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This could redefine the meaning of "expansion pack"

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 21 / 22
Date: July 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

------ Puzzles and Gameplay ------
They blend in with their surroundings; they stare you in the face, and yet remain invisible. They are VERY DIFFICULT. Some are downright unconventional, things you would never expect to have to do in a game, but if thrown a similar situation in real life - make sense. This game deals with time in more realistic ways than other games; things do not happen instantaneously in real life. I might add that it also deals with time in very fantastical ways, so you never quite know what to expect. Unless you're a really good problem solver, Path of the Shell should take you several days at the least to complete, without using a walkthrough or a hint guide. Overall, these puzzles are a pleasant return to the way things were in previous Myst games... really deviously designed, i.e. the concept was brilliant, and they make logical sense if you truly sit down and think about them.

Pro: There are few places where you will have to worry about falling off a ledge, which got very frustrating in the original Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. It's more mental this time through.

Con: Some of the puzzles require a lot of linking back and forth, some take a lot of time, and others are really, REALLY subtle. It could be your twentieth time visiting an Age before you realize: "Oh, hey, that actually does something."

------ Books ------
Reading is actually a feature of this game that I enjoy. Not many games out there require you to use so many different parts of your brain. Not only does it provide a lot of depth to the universe of Uru, with background information, but it also serves as a completely undetectable method of providing solutions to puzzles. The writings just add a lot of realism to the Myst games. Another nice addition to Path of the Shell is the editable player journal, which allows you to make notes or write about anything you wish. It's very useful, when you don't have the real thing next to your computer. But I'm pretty sure you're still going to want paper and pencil while playing this game.

Pro: So much background information in all these books, it could be compiled into a serious hardback copy. Having the texts available to you is better than not having them at all.

Con: So much background information in all these books, it could be compiled into a serious hardback copy. You'll also thank and curse yourself for ever learning how to count numbers.

------ Graphics ------
One of the other nice things about Uru, is that you are able to adjust the display settings so that it runs smoothly on your system. In fact, it does this automatically for you. Now, if you happen to have a very high-end system, you'll be able to turn up all the slider bars to Ultra High Quality modes, and believe me - everything looks gorgeous. Especially the water. I've also run the game with the lowest graphics settings possible, and there's still so much attention to detail in the modeling, that it still looks nice. They even took the time to animate water droplets landing on a glass window.

Pro: They were pretty insane graphics for an online MMORPG (Uru Live, recently terminated), and now you get everything back without the lag!

Con: Set the quality too high for your system, and your game might crash.

------ Sound and Music ------
Even with just stereo headphones, things will pan from side to side as you move around. The natural ambience of the environments, and the sounds of various mechanisms breathe life into the worlds of Uru. You will hear the difference between walking through a pool of water, and jumping in it. Really immersive, no matter what sound system you have. The music is also very diverse from world to world, and very carefully placed. There is a beautiful singing voice in one of the songs, which you will not want to miss. =)

Pro: So much sound design, it's almost ridiculous.

Con: Sometimes it's really noisy.

------ Overall Impressions ------
This expansion pack is extremely worth the $20 you pay for it. Technically, it's 2 expansion packs: To D'ni and Path of the Shell. Not only will it provide you with hours and hours of brain-straining puzzles, the puzzles will provide you with a great sense of accomplishment once you figure them out. One of the worlds seems like an homage to Riven, visually, as it shares some of the same combinations of metal, water, and dry land. If you've only played Myst, this game will still have its nostalgic moments. Trust me. The Path of the Shell makes up for the flaws in the original Uru, although, we'll still have to live with the challenges of navigating in real-time 3D... and it almost makes up for the cancellation of Uru Live, too.

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.

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.

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!

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!

The good, the bad, and the just plain stupid

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: July 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Path of the Shell is a multi-faceted expansion pack - It packs in a total of six new areas, although three of these areas are of any decent size, the other three are small, and two of those are familiar with MYST fans already. I won't get into too much detail about some of the areas, to prevent spoiling those of you interested in this pack.

Let's start with Ahnonay. Ahnonay was quite the interesting age - a bit of it had been shown via screenshots prior to the release, but the rest of it was indeed a surprise.

Ahnonay is lovely, although it is most certainly the most challenging and possibly annoying of all the new areas in the pack. ALOT of linking back and forth to Relto, and another area is required to solve it, and although the idea behind this world is unique and interesting, it seems like overkill after you've visited it a few times.

Beginners with Ahnonay will likely be as confused as I was - "What do I do here?" - With the age covered in water, a tower offshore, islands in the distance, and a strong current that seems bent on keeping you from reaching any of those destinations, you may initially feel perplexed as to how you are to do anything.

While Ahnonay is unique, it is also very complex and interesting, and will twist your brain into a pretzel while you try to figure out what is going on.

My advice is to pop in, check out the local wildlife - play with them a bit, then link back to Relto, and come back into Ahnonay via the way you came in the first time - You will notice a big difference - Try this again a few times - when you come back to the world as you first knew it, things might make a bit more sense.

However, I found this age nearly impossible to figure out without consulting hint guides and eventually a walkthrough.
The method of solving this age is so complex, I doubt that I'd have ever figured it out without having a guide to help me.

Let's move on to Er'cana.
Er'cana is reminiscent of your first experience of URU - You arrive in a dusty location, and have to do a bit of walking to get things started.

Er'cana is much easier to figure out than Ahnonay is - well, at first. :)

Er'cana is also the most beautiful age included in PoTS, in my opinion - Be sure to check out the view from the top!

Now, about the other areas - the smaller ones - The first of those is the Watcher's Sanctuary.

You begin your journey in PoTS here, where you will find books linking to the Ahnonay Cathedral (which harkens back to Kadish's gallery in it's decor), which will lead you to Ahnonay, Another book which leads to Er'cana, and a journal left by a DRC member, outlining some facts about the Watcher, and the areas you are about to visit.

Upstairs, there is another room - containing some interesting stuff - but save that room untill you have explored Er'cana and Ahnonay.

Point blank - Path of the Shell is an interesting addition to the small canon that URU has, however, the chief complaints that may players and fans have is the waiting times in the game. With nearly an hour of waiting involved in solving some of the puzzles - This pack was sort of a let-down for myself.

I reccomend checking out this pack. It's slated to be the last one, unless sales show a big enough interest in the developement of further xpacks - so it's worth having, and playing.

Final thoughts:

This pack might have been worth the 20 bucks I paid for it - but for some issues with some of the puzzles, and the complexity of others. Cyan has made some beautiful ages in this pack!

My vote: 6 out of 10.

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.

The Good Ole Days are back!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 12
Date: June 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

If you loved Riven you will definitely enjoy The Path of the Shell. This expansion for Uru captures that Age-wide puzzle feel we've not seen as much in recent years. To say the puzzles are difficult is an understatement, but to say it's rewarding is, too! I was thrilled to see the new Ages, their huge scope and well-integrated clues. This is a must not only for Uru fans but Myst fans who will feel a real sense of "full circle". Ages Beyond Myst talked of the past; To D'ni explained the present. The Path of the Shell alludes to the future and I can't wait to see what Cyan gives us next! :)

Cyan is back!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: June 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Excellent expansion pack. A treat for anyone who likes challenging, but reasonable puzzles. New types of puzzles that you haven't seen before in a Myst/Uru game, fantastic Relto pages to customize your personal world and lots of new places to explore. Really takes the Myst series back to its roots in terms of quality and quantity of gameplay.

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.

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