I was one of those people who cut his teeth on PC role-playing games. I remember playing a game called "Starcross" on my Commodore 64 using text-based commands like "look up" and "pick up weapon."
Then came "Myst," the game that changed it all. You were immersed in another culture, another world, and it was incredible. It was a graphical masterpiece ahead of its time. Then came sequels "Exile" and "Riven."
Now comes "Uru: Ages Beyond Myst," seeking to move the bar on adventure role playing games. And it does — unfortunately, it just moves the bar lower, a lot lower.
I was very, very disappointed with this game, and judging from the mails I am getting, many of you are, too. First off, the game "recommends" certain video cards for best results. Turns out, the game won't play unless you have one of the cards on the package (relatively high-end video cards from nVidia and ATI). This has caused many problems on the "Uru" support forums.
Assuming you get it installed (I happened to have one of the anointed video cards) I found the game very hard to play and not at all intuitive. The player controls are terrible; trying to control a character while pushing items along is beyond silly.
Then you get to the puzzles, the best part of "Myst." The ones here are borderline silly and, with the player controls, border on impossible. One should be challenged by the puzzles in the game, not by how to use the controls. If any of you figured out how to make the bridge out of the stool, let me know. Otherwise this will stay in the drawer forever.
Getting to a point to where the game "allows" you to make a save point only to then try the same jump for the 20th time, using the same terrible controls, was very frustrating. Games should save where I want them to, not when they feel like it. Those with enough time to play this game are retired, unemployed or lottery winners. With every save comes a lengthy reload of the level.
One new thing is that you can play the game in the standard first person or the new third person. Trouble is, many of the camera angles make it very hard to follow your character along — falling off a cliff over and over gets frustrating. Remember Lara Croft and running into a bunch of brick walls, then getting eaten by wolves? This is like that.
There are some high points: the game is glorious in appearance, and the sound is pretty impressive as well.
I never tried the online version (I didn't really want to meet people who would want to spend their nights playing this), but reviews have not been kind.
Bottom line: If you want it, wait for the Wal-Mart $5 bin.
James Derk is new media editor for The Evansville Courier & Press. His e-mail address is jderk@ evansville.net.