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Extremely disappointed about URU. Please provide reasons to continue playing #1247033
05/08/21 03:45 AM
05/08/21 03:45 AM
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mike_bn Offline OP
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Hi all,
so my typical disclaimer first: I love cyan, I love myst-games and this is probably the reason why I am so disappointed about URU. Actually I would even go so far to say - and I would never have expected to say that about a cyan game - that I actually hate the game so far (after having played it around 4 hours). Some of the design choices I feel are so terrible for a myst game that it blows my mind how they could choose to keep those features.
What do I mean by that?

1) The insane amount of running and jumping. If I had wanted to play a jump and run game, I would have installed a C64 emulator and revived my C64 past. It is not that I am bad at these things. Actually , my reflexes are really, really good. So, I am not frustrated because I am bad at that. But what were they thinking integrating this into a MYST game??? Myst games are all about quiet, slow, careful exploration of the great worlds/ages you find yourself be transported to. Patiently walking around, absorbing the atmosphere, looking for clues, enjoying the nice graphics. And now I have to jump around on stones, piles of trash which in some places are so badly designed that I cannot even tell whether I am supposed to succeed to jump to a specific spot or not? How I am supposed to immerse myself in an age if I constantly struggle to get to some place or fall down because I barely missed my jump destination or because it is simply not possible to jump to the location I aimed at? That is just bad and most importantly, a totally contradiction to a core characteristic of myst games, imo.

2) Some places are even worse: So after reaching this Relto(?) world, I used a book on the top left corner of a shelve to visit another age. After lots of jumping and running, I encountered
some big metal/stone ring which rotates and it becomes clear that this ring has a hole and you have to slip through the hole to get to the other side of the ring. I spend ONE hour, only succeeding once by accident. ONE freaking hour running and jumping against a wall from different angles, it just didn't work. That is just stupid. How could this possibly pass beta testing.? My gaming buddy had the same problem, he was just more lucky and succeeded a bit earlier (without knowing why). You get not hint whatsoever whether you choose the wrong angle, whether you just have to run, or jump at the right moment. And if you miss the hole you have to wait one minute until the hole appears again. I checked the walkthrough and I could not believe what I read there. First off, I had not missed anything, so there is no clue how to get through rather than having luck, but the walkthrough also advised to use ego-view, it would not work well in t3rd-person view (or vice-versa I forgot). Sorry but that is just terrible technical design. How should a player know this? From now on, when I don't succeed somewhere with jumping and running, do I have to try everything in both game modes?

3) Lack of puzzles. So far, I am just running and jumping around, trying to find these cloths. Feels like a mixture of a walking/jumping-simulator and a hidden objects game, not like a myst game. I googled for reviews in the hope of finding something which would motivate me to continue and I would like to cite a section of the adventuregamers review, which perfectly described the way I felt:
'However, adventure purists may come away feeling that this primary component of URU isn’t “puzzling” at all. The fact that two of the Ages focus primarily on dexterity tests of running and jumping to obtain the elusive cloths just added to my frustration and sense that I wasn’t playing a Myst game or even an adventure game at all. '
To be fair, the author mentions later ages are more about puzzling and have some nice puzzles, but even 1, let alone 2 dexterity ages simply is a bad decision, in my opinion. I respect the goal of a company to not re-create the same game over and over again and try to come up with new things and add new elements/mechanics. But it needs to fit to the key characteristics which made the original game great. What do I have to expect next? Will I find a gun so that I have to shoot around in doom-style?

4) The save system. Maybe this is not as bad as I think it is, I have not played the game long enough. But there is a reason why 95% of all games let you save the game exactly at the place where you are when you want/must stop playing. It has proven to be a good design concept. When I can play again, I want to continue exactly where I stopped. Here - if I understand it correctly - your start location depends on the last cloth you touched? Why? What value does this provide? Why is this a good design decision? I don't see the point.

5) My gaming buddy - also disappointed - but more patient than I am, continued playing, even though he agreed with my points. He stopped playing when he encountered a book with 46 pages to read. Forty-Six! In general, I don't mind finding and reading books here and there in an adventure games. It is a good thing to draw the player into the story. But 46 pages? That is too much for my taste. If I had wanted to read a book, I would have gone to my local library.

6) Some reviews and posts imply that there are even more difficult places to come as far as jumping/running and pushing objects with your body are concerned. If I find it bad already, this does not incline me at all to continue.


I am sorry to say it, but so far I could not find anything i liked about URU, Not to mention that I haven't found one single puzzle so far. Then again, I am aware that many people like URU, so this post is not about just trashing the game, even though I made this long list of points I did not like. Please explain to me why you like this game and why I should give this game another shot and continue playing. Did I stop to early? Does it get so unbelievably great that it makes up for the points I criticized? There must be a reason why Uru has a solid fan base, and I would like to understand why.







Last edited by mike_bn; 05/08/21 03:55 AM.
Re: Extremely disappointed about URU. Please provide reasons to continue playing [Re: mike_bn] #1247078
05/08/21 03:17 PM
05/08/21 03:17 PM
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 17,998
Chicago
oldbroad Online sad
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I'm sorry I cannot help you with this. I started playing the game years ago and had trouble with the jumping and with nausea. I also did not understand the saving part. When the computer I was playing in broke down, I did not have it repaired. I never felt the need to start the game again in a different computer. I may some day but it is way behind other games on my list. I refrained from posting this when you were talking about playing the game as I didn't want to mar your optimism, and people do like different things. Definitely not Myst like in my opinion either.

If you continue on, I sincerely hope it improves for you.

Re: Extremely disappointed about URU. Please provide reasons to continue playing [Re: mike_bn] #1247106
05/09/21 03:02 AM
05/09/21 03:02 AM
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mike_bn Offline OP
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Thanks for responding, oldbroad. As you can probably tell from my previous post, URU is currently in our Excel tab 'unworthy' which lists
all games we stopped or even never really started playing because we think they are too bad, for whatever reason ;-)

Unless someone comes along and convinces me that I am missing out on something really, really special, this game will stay there and I will never touch it again. Whatever this game is, it is not a myst game for me. It is the by-product of an ambitious project (Uru Online/Live) which failed, unfortunateley. Of course, if running and jumping and moving items with your body and reading books which have 46 pages with some puzzles later on is your thing , you will come to a different conclusion. But it seems we feel similar about this game.

Last edited by mike_bn; 05/09/21 03:06 AM.
Re: Extremely disappointed about URU. Please provide reasons to continue playing [Re: mike_bn] #1247169
05/09/21 11:45 PM
05/09/21 11:45 PM
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Kiev, Ukraine
Iurii Offline
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Well, I am a fan of 'Myst' series, but 'URU' is probably my favorite game of them all, even if I too had to spend hours jumping in Gahreesen and especially moving objects in Eder Gira smile

mike_bn, the puzzles and save system do look strange comparing to other Myst games, but that's because 'URU' had to become the first online multiplayer adventure game! That's why all those cloths to activate and panel switches to step on, they were just supposed to be handled by several persons at once. So, what we have now are some leftovers from the MMO game that died.

Re: Extremely disappointed about URU. Please provide reasons to continue playing [Re: mike_bn] #1247183
05/10/21 05:34 AM
05/10/21 05:34 AM
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I am a big Myst fan, and Uru was such a departure for me. As a single player game, I played it just for the background and because it was part of the Mystian ethos. I needed a WT and extreme patience for most of it. I did not enjoy it either.
However, back in the day when it was Uru Live, I spent many an hour there with friends. It is hard to imagine the impact that game had when you could 'meet' people from all over the world and hang in the Ages and manipulate parts of the environment. Really good times and memories.

Last edited by colpet; 05/10/21 05:35 AM.
Re: Extremely disappointed about URU. Please provide reasons to continue playing [Re: mike_bn] #1247194
05/10/21 08:59 AM
05/10/21 08:59 AM
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I too had fun in Uru live, Becky used to join me and help me out when I got stuck or just to play and Monica and I used to try to outdo each other in making pellets.... I started back up when URU live came back online... played all the way until I needed a player to help with some tasks... no Gameboomers there anymore... too bad... but I still like dropping in every now and then. I didn't mind the jumping around.


Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody
Gibran
Re: Extremely disappointed about URU. Please provide reasons to continue playing [Re: mike_bn] #1247197
05/10/21 09:08 AM
05/10/21 09:08 AM
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I played the game years ago but don't remember playing it live with others but I did finish it. I tried doing a replay a few months ago but lost interest, just haven't uninstalled it yet. I can't give you any reasons to continue the game. duh


<3 I am in love with Norman Reedus/Daryl Dixon <3
Re: Extremely disappointed about URU. Please provide reasons to continue playing [Re: mike_bn] #1247234
05/10/21 04:08 PM
05/10/21 04:08 PM
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Marian Offline
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There's also the GameBoomers review of the game. You might find it of interest.

Re: Extremely disappointed about URU. Please provide reasons to continue playing [Re: mike_bn] #1247305
05/11/21 01:54 PM
05/11/21 01:54 PM
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The Haze Offline
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mike_bn: Hi:
I was wondering how the game was going and even sent you a PM asking that. Since you asked about it a few months ago I have been replaying URU and still believe it is favorite game ever. I have a couple responses, but they really won't help much, I'm afraid.

I have not experienced an offensive amount of running and jumping. (I am finished with the original URU and am playing "To D'ni.) I seldom hit the "Run" button unless absolutely necessary because I find the scenery in the game to be simply stunning. I do remember all the pages in all the books, but while I found them interesting and felt they added depth and understanding to the game, none of them are required reading. You can complete the game and never read any notebooks at all.

As to the puzzles, I found them amazingly difficult at times and I have played this game to completion at least a half-dozen times. I remember that originally [Before} the two additions to the game] it took months to complete.

I'm sorry you aren't enjoying URU. I've had that experience with a couple games, and my general response to complete dis-satisfaction is to unload the game and move. In fairness, if I simply don't like a game, I won't fight it to completion,

The one notable discovery I have made this time is that there are still discoveries about URU to be made. For instance; after twenty years, it was only yesterday that I learned that all the "Relto Pages" can be turned off and/or on in the pages of the Relto book. I didn't know that.


If all the people were heroes, there would be no one to watch the parades.
Re: Extremely disappointed about URU. Please provide reasons to continue playing [Re: mike_bn] #1247374
05/12/21 11:04 AM
05/12/21 11:04 AM
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mike_bn Offline OP
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Thanks to all who responded! I will also read the review, Marian.

@The Haze: I missed the PM, otherwise I would have replied of course. Sorry about that.I just read your message. Really nice of you to ask how it is going with URU smile Unfortunately, as you have read above, not so well

Well the answers I got once again show what we all know - tastes are different, plain and simple. My gaming buddy will continue playing
and if he thinks the puzzles are really good, I might give that game another shot. If not, just like The Haze, I will not play a game I don't like just to have played/completed it. The things I posted above annoy me too much.

Thanks again for always getting help here smile

Last edited by mike_bn; 05/12/21 11:05 AM.
Re: Extremely disappointed about URU. Please provide reasons to continue playing [Re: mike_bn] #1247625
05/16/21 11:18 AM
05/16/21 11:18 AM
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High guys and gals. I'm so old that I barily remember the game. I know I did not play it with a group but I did play it (I think).

Mr Bill

Re: Extremely disappointed about URU. Please provide reasons to continue playing [Re: mrbill] #1247634
05/16/21 01:25 PM
05/16/21 01:25 PM
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Originally Posted by mrbill
High guys and gals. I'm so old that I barily remember the game. I know I did not play it with a group but I did play it (I think).

Mr Bill


lol

Nice to see you Mr Bill!

Re: Extremely disappointed about URU. Please provide reasons to continue playing [Re: mike_bn] #1247635
05/16/21 01:38 PM
05/16/21 01:38 PM
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Marian Offline
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Yes, it is very nice to see you, Mr. Bill! wave

Re: Extremely disappointed about URU. Please provide reasons to continue playing [Re: mike_bn] #1247651
05/16/21 09:21 PM
05/16/21 09:21 PM
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I agree with all the sentiments, Mr. Bill! Hope all is well by you!

Ana wave


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