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Fun puzzler for those who like Myst-like games

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 113 / 116
Date: August 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

In Aura, it's hard to avoid the comparisons with Myst. Parallel worlds for you to explore. Puzzles that range from imaginative to tedious. Clicking around, searching for clues.

If you love the Myst series, you'll feel right at home here. You're tossed into the world with pretty much no explanation, and really, you know that you need none. The plot is pretty silly. The graphics are gorgeous. All you are doing is wandering from room to room trying to solve the puzzles.

Some puzzles involve pulling levers to turn machinery on. Some involve spinning lights to turn machinery on. You get the general idea. Clues are strewn around to help you - it should never be a random clicking to get something to work. Of course if you *interpret* the clues properly, it works. If you are baffled by the clues, you can get quite stumped.

This is definitely a game that benefits from team play. The more brains you have looking at something, the more likely it is that ONE of you will spot what should happen. Sometimes it just involves looking more closely at the details of the screen.

Like all Myst-like games, there are some ANNOYING puzzles where you have to look down and sideways to see that lever hiding in the corner. If you don't spot it, you can waste days wandering from room to room, having no idea what you've missed.

Still, when you finally get the puzzle, it's a great sense of achievement. In general most of the puzzles make at least SOME sense, and the graphics are nice. I've found this in the bargain bin recently, so if you see this at a cheap price, pick it up. It could help exercise your little grey cells for a while!

Starts well, but loses focus

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 60 / 60
Date: August 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

If, like me, you like the kind of game where you spend hours trying to operate unknown, alien machinery, you'll love the beginning of Aura. There were more than enough Big Bronze Wheels, Levers, Steam Pipes, Colored Lights and Electric Arcs, all beautifully animated, and emitting the right kind of satisfying clunks, buzzes and whirs.
(there was some kind of back story involving assembling the Great Zoggin and protecting it from Belphar the Evil, but you can choose to ignore it with impugnity - the point is to turn on the machines so that you can reach the next stage).
The game makes a sterling attempt to be non-linear, at least within the major sections. It's better than a lot of Adventure games in this respect.
The cut scenes are frequent and nicely animated. The user interface is intuitive and easy to use. The ambient sounds and background music are appropriate and non-intrusive. Interaction with CG characters is natural, and doesn't fall into the 'ask the right question or you'll have to start again' syndrome.
So why four rather than five stars?
The game is set in two locations. The first is mechanistic, and the puzzles are logical. The second is 'magical', which means that some of the puzzles are just a tad unintuitive (i.e. daft). There's one in particular, involving a bird, where I had to resort to a walkthrough, and I think it colored my view of the rest of the game.
The ending was abrupt, with the promise of a sequel. I really wish game developers would stop doing that.
On the whole, though, a nicely contructed game, and well worth the money.

Aura: The Fate of the Ages

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 21 / 21
Date: October 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is not bad. I don't know - maybe I'm just a bit jaded after finishing the entire Myst series and a few other miscellaneous "adventure games", but this is a pretty good "beginner's game" for someone new to adventure gaming.
The puzzles really aren't that hard, and God knows they give you enough hints and clues for most of the puzzles. However, like the other Adventure Company games I've played, it is heavy on inventory, and there are at least two items that are hard to find - especially if you don't realize you're supposed to be looking for them!
The graphics are absolutely gorgeous - possibly the best I've ever seen (and, as a Myst veteran, that's saying a lot!). However, I wish game companies would stop using computer-generated people. They always - and I mean always - look awful. They really should stick to live actors.
The music is very heavily synthesized, and comes across as heavily pretentious. (The music for the third world of Na-Tiexu reminds me of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir".) Then again, maybe I'm just spoiled after hearing Tim Larkin's wonderful scores for Uru and Myst V.
I've read reviews about how buggy the game is, but I found the 1.04 patch and installed it, and had no problems, except that it would crash if I tried to delete old saved games.
There's a sequel called "The Sacred Rings" that's still in production as of this writing. I'm looking forward to it.

A little stupid but pretty good over all.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: December 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game has a story but it's flakey and dumb. But the graphics are good and the puzzles are quite good, bordering on exellent!

If you buy this game BE SURE TO DOWNLOAD THE PATCH OR YOU WILL HAVE TECH PROBLEMS!! Do a net search for "Aura patch" It should be no problem to find. Once it's patched you are good to go.

Fun puzzles. Not the best game but worth the full price nonetheless!

A very good Myst 3 clone

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: July 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Have you played Myst 3 Exile? If so, you exactly know what to expect from Aura: the interface, the gameplay, the various contraptions, devices and machines, even the landscapes and architectures are strongly derivative. But I DON'T consider this as a criticism! On the contrary, Aura is a good, solid game, very welcome after the dismal disappoinment (IMO) of Uru. Not much of a story, and I have read many reviews stressing the fact that Aura is only a string of puzzles. That's basically true, but don't think to the nearly impossible mathematical puzzles of games like Schizm I & II (but the first Schizm was a great game); rather, almost all of Aura's puzzles (never terribly difficult) are visual, based on manipulations of symbols and patterns; they require attention, logic and observations, and solving them is very satisfying. All in all, I'd say Aura is one of the best among Myst and Myst-clone games as to the quality of the puzzles. Add an intriguing atmosphere, very nice visuals and an excellent price: what you get is, maybe, not a groundbreaking masterpiece but certainly a solid, entertaining (may I say intelligent?) game, deserving success. My only complaint is the comparative brevity of the game; but even that is O.K for me if prelude to a (welcome) sequel.

A pretty homage to it's forefathers

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: April 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Paying tribute in it's wonderfully lush pre rendered backgrounds of alien environments to it's parent, Myst, Aura feels more like a buget version of that game rather then an emulation of one...While the production values certainly do not lack in the art department, the gameplay feels even more contrived then your typical "desloate alien landscape" adventure game, due to it's forced presentation of puzzles and pacing..You could do much worse with a myst clone though, that is for sure.

Couldn't stop playing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 18
Date: December 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is a must if you like Puzzle/adventure games.
The puzzles are not as hard as the Myst series or Alone in the Dark which I found refreshing. Can't wait for Aura II.

Solid Myst Clone

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: September 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

In the world of _Aura_, "the Elders" of your people have learned the secrets of constructing alternate realities. The key to this power lies in a set of magical rings and sacred artifacts scattered throughout several dimensions. From time to time, students are sent out to try to unite the rings and artifacts as part of their training. Few succeed. You play Umang, the latest student to undertake this quest. Shortly into your adventure, you learn that civil war has broken out among "the clans" and a powerful warlord now wishes to seize the rings and artifacts for himself. It's even more important that you get to them first!

Aura is a lovely 1st person game in the tradition of Myst, with many mechanical puzzles--devices to repair, vehicles to get running and secret passages to uncover--few inventory puzzles and virtually no conversations. What interaction with other characters there is occurs in cut scenes. Occasionally you get information, but it rarely moves the story along. So, for fans of puzzle driven games _Aura_ is a treat. It's been a long time since I've played a game so satisfyingly complex; in fact, I was stymied several times in the beginning just because I wasn't used to puzzles being challenging. But if you prefer 3rd person, character and story driven games, you might not like this one so much.

I ran _Aura_ on WIN XP on an AMD 2800 2-odd gig processor with a relatively new graphics card with no trouble at all; in fact, I was very, very pleased at the smoothness of the game. I did install the patch up front, however; I had been warned about possible glitches and wanted to avoid them. So I would recommend doing this.

Graphics are quite lovely, with 360-degree panning. I did find the panning somewhat nauseating at times, something that has not affected me for a long while. Sound was unremarkable--neither bad nor good. As is standard in this kind of game, each location has its own little musical motif. Most of them are unmemorable, except for the one that bears a striking resemblance to Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir."

Saves are unlimited, but you only get to see one saved game at a time when either saving or loading, and you can't name then for yourself; you're only given an image and a time/date. So it's hard to keep track of them. There are no timed puzzles and no action sequences. There is one section where you can be killed, but you are immediately allowed to try again from where you made your mistake, as many times as necessary.

So why only four stars? There was quite a bit of pixel hunting and places where hotspots were not immediately apparent. Where hotspots were close together, it was hard to tell the difference between them. I think this could have been easily remeied by making the active cursor a little more different from the inactive cursor. In one section the main puzzle was extremely incoherent and there was no indication whatsoever when you managed to solve it, meaning that you tended to wander around the area looking for something else to do for quite some time until you either checked a walkthrough to see what you missed or gave up and moved on by chance. Although the box claims that you have "four distinct realities to explore," you only spend about ten seconds in the 4th before the game is over. I think that's quite dishonest. The ending was a little abrupt and contrived to set up the obligatory sequel. Plus, there are a couple things that happen to you early in the game that you *know* are going to turn out badly (making a deal with someone who is obviously a bad guy, for example) that you can't do anything about.

Still, _Aura_ was a very enjoyable and absorbing game,about 25 long hours with one place where I needed a little direction. I had looked forward to it for quite some time and it did not disappoint.

Puzzle Fanatics-This game is for you

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This was an ok game. For people who love puzzles this is a must have..Has puzzles galore. The graphics are ok, if not fullscreen. Basically you wander around solving the puzzles to get to the finale. I wasn't really impressed, liked both Syberia games much better.

Very good, with some minor room for improvement

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: October 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Pros:
-great graphics/animation/lighting
-complex and difficult puzzles varying in difficulty and application (so as not to seem redundant).
Cons:
-Audio.... The synthesized "orchestration" and sound effects are, at best, fair. Sometimes, poor. Many sound effects sound far different than the objects you are interacting with should. The "score" is much less emersive than what I would expect for a game of this type. It doesn't set the mood as well as I would have liked and sometimes, its plain annoying.

All in all however, its a real good game. Well worth the $20 I spent on it. The sound effects and score are minor contentions that the rest of the game more than makes up for. If you're a fan of the genre, you can't go wrong with it.

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