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Myst Uru: The path of the shell Expansion pack

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

A good add on for the Myst game. The Larghe's

I enjoyed it

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: January 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The Path of the Shell was in all, an enjoable experience for me. I experienced some technical problems with the install, but nothing difficult to fix or damaging to the computer. The graphics are fantastic, the sound incredible, the Ages intriguing. Many of the puzzles are a bit harder than I would like (The Ahnonay age is so hard, you can hardly even tell if you're in the puzzle or not).
All in all, though, Cyan has come through again with a great game!

At last - Genius!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 13
Date: December 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Hail The Gathered! I bow to your superior intellect and wisdow! In the future this expansion pack will be an object of worship! Hail! Hail!

It's not a game, it's clickable art

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 15 / 21
Date: October 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

To D'Ni and Path of the Shell are gorgeous, no doubt about that. Indeed, you may find yourself just walking around and gawking at the scenery. The designers have also done their usual fine job with sound.

However, graphics can no more save a bad game than special effects can salvage a bad movie, and PotS's problems lie where they count the most: in the game itself.

To D'ni takes you to a location that you only glimpsed in Uru: Ages Beyond Myst (aka Uru Prime), but there's very little to do. All it is is a glorified easter egg hunt. There are one or two puzzles, but the bulk of the game, such as it is, consists in collecting certain items. I imagine that this location was intended to be part of the ill-fated Uru Live, and rather than let their hard work go to waste, the designers repackaged it as a single-player game, with the easter egg hunt as a way of getting the player to admire the art department's hard work. In addition, unless you're observant and remember everything about Uru Prime, you won't know where to begin without consulting a hint guide or walkthrough.

Path of the Shell (PotS) is perhaps worse. This time, there are puzzles, but many of them are too difficult to be fun, and most don't make any sense. It took me several hints, a walkthrough, and a diagram to understand how the Ahnonay Age worked.

The other Age, Er'cana, is much easier, at least until the end, where you have to figure out how to operate two machines without a manual, and no indication as to what they are supposed to do.

This brings me to the fundamental problem in PotS: there is no story, and no goals. In Riven, the goal was to save Catherine, and the puzzles were a way to work toward that goal. In Exile, you were trying to escape the Age you were in. In PotS, however, there is no overarching goal, no story, no motivation. The puzzles are just there, and don't advance the story in any way. If you finish Er'cana, your character drops what appears to be a loaf of bread into a pool of water, for no apparent reason. Huh.

You may find To D'Ni and PotS more enjoyable than I did if you let go of the idea that these are games, and simply consider them as art with buttons that you can click. Print out a walkthrough, pour yourself a glass of wine, and admire the scenery.

Beautiful but annoying

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: September 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

First off let me say that I've played and loved all the Myst games, including URU. That being said, Path of the Shell was just to odd to be enjoyable. If you play this game plan to spend a lot of time linking, counting lines in books, waiting, linking, waiting, counting lines in books, etc. None of this adds to the game play or the experience. I really don't think it is possible to finish the game without looking at hint or a walkthrough, unless you have an extremely high end gaming machine and a whole lot of free time. My recommendation: Buy it for the experience, but be prepared to consult a good walkthrough or be eternally frustrated.

Comparable to Riven

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: September 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Riven is hailed by many as the epitome of the perfect D'ni game. However, Uru with its expansions manages to be even better. The Path of the Shell especially has comparable puzzles and grand scope to Riven. There are times when the exploration, music and story become overwhelming and cause the player to cry and experience emotional growth. With such emotional involvement, the game's mentioned flaws are negligable and do not detract.

Five stars ... with qualifications

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 17
Date: August 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Uru: The Path of the Shell (PotS) rates five stars. Its graphics & sounds are extraordinary; its puzzles are outstanding.

This is a surprising situation where the expansion packs, To D'ni and PotS, exceed the game itself, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst (Uru Prime).

Unlike Uru Prime, neither To D'ni nor PotS is loaded with annoying jump puzzles. Both expansion packs return to the puzzle style of Myst, Riven and Exile.

The qualifications are:

1) PotS contains a logic error. It's possible to complete PotS and skip the Ahnonay and Er'cana Ages altogether.

2) Ubi Soft recommends having the most up-to-date video and sound drivers, I strongly recommend updating all drivers PRIOR to installing Uru.

I did update drivers first, but played Uru long enough where nVidia issued an additional driver update which was immediately installed. After that, Uru would hang at startup with a 'Querying graphics system' message.

The only solution was to remove Uru and reinstall it.

(When reinstalling Uru, first backup your sav, KIimages and MyMusic folders, their default location:

C:\Program Files\Ubi Soft\Cyan Worlds\Uru - Ages Beyond Myst

Then restore them after reinstallation.)

Hope no one else has this problem. It was irritating and almost cost PotS one of its stars.

The End of the Journey... for now

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: July 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

My only complaint about the Path of the Shell is that it is, apparently, the last installment in the Uru series. Uru was a great and daring departure from the Myst standard, but it was a wonderful experience and had virtually unlimited potential.

As an expansion pack, Path of the Shell compliments the original Ages Beyond Myst in many ways. It expands the story, opens up broad new areas to explore, contains new information about the D'ni, and offers several very challenging puzzles.

While these puzzles were certainly difficult, I preferred them to some of the more "physical" puzzles of Ages Beyond Myst which required occasionally frustrating manipulations of inanimate objects.

Path of the Shell was a bit more cerebral and in some places a bit more abstract. I found this gratifying, but it may necissitate the use of a hint guide. To that end, Prima has just published a very good one for Uru: Complete Chronicles.

Path of the Shell also continued the fine Myst tradition of beautiful and surreal environments.

As I said before, in the end, the only complaint I have is that there will not be more. As a stand alone addition to the Uru mythology Path of the Shell is fantastic, but as a conclusion to the story it leaves many questions unanswered and left me, personally, wanting to see more of Uru! But as they say... perhaps the end has not yet been written. We can hope!

Fun but Overly Difficult

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: July 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

It's tough to pick on the Myst team(s) for making a game that is too difficult...that's always been the appeal of Myst to me. However, the main puzzles in this game, while fun to play, are not likely solvable by most logic-puzzle gamers. The solutions are not very intuitive, and there are often few if any clues leading to the solution. Without spoiling anything, let me just say that you need to be patient...VERY patient...not just with yourself but with the puzzles themselves (i.e., be prepared to do nothing at times). I don';t know how I could have gotten through this game without looking at a walkthrough for at least 4 of the key puzzle solutions. A mediocre effort by UbiSoft. Hopefully, Myst IV will be better.

The Path of the Shell - Expansion Pack for Uru

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: July 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

For those gamers who played Uru, this is a continuation with the same equipment requirements. Don't bother if your computer won't handle it.

For those who do have the minimum requirement plus, the mind bending continues. It's beautiful, thoughtful, and full of fantastic music.

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