Uru: Ages Beyond Myst

Uru: Ages Beyond Myst breaks from the established Myst formula in a few ways. It introduces light platforming elements and returns to the real-time rendering used in realMyst. It’s also the first and only game in the series to take place in the third-person perspective. Because of these structural and visual differences, Myst’s fanbase remains divided on Uru, but the game’s earned a devoted following all the same.

Uru’s story begins under the premise that an ancient city of the lost D’ni civilization is discovered beneath New Mexico. The fate of the inhabitants is largely unknown, but details come to you over the course of the story via audio logs by the enigmatic Yeesha (the daughter of Atrus, whom many Myst fans will recognize) as well as detailed logs of D’ni history left by the D’ni Restoration Committee, an archaeological expedition dedicated to the city’s restoration and repopulation.

Delving into the D’ni’s rich history is entirely optional, but the good folks at Cyan Worlds, as always, have written a wealth of detailed information on the fallen civilization. You can skip reading all the journals, but the lore is fascinating and provides you with not only context to frame the story, but also with hints for the game’s many complex puzzles.

Uru’s gameplay centers around the same basic principles as the rest of the series. You enter a strange, beautiful world (or Age, as the series calls them) and uncover clues to solve complex puzzles to reach your goal. Progression slowly reveals more details about the troubled past of the D’ni empire and the events surrounding its eventual collapse.

Exploration and puzzle-solving can be very rewarding. In one early Age, you’re tasked with exploring a defunct factory. Early on, the facility is totally silent, but as you reactivate machinery and open new areas, the silent complex comes alive with the screeches and groans of ancient equipment. Another starts you off inside what appears to be a stone temple. As you explore the structure, you discover that the entire building is rotating. Using this motion to power an elevator, you reach the rooftop to find the massive jungle in which the spinning fortress is located—and an even larger tower directly adjacent to the one you’re on. Little moments like this give you a great sense of scale and push you to find out what’s around the next corner.

Not pictured: The five-times-bigger rotating fortress.

As you advance, you’ll encounter puzzles that increase in complexity from simple logic to intricate mechanisms that test your problem-solving skills in more obscure and fascinating ways. All these puzzles are integrated seamlessly into their environments, as are the hints you’ll need to solve them. One example features an art gallery that serves as a companion to a vault Age containing a deceased noble’s riches; the gallery’s various works of art are all cryptic hints to the vault’s numerous puzzles. To access the vault, you’ll need to become intimately familiar with the art to find how it relates to each puzzle.

Besides puzzle-solving, your main objective is finding Journey Cloths, seven mysterious tapestries scattered throughout each Age. As you activate more cloths, the symbol on their face will glow to indicate how many you’ve yet to find. When you find a new cloth, it becomes available as a checkpoint. Find all seven Journey Cloths to complete the Age and advance the narrative.

Beautiful, infuriating Kadish Tolesa.

Unlike many other adventure games, you have virtually no inventory, apart from a personal Linking Book, and the KI, which functions as a camera to save hints. While this bucks the annoying genre trend of having dozens of one-use-only items, it also works to your disadvantage in that you’re unable to carry items. What this means is that you have to spend an unreasonable amount of time moving objects around by nudging them with your feet instead of the obvious solution of picking them up and placing them in the necessary locations.

The “tank controls” don’t help that strange design choice, as they’re not suited for precision movement or manipulation of objects. Because of the controls, object-manipulation puzzles quickly become frustrating. While there are only two of these puzzles and neither is particularly challenging, the control scheme was dated in games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, and time hasn’t sweetened it.

Uru’s visual design is what sets the game apart. It’s very good-looking, due in large part to its detailed textures and outstanding art direction. What’s more surprising about the visuals is that this was only Cyan’s second attempt at realtime 3D. Some of the Ages are small and limited to a single “room,” while others are positively massive and make great efforts to give you a sense of scale. Even in the huge environments, the framerate stays smooth.

Each Age has its own unique visual style. The industrial Teledahn is perpetually in twilight on a vast sea. Misty crags and skyscraper-sized trees conceal Kadish Tolesa’s ruins. The fortress of Gahreesen is nestled in a lush valley amidst a dense jungle. Every Age’s identity and color palette makes it easily distinguishable from the others, but they’re all tied together with the subtle motifs of their D’ni architecture.

The graphics aren’t without their drawbacks, however. Some Ages can take a long time to load and occasionally suffer from texture pop-in on higher settings. You’ll also encounter some occasional bizarre physics glitches, such as small objects continually rocking back and forth. Player character models also look ugly compared to the rest of the game. Besides hairstyles and body types, the customization options are limited, and some of them make the avatars look downright silly. (Heavyset characters, for instance, have ridiculous beer guts.) Avatars also don’t animate very well: Their running animations look stiff and clumsy, and they have a strange way of sidling up to objects when interacting with them. Click on a lever, and your avatar goes rigid, awkwardly shuffling over before pulling it.

Lovely environments for your ugly avatar to explore.

Even better than Uru’s visual design is its incredibly lifelike sound. Heavy machinery grinds to life as you progress, sounding true-to-life as it fades in and out. Sounds of wildlife and wind echo and distort realistically as you round corners or walk in and out of rooms. Water sloshes and gurgles as you trudge through it.

The voice acting, though it’s heard only so often, is very good. Series staple Atrus narrates the beginning with a warning to his missing daughter, Yeesha. Yeesha’s audio and holographic logs detail and deride the history of the D’ni, coldly condemning their actions while hopefully imploring you to continue your journey.

Subtle touches in the voice tracks give the dialogue a more organic feel. Yeesha’s first message to you begins in another language, whereupon she interrupts herself and starts over in English, knowing you wouldn’t understand her native tongue. Another recorded informal speech by a DRC member convincingly has the speaker pause to say, “Um,” going off on a brief tangent and coughing here and there. These otherwise inconsequential details at times make the surreal feel very real.

Uru's music is quite captivating. It’s a shame, then, that you hear it so little. The brief soundtrack contains some of the most gorgeous and original music in memory, blending traditional African chanting with country and European classical elements. The result is unlike any other soundtrack out there, so it’s unfortunate that it was so understated.

The main story is a fairly short 10 hours (give or take), making the game feel a bit incomplete, but there are two expansions that add 2 to 4 hours of gameplay each. The first, “To D’ni,” is essentially a giant fetch quest, while the second, “The Path of the Shell,” adds two new Ages, one of which is nothing short of genius. Beyond that, there are a lot of hidden areas that contain new clothing items and additions to your Relto (like a waterfall, trees and a music player). That’ll only hold you for so long, but the extended story and two additional Ages make for another fun outing that extends the value.

Uru might be worth it just for the surreal worlds.

Uru features an online component, but it was unfortunately realized pretty poorly. There isn’t much interaction and it seems like it was added as an afterthought. You can explore Ages with friends and visit each other’s customized Relto islands, but there’s really nothing in it for you. A nice idea on paper, but in practice it doesn’t add much to the experience. Uru could have benefitted from complex cooperative Ages built from the ground up for upwards of two players, but no such effort was made.

Minor visual blemishes and bizarre gameplay choices aside, Uru is a worthy entry in the venerated series. High production values and a compelling narrative help to alleviate some of the pains of dated and ill-conceived controls. If you can forgive its design quirks and an overall feeling of incompleteness, especially if you’re looking for a Myst experience you can get into with a buddy, Uru is well worth a look.

Aaron Kinney, NoobFeed