Unimpressed with URU

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Archived from groups: alt.games.myst (More info?)

Okay, I finally got around to installing URU, and started playing it..

I am totally, absolutely unimpressed with the game. In fact, I
extremely dislike it. (I have just put it in the back of a drawer,
after only finishing one age and barely starting a second. This is
something I have practically never done)

I bought what was supposed to be an "adventure" game, not an "action"
game.... Instead of adventure, I am treated to jumping over gaps,
and timed leaps through moving obstacles, which can kill you if you
are not precise in your timing, aim, etc.... (death will then send you
back to the last "node" you touched...Undoing some of your progress -
This is just terrible).

Further, I am treated to a game without any proper save capability,
but instead depends on a very old fashioned, outmoded "node" system
for saving games.. Employing such a system is absolutely inexcusable
by today's standards.

Finally, controlling the character is haphazard at best, no matter
what view you choose (first person or third person), the character may
back up when moving forward was your intent, etc..

I have loved all of the Myst series up to this point, but this has
been one giant waste of my money and time. What a sorry excuse
for an expensive installment of the series.

JM
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.myst (More info?)

"Just mee" <me@mydomain.net.invalid> wrote in message
news:1f7066c1847af29dba3819de6dae6732@news.teranews.com...
> Okay, I finally got around to installing URU, and started playing it..
>
> I am totally, absolutely unimpressed with the game. In fact, I
> extremely dislike it. (I have just put it in the back of a drawer,
> after only finishing one age and barely starting a second. This is
> something I have practically never done)
>
> I bought what was supposed to be an "adventure" game, not an "action"
> game.... Instead of adventure, I am treated to jumping over gaps,
> and timed leaps through moving obstacles, which can kill you if you
> are not precise in your timing, aim, etc.... (death will then send you
> back to the last "node" you touched...Undoing some of your progress -
> This is just terrible).

You don't die, your character grabs his linking book on the way down and
link back to Relto.


>
> Further, I am treated to a game without any proper save capability,
> but instead depends on a very old fashioned, outmoded "node" system
> for saving games.. Employing such a system is absolutely inexcusable
> by today's standards.
>

This for me was a weakness in the game, nothing beats a good "save"
function. Saying that, from Relto, you can link back to the last "handy
wipe" you touched, so its not a complete loss.


> Finally, controlling the character is haphazard at best, no matter
> what view you choose (first person or third person), the character may
> back up when moving forward was your intent, etc..
>

I have heard a lot of people have had problems with this. I found it easy
once I got the hang of it.

> I have loved all of the Myst series up to this point, but this has
> been one giant waste of my money and time. What a sorry excuse
> for an expensive installment of the series.
>
> JM
>

I suppose everyone has thier own opinions. I thought it was good, but not as
good as other Myst games. The expansion #1 was good - apart from the dark
and gloomy scenes and lack of initial direction in terms of "what to do to
get started."

Graham
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.myst (More info?)

I stand corrected on the terminology of specifically "dying", but the
functional game effect is precisely the same, you wind up at the point
(of what dismally passes for) your last saved game point in the game.

I tried very hard for the period of over a whole "age" to get anything
that remotely resembles proper control of the character, and cannot do
so.. The character still winds up consistently going in directions I
never intended, and thereby having thngs occur that I never intended
due to this lack of control.

I am certain that others may well not find the faults that I see, but
I am sorely dissappointed by this game, and I do feel that it was a
complete waste of my money. When I buy an adventure game,
I expect to play an adventure game, and not an action game. (and a
poorly controlled one at that).. I do not believe that this is an
unreasonable expectation.

JM



On Mon, 31 May 2004 20:24:44 +0000 (UTC), "Grey"
<grahame9@btinternet.com> wrote:
<snip>
>You don't die, your character grabs his linking book on the way down and
>link back to Relto.
>
>
>>
>> Further, I am treated to a game without any proper save capability,
>> but instead depends on a very old fashioned, outmoded "node" system
>> for saving games.. Employing such a system is absolutely inexcusable
>> by today's standards.
>>
>
>This for me was a weakness in the game, nothing beats a good "save"
>function. Saying that, from Relto, you can link back to the last "handy
>wipe" you touched, so its not a complete loss.
>
>
>> Finally, controlling the character is haphazard at best, no matter
>> what view you choose (first person or third person), the character may
>> back up when moving forward was your intent, etc..
>>
>
>I have heard a lot of people have had problems with this. I found it easy
>once I got the hang of it.
>
>> I have loved all of the Myst series up to this point, but this has
>> been one giant waste of my money and time. What a sorry excuse
>> for an expensive installment of the series.
>>
>> JM
>>
>
>I suppose everyone has thier own opinions. I thought it was good, but not as
>good as other Myst games. The expansion #1 was good - apart from the dark
>and gloomy scenes and lack of initial direction in terms of "what to do to
>get started."
>
>Graham
>
>
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.myst (More info?)

> Finally, controlling the character is haphazard at best, no matter
> what view you choose (first person or third person), the character may
> back up when moving forward was your intent, etc..


When I first started Uru, I had a decent graphics card but was using
on-board sound, and can understand the absolute utter bloody frustration
of not being able to properly control the character. I ended up playing
most of the game with the sound disabled. Not the best way to go, but
it made control of the character possible and I found I could complete
the rotten leaps and jumps much more easily.

A good sound card solved this, but yeah, I agree completely. Could have
done without the death defying stunts.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.myst (More info?)

I just recently finished building this computer, and the major reason
was to be able to play new games such as URU... It has a separate
sound card, as well as a separate graphics card, and hi performance
hard drives, along with a lot of RAM.. No, it is not top-of-the line,
but it should be more than adequate to the task of properly running
most games.

JM

On Tue, 01 Jun 2004 06:53:24 +1000, zhickel
<zhickelremove@hotmailremove.com> wrote:

>
>> Finally, controlling the character is haphazard at best, no matter
>> what view you choose (first person or third person), the character may
>> back up when moving forward was your intent, etc..
>
>
>When I first started Uru, I had a decent graphics card but was using
>on-board sound, and can understand the absolute utter bloody frustration
>of not being able to properly control the character. I ended up playing
>most of the game with the sound disabled. Not the best way to go, but
>it made control of the character possible and I found I could complete
>the rotten leaps and jumps much more easily.
>
>A good sound card solved this, but yeah, I agree completely. Could have
>done without the death defying stunts.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.myst (More info?)

I agree that the game play is a bit corny at times. Breaking away from the
original ganre of move-and-touch that was really nice in the previous Myst
games was a poor idea. I did not like the fact that I had to rely on
jumping and "pushing" in order to complete some curcial steps (no pun
intended) in the game. Scooting things around was particularly annoying,
especially with those stupid stools in the lake. This totally distracted me
from the story and greatly increadsed my frustration in playing it.

Speeking of the story, I thought it was a bit more shallow than the other
Myst games.

I was able to have good control over the character, but I had a pretty
juiced-up system: Dell 8300, Intel P4 3GHz, 1 GB RAM, high-end NVidia with
128MB video RAM, Sound Blaster Audigy2. I was using a thimb-roller-ball
mouse, not the traditional type most are used to. I think this really
helped. Then I used the keyboard when the mouse was more difficult
(especially when kicking things around).

To the game's credit, the graphics were really beautiful!

- Roger

"Just mee" <me@mydomain.net.invalid> wrote in message
news:1f7066c1847af29dba3819de6dae6732@news.teranews.com...
> Okay, I finally got around to installing URU, and started playing it..
>
> I am totally, absolutely unimpressed with the game. In fact, I
> extremely dislike it. (I have just put it in the back of a drawer,
> after only finishing one age and barely starting a second. This is
> something I have practically never done)
>
> I bought what was supposed to be an "adventure" game, not an "action"
> game.... Instead of adventure, I am treated to jumping over gaps,
> and timed leaps through moving obstacles, which can kill you if you
> are not precise in your timing, aim, etc.... (death will then send you
> back to the last "node" you touched...Undoing some of your progress -
> This is just terrible).
>
> Further, I am treated to a game without any proper save capability,
> but instead depends on a very old fashioned, outmoded "node" system
> for saving games.. Employing such a system is absolutely inexcusable
> by today's standards.
>
> Finally, controlling the character is haphazard at best, no matter
> what view you choose (first person or third person), the character may
> back up when moving forward was your intent, etc..
>
> I have loved all of the Myst series up to this point, but this has
> been one giant waste of my money and time. What a sorry excuse
> for an expensive installment of the series.
>
> JM
>
>
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.myst (More info?)

Not sure why you are asking, but here you go.....

ASUS motherboard w/onboard network port and USB 2.0 (6 ports)
2.0 Ghz P4
1.0 Gigabyte RAM
320 Gigabytes 7200 RPM harddrives w/UDMA
Geforce MX440 3D accelerator Card
Generic Stereo Soundcard w/EAX
Generic ATX tower case w/400 watts p/s
Lite On CD writer
HP DVD writer
Sony 3.5 floppy
Generic ps2 mouse
Microsoft ps2 keyboard
Windows XP home w/multiboot

JM
*****************************
On Tue, 01 Jun 2004 03:06:04 GMT, "rms" <rsquires@flashREMOVE.net>
wrote:

>> I just recently finished building this computer
>
> State the specs, please?
>
>rms
>
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.myst (More info?)

> Geforce MX440 3D accelerator Card

This is what's holding you back of course. A 9800pro (256bit version)
or FX5900 for $150-200 would double your framerates.

rms
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.myst (More info?)

I don't think so.... I am not having any sort of video problems at
all.

JM

On Tue, 01 Jun 2004 23:28:48 GMT, "rms" <rsquires@flashREMOVE.net>
wrote:

>> Geforce MX440 3D accelerator Card
>
> This is what's holding you back of course. A 9800pro (256bit version)
>or FX5900 for $150-200 would double your framerates.
>
>rms
>
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.myst (More info?)

On Mon, 31 May 2004 18:04:56 GMT, Just mee <me@mydomain.net.invalid>
wrote:

>Okay, I finally got around to installing URU, and started playing it..
>
>I am totally, absolutely unimpressed with the game. In fact, I
>extremely dislike it.
>I bought what was supposed to be an "adventure" game, not an "action"
>game.... Instead of adventure, I am treated to jumping over gaps,
>and timed leaps through moving obstacles, which can kill you if you
>are not precise in your timing, aim, etc....
>This is just terrible).

This is my least favorite of the Myst series for the same reason. I
hate action games and the amount of jumping and do-overs in URU made
the game a chore to play.

>Finally, controlling the character is haphazard at best, no matter
>what view you choose (first person or third person), the character may
>back up when moving forward was your intent, etc..

I also had a great deal of difficulty in controlling my character
which only added to my frustration. The worst part was trying to move
things using your feet. I tore out some of my hair while trying to get
those baskets in the right position!

>I have loved all of the Myst series up to this point, but this has
>been one giant waste of my money and time. What a sorry excuse
>for an expensive installment of the series.
>
>JM
>

My sentiments exactly!

MystFan
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.myst (More info?)

To me, the best thing about the Myst series were the graphics. The
graphics were always far superior to anything that could be created
realtime on whatever machine the program was running on, and thereby
gave you that ooo ahhhh feel. URU relied on the hardware of whatever
machine it was running on, and lets face it, a fully ray-traced scene
looks a million times better than anything that can be redered in
real-time on a PC.

On Mon, 31 May 2004 18:04:56 GMT, Just mee <me@mydomain.net.invalid>
wrote:

>Okay, I finally got around to installing URU, and started playing it..
>
>I am totally, absolutely unimpressed with the game. In fact, I
>extremely dislike it. (I have just put it in the back of a drawer,
>after only finishing one age and barely starting a second. This is
>something I have practically never done)
>
>I bought what was supposed to be an "adventure" game, not an "action"
>game.... Instead of adventure, I am treated to jumping over gaps,
>and timed leaps through moving obstacles, which can kill you if you
>are not precise in your timing, aim, etc.... (death will then send you
>back to the last "node" you touched...Undoing some of your progress -
>This is just terrible).
>
>Further, I am treated to a game without any proper save capability,
>but instead depends on a very old fashioned, outmoded "node" system
>for saving games.. Employing such a system is absolutely inexcusable
>by today's standards.
>
>Finally, controlling the character is haphazard at best, no matter
>what view you choose (first person or third person), the character may
>back up when moving forward was your intent, etc..
>
>I have loved all of the Myst series up to this point, but this has
>been one giant waste of my money and time. What a sorry excuse
>for an expensive installment of the series.
>
>JM
>
 
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