URU: difficult and boring

[eduardocarrion]

URU is the most frustrating game ever. What where the designers thinking? The game shows a great deal of programming mastery all around: movements, graphics, music, etc. But it is completely un-playable. The quests are absurdly difficult and arbitrary. No logical deduction of actions, responses, or solutions. Just luck and wild guess. In summary, boring and frustration. I am sorry I wasted 46 dollar on this one.

[eduardocarrion]

URU is the most frustrating game ever. What where the designers thinking? The game shows a great deal of programming mastery all around: movements, graphics, music, etc. But it is completely un-playable. The quests are absurdly difficult and arbitrary. No logical deduction of actions, responses, or solutions. Just luck and wild guess. In summary, boring and frustration. I am sorry I wasted 46 dollar on this one.

[wstrohm]

Although I have not played Uru yet (have a Mac), your reaction to it is exactly the same as my reaction to RHEM. I liked the Uru demo, though, and I expect you may get flamed on this board for your opinion (however valid).

Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to SUFFERING! - Yoda

[DeeDee.Bee]

Eduardocarrion,
I am sorry you haven't enjoyed Uru. I can understand your frustration at difficult puzzles, but That is what many of us like about our games, the challenge. Uru has sparked a HUGE sense of community and friendship for those of us who did like it, if nothing else join us, with that! It is a beautiful and amazing game, and even if you have to ask for hints or resort to checking a walkthrough, it IMO is worth playing through.

I hope you will give it another chance and if you need a hint we here on the forum, are more than happy to help out!

Avatar name: Mystdee

[Cordie]

I was also sorry to hear that you are not enjoying URU, eduardocarrion. I know what it's like to play a game that does not appear to have any logic behind it's puzzles - for me The Omega Stone appears to be such a game.

However, I found URU a pleasure to play and the wonderful community that I have found here is also well worth the effort I spent in playing the game (not to mention the money I spent on it).

I urge you to keep playing and as DeeDeeBee says, if you need any help you only have to ask - we are all ready and willing to give you any level of assistance you might want. Sometimes it's just not possible to solve all the puzzles without a hint of some kind and we are very careful not to give too much away so we don't totally spoil it for you.

Please don't regret spending your money on this lovely game http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Cordelia
Personal Assistant to Professor Thietris Squirrel,
CEO, President and Managing Director,
Institution of Advanced Exploration of Myst Worlds

http://img19.photobucket.com/albums/v58/Riven/umbrella2.gif Supplier of umbrellas to the D'ni for Centuries.

[dividertabs]

Most people on this forum won't agree with you. I have no idea what you mean by "just luck and wild guess". Can you give an example?

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>I expect you may get flamed on this board for your opinion<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I doubt it.

[rw.]

Eduardocarrion,

I do sympathize with you on the difficulty of the game. I to found it difficult in many, many areas. As Deedee.bee has mentioned, that is why many of us enjoy the game. I would ask you to try to see the difficulty as an oppurtunity rather then an obstical.

As both CordeliaG and DeeDee.bee indicated, the gamers you will find on the URU forum boards are an extremely helpful community. Allow the difficulty of the game to become and oppurtunity for you to meet some of these wonderful individuals by posting your questions.

Even if you are not so inclined to post, avail yourself of the wealth of information that is available to you via the URU forums. use the FIND function at the top to enter search strings based on something unique concerning your problem.

You will probably find that someone has aleady experinced the same problem or issue and others have provided hints, or even full solutions(only if you want them) to the puzzles.

I hope you will come to consider the 46 dollars you invested well spent. Truthfully, I had to purchase a completely new system to play URU. my old system did not meet the minimum requirements and I did not want to miss out on URU. I do not regret having done so.

Please, give it another try. The folks here are more then willing to share their time and give you a helping hand to turn your URU experience into a positive one. Hope to see you on the forums.

Good Luck, and Best Regards!

[This message was edited by rohnerw on Fri April 09 2004 at 01:04 PM.]

[ritafair]

I had much the same reaction, eduardocarrion, when I first played Myst. "What?" I couldn't figure out what to do. There didn't seem to be a story or a purpose. I could wander around and push some buttons but there didn't seem to be a point. Little by little, I got involved in the game and soon I was hooked.

I have purchased games that were highly recommended but just weren't my genre and I walked away shaking my head. What did these people SEE in such a game? This may prove to be the case for you with Uru but I hope you will take another look.

I treat Myst (and Myst-type) games as if I had just been dropped in a completely strange place. What would I do? I would explore and see what came up and what happened. I would expect to be puzzled, frustrated, nervous, unsure. Then I might start to figure things out.

How far did you get with the game? Did you finish it?

[Dara100]

I played both Uru and Rhem and found Uru made much more sense. All the clues were there. Rhem was almost totally illogical and arbitrary and I had to use a walkthrough several times, which is hardly ever necessary for me in good games.

You might want to try an Uru walkthrough. There is no shame in getting a little help. What I find about games in the Myst world is that I TRUST that if I work hard enough at a puzzle I will be able to solve it, which is not always so in other games. There is nothing more satisfying to me in a game than to get that "Eureka!" moment.

[Dara100]

I see that the forums are still in Kriel mode, i.e. backwards. How hard can it be to re-sort in ascending order?

[Equisilus]

While I didn't find Uru to be as you described, eduardocarrion, I can understand a gamer's frustration with an Adventure game that they find difficult. I just finished a trudge through Mysterious Journey: Schizm and The Omega Stone and both had puzzles that were either time-consumingly tedious or downright out-of-this-world difficult to ever figure out with the clues provides (if there were any). At least with Uru (and the entire Myst series), and other Adventure games like the two Syberia games, the puzzles may only require occasional hints/tips/suggestions to get you on your way.

I'd recommend, for any Adventure game, you get a good walkthrough handy for those times you come upon puzzles that are just going to drag you away from the fun of the game. As mentioned previously, there's no harm in getting a little help, and a walkthrough may be a bit faster than asking for a tip on a forum from time to time. I have made sure that I locate a walkthrough for any Adventure game before I start, even if I don't use it much or at all.

[Kuhlade]

As I stated in an earlier post, I can't remember when I have had so much fun with a game. I have been messing with this puppy for 5 months now, playing prime, Live, doing the hack, the egg, the X-pack, and now flymode. Looking back at what I paid, I got a bargain! http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

Chloe on Achenar
KI: 00205348
Miranda on Atrus
KI: 1935414

[maztec]

I'd have to agree with one point in the game that never came across as logical to me. Basically pulling and pushing levers at random in the start of Teledahn. Sure, there's the number three there. But that never dawned on me. I pressed that button twice and absolutely nothing happened, no indication that it was working. Of course that was back in the days of beta.

Kadish doesn't make sense at all, if you haven't been to the gallery and made the connection that there are clues there. That took me a bit, but I realized it had to be there for a reason.

Eder Gira and Eder Kemo were the most logical and straight forward ages for me. The mechanical puzzles just made sense. Although kicking things around was a bit frustrating, it wasn't the end of the world.

The Gahreesen was pretty straight forward for me. Although I have had problems with it when going back after the first time. Those problems have mostly been resolved and appear to have once been bugs -- back in the days of beta.

I'd say the most frustrating for me in the game was finding the Bahro Doors. I only managed to find Eder Kemo/Gira's because it was obvious, same with Teledahn. The other ages took me forever to find it. I finally needed help to find the one in Kadish and yes I did look everywhere.

As for X1, it was frustrating. To be honest I'm colour blind, that didn't exactly make the available clues one bit easier.

Oh well.

Maz

---
If this is one of my postings and I have not said it's "official news", provided a quoted source for reference to the news, or directly indicated that I am moderating the thread. Then I am posting as a fellow user.

[Cordie]

For anyone who wants hints rather than a walk through - and hints that you can take one at a time until you manage to work out what you are supposed to do - I suggest you go to UHS: Hints Files (http://www.uhs-hints.com/hints/)

The have one there for URU, although I don't know whether it covers the Expansion Pack yet. I found it very useful for when I played Syberia recently - just the odd little hint put me on the right track and didn't spoil the game for me at all http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Cordelia
Personal Assistant to Professor Thietris Squirrel,
CEO, President and Managing Director,
Institution of Advanced Exploration of Myst Worlds

http://img19.photobucket.com/albums/v58/Riven/umbrella2.gif Supplier of umbrellas to the D'ni for Centuries.

[Zenguy]

Thanks CordeliaG, I've bookmarked that one. I too prefer a little nudge in the right direction if I'm feeling frustrated, rather than being handed the answer - that's not why I play these games.

As for the puzzles in URU, I'd agree with the complaint about the lack of logic. I loved the way the puzzles in Myst and Riven unravelled in progressive stages; like slowly openning the curtains on an interesting scene. With URU the puzzles are individually simple and unrelated. I miss the sense of greater structure and logic - fingers crossed that this comes back in Myst IV.

[wafna]

I did need some help with Uru, particularly in Kadish, and in Eder, but Teledahn made lots of sense, and Gahreesen wasn't too difficult, either. BUT I disagree about Rhem. Although it is primitive compared to any Myst game that came after Myst itself, it was very logical. You might not understand it right away, but it does come to you eventually. The only help I needed with it was for the last area, and then I reread the original review that led me to purchase the game (and I have noticed that reviewer is among the forumites). As with Riven, you sometimes need to close the doors you worked hard to open the first time.

[wstrohm]

wafna,

I have to admire your IQ, which must be at least 300. I am on page 15 of a 16-page walkthrough of RHEM, and it has taken me 3 weeks of about 3 hours a day just to get this far by reading all of the walkthrough, step by step. And I still do not understand why most of the answers are what they are, even by reviewing everything again. It's even more maddening than Starship Titanic, which at least was FUN.

Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to SUFFERING! - Yoda

[tchotchke2]

Please tell me more about Starship Titanic. Do I want to buy it?

[Mr Zebe D]

Yes. It's fun, but it certainly isn't easy.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everybody's imaginary friend

[tchotchke2]

What other game would you compare it to? Would you describe it in more detail, please?

[Mr Zebe D]

Try here (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345368436/inktomi-bkasin-20/ref%3Dnosim/104-2349642-4852730). Note the game in the Editorial Review. http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everybody's imaginary friend

[wstrohm]

Here's a link to some game reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00002SAO2/qid=1081822090/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/103-1624169-2691819?v=glance&s=videogames

Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to SUFFERING! - Yoda

[Deledrius]

An interesting review is here: http://eblong.com/zarf/gamerev/index.html

[Kuhlade]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by tchotchke2:
Please tell me more about Starship Titanic. Do I want to buy it?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I loved Starship Titanic. I did get a bit claustrophobic but the puzzles were fun and the graphics were great. Another similar game is Grim Fandango, lots of fun and very different. Neither game is like the Myst games, they are more humorous and fantasy based.

Chloe on Achenar
KI: 00205348
Miranda on Atrus
KI: 1935414

[IYeesha]

The great thing about live was getting and giving help to people who needed it. Then after you solved puzzles you could always speak face to face with your buddies.

[jrmccloskey]

Well, the initial confusion in Myst was probably quite intentional. The basic idea is you were walking along, found this book with a neat picture, touched the picture, found yourself on this weird island, and basically went "What the ******?"

In games like this, you need to take the kids approach to exploring. Touch EVERYTHING.

Jeff

[tchotchke2]

OK. Thanks y'all. Went to the links. Think I'll skip this game.

[hogarth...]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>The quests are absurdly difficult and arbitrary. No logical deduction of actions, responses, or solutions. Just luck and wild guess.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
What may SEEM arbitrary becomes logical in retrospect, Grasshopper.
In fact, all the puzzles and tasks in Uru can be deduced from the evidence available in the game. It isn't always easy - in fact it can be very obtuse at points - but it isn't the most difficult game out there.

The issue of boredom is a personal one. Some people get bored more easily than others, and those people should look elsewhere for entertainment. Boredom is not a word I would choose to describe my reaction to the game, however - and I think many here would agree with me. Frustration, yes - boredom, no. But it's the challenge of butting one's head up against a difficult problem that draws many of us to this game genre. It's why we're here.

********

hogarth