Playing Uru is much like visiting a museum. There's a lot of walking involved and the art is gorgeous, but interaction is kept at a minimum. What makes games like Myst appealing to many is the excellent art, the emphasis on patience and high cognitive skills, and the nonviolent nature. There is no way to die in Uru, and there is nothing to kill. In fact, aside from one or two characters, in very brief encounters, there isn't even any conversation. There is, however, a great deal of reading to do in the tradition of Myst and Riven (Uru's predesessors). Normally, in this time of very high capacity storage devices, I would find it hard to excuse this much reading. But, seeing as how millions have enjoyed the formula so far, who am I to argue with this emphasis on patience?

For those who don't know, Uru continues the saga of the D'ni, a genius civilization that long went extinct due to a mysterious plague. However, parts of this game will leave the player wondering if there were other possible reasons for their disappearance. The D'ni created different worlds called Ages, which could only be accessed through Linking Books. By touching pages in these special books, players are transported to different Ages where they are free to explore. Guiding you through your journey is Yeesha, the gifted daughter of Atrus and his wife Catherine (the former protagonists of the Myst series).

The game starts with a customization screen, where you can adjust the wardrobe and physicalities of your avatar. There is a comprehensive set of tools at your disposal, and it's fun building your own person. Your character is a member of the DRC (D'ni Restoration Council) who have recently opened up areas on some Ages for people to explore. After uncovering a message that Yeesha left behind, you find a Linking Book that takes you to a small island in the sky called Relto, where you have access to a small hut and the ability to travel to five more Ages. Using cryptic clues and monologues, Yeesha shows you the dark history of the D'ni while you solve the puzzles set before you. She has also hidden journey cloths (seven in each Age) for you to find, which serve as bookmarks for quickly reaching specific points within an Age. Get used to frequently visiting Relto. You keep your Relto book at your side at all times; should you do something perilous like jump off a cliff , you perform a "panic link" where you instinctively touch the book and instantly transport yourself to safety. You will also be able to make the little island prettier through finding Yeesha pages - book pages that Yeesha wrote dedicated toward decorating your central base of operations. Inside the hut is your library of living books and a wardrobe, where you are able to access your character's customization screen. So, if you should ever get bored of your character's clothes or physical characteristics, you can always change them.

Those who are unfamiliar with the history of Myst should take the opportunity to go out and purchase Myst, Riven, or both in order to get caught up, since both should be very inexpensive these days. Uru is a very bad introduction to the series. Oftentimes, it will seem like you are wandering through worlds, making things work without any clue as to how or why. This is the kind of game that sells game guides by the stack, or sends people to chatting boards in search of answers. I was no exception to this. Puzzle clues are few and hard to find, usually hidden in obscure places. Players will often have to listen carefully to Yeesha's monologues, check every page of every notebook they find, or try to remember every unique bit of scenery they come upon. A good example of this is when you are trying to rotate the inner gears of a telescope in order to match those shown in an art gallery. Players should get pencils and paper out early, because there will be a lot to draw. It would have been nice to have a photographing system, like the one found on the online version of Uru, to make things simpler... but I suppose then we'd be getting back to how the game is supposed to be about patience.

Most puzzles appear to make absolutely no sense. One of the first Ages I encountered was an enormous swamp, where gigantic mushrooms grew. Yet, there didn't seem to be anywhere to go or anything to do aside from pulling levers that didn't do anything and opening up a giant periscope that similarly did nothing. I had to do some searching to find out that I was supposed to synchronize the viewfinder with the rapidly-rotating sun in order to energize the solar powered machine. Sadly, there were no clues like there would be in similar games that would even suggest such a solution. Oftentimes, players will have to try to make sense of all the pictographs that are drawn all over control panels and walls. While not all puzzles are this obscure, most of them rely completely on trial and error. Many are very linear too. At one point, I had to drain a reservoir and then climb a ladder to the bottom. But, since I unlocked the ladder hatch too soon, the reservoir wouldn't drain. I could imagine many casual players throwing up their hands and giving up. Toss in the fact there are random machines that don't do anything but look nice, and we end up with more than an exercise in patience. It's a test in how long it will take people before they become so frustrated that they throw their computers out the window.

One of the most unique features that sets Uru apart from other games in the series is the fact that for the first time, players are able to roam freely in a 3D world. In many ways, this is a great thing that opens up many avenues of gameplay and exploration. The bad thing is that much of the game does not compliment free roaming. My avatar often had problems moving around because his foot would get caught on rocks and other minor things. So, challenges that require precise timing are made even more difficult. Then pile on top the other interface problems, like the fact that your avatar has to practically stand on top of an item before it can interact with it, and the frustrations just keep on mounting. I long for the days of hunt-and-click games, where all you had to do was click on an object, and the character would walk to it and let you know if it can be interacted with. With Uru, I had to wander around and seek out places where my cursor (a hollow circle) would fill, indicating that the object should be used. If there is a book on a desk, I would usually have to click on the seat so that my avatar could sit down and switch the screen to a desk view. It seems like a many aspects of the interface could have been streamlined. Uru allows players to switch between first-person and third-person points of view, and both become necessary at times because of the interface problems. Then there is the issue of the unresponsive control. Oftentimes, it was difficult to measure a jump, and I would end up plunging to my doom... or as close to peril as you can get. It is right then that you really start to wish that you could save anywhere. Also, there is one puzzle that requires you to place objects into specific locations, but the avatar is unable to use his hands, so I had to kick everything into place. In first-person mode, you have to hold down the right mouse button in order to look around freely, which made things more cumbersome than they needed to be. Still, it was much better than third-person mode, since the camera could hardly be controlled at all. It seems like the developers couldn't decide on whether this should be a first-person or third-person adventure, and came out with a set of controls that didn't quite accommodate either.

Like I said before, get used to visiting Relto, because you'll be spending a lot of time there. This is where you go every time you start up the game and each time you accidentally fall. There is no real save feature in Uru. Players have to seek out journey cloths to mark specific places where they've been. Even then, each of your Linking Books can only keep one cloth, and it just takes you to the last one you touched. So, if you were unable to find a journey cloth and you have to link back Relto for some reason, you'll have to travel through the level in order to get back to where you were. Similarly, if you quit the game before finding one of these cloths, you'll end up with a lot of running to do. There is absolutely no reason for a PC game to have to rely on the bookmark system of gameplay. The only other reason journey cloths are important is because only through activating all seven can you open that Age's secret cave door, where Yeesha has a special message for you.

The graphics, as expected, are spectacular and have been a long mark of the Myst series. The different Ages are very imaginative. Some even experience day and night cycles or the occasional rain showers. The sound design compliment these environments nicely, with heavy grinding noises for the machines and rolling thunder for the storms. The level of immersion in these Ages is wonderful, once you put aside the control issues. The problem is that these graphics also tend to become very dark. I had to turn my brightness and the game's gamma all the way up in order to see anything. In a game where success depends so much on seeing details, and interaction only occurs when you're standing on top of something, there is no excuse for having it be this dark. Especially in environments that make heavy use of shadows or have a night cycle, when the graphics became so dark that the game was literally unplayable.

Uru is not a terrible game, nor is it a great one either. Its aims are ambitious, and with Uru Live currently going through the early stages of activation, things are starting to look more promising. Through logging on to Uru Live, I was able to download more clothing and talk to other players online. The problem is, none of these clothes are applicable to your single player avatar, and you'll have to replay the entire single player game in online mode. Your single player experience does not import over to your online game. Does this sound like fun? However, Uru Live shouldn't be sold short, because it will offer new maps and puzzles that will eventually change the storyline of Uru and take it in different directions. Some of the puzzles will require more than one person to solve. This should significantly expand the Uru's gameplay, and open up opportunities for Uru communities to come together.

It takes a very specific type of personality to play a Myst game. Patience and an eye for details is a must. I have to emphasize the fact that this is definitely not a game for those who are new to the series. In fact, even after I completed the game, it was only able to discern what the plot was by doing outside reading. The storyline also relies heavily on the games that came before it, and assumes that the player is familiar with the Myst universe. So, to find out more about Yeesha and the D'ni, I strongly recommend picking up the previous games first and seeing if you enjoy them. Otherwise, close the book and let other explorers seek out the mysteries of Uru.