those who like Myst-like games, August 5, 2004
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
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!
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62 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Starts well, but loses focus, August 14, 2004
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
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.
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Aura: The Fate of the Ages, October 25, 2006
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
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.
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