Video games - Uru: Ages Beyond Myst

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	Video games - Uru: Ages Beyond Myst

Uru: Ages Beyond Myst is a computer game developed by Cyan Worlds and published by Ubisoft available on a single CD-ROM, featuring several diverse D'ni Ages designed in the style of the Myst game series. Although Uru and the Myst series share the theme of the D'ni civilization and culture, Uru takes place in the present time. Unlike previous games, where you play the role of a stranger who lived 200 years ago, in Uru you actually play yourself. The gameplay is more sophisticated than in previous Myst games, and the graphics are now in real-time 3D (cf. realMyst) rather than being pre-rendered stills.

Development

Codenamed "DIRT" ("D'ni in real time"), then "MUDPIE" (meaning "Multi-User DIRT, Persistent / Personal Interactive Entertainment / Experience / Exploration / Environment") or "Parable", and later "Myst Online", Uru takes its players to "The Cleft," Atrus's childhood home in New Mexico, and invites them to "take the journey" to D'ni, and help the D'ni Restoration Council (DRC) rediscover the ancient civilization and its remains. As planned, Uru would not only feature a complete offline game ("Uru Prime"), but also an online component ("Uru Live") that would be constantly expanded. Alas, Uru Live was cancelled shortly before it would have been launched, although it survives in part as Untìl Uru.

Uru uses version 2 of the engine used in realMyst, known as Plasma. Cyan purchased this engine as part of the acqusition of Headspin, but the version in Uru is much more advanced than the one in realMyst. Plasma renders almost all objects on the screen, including most of the terrains and the avatars (which made it essential for Uru Live). In addition, Uru makes use of the Havok physics engine. Its use is especially noticeable when moving around objects on the floor, such as stones or pieces of wood. The use of the Havok engine apparently made it impossible to port Uru to the Macintosh platform, as Havok is currently not available for that system.

Inspiration

According to the creators, Uru was inspired by Snow Crash, a book by Neal Stephenson that featured a virtual reality-based successor to the Internet. This does not refer to the story or content of the game (which is deeply rooted in the D'ni/Myst universe), but rather the format of the multiplayer environment, Uru Live.

Gameplay

Puzzles remain a main theme in Uru. Uru Prime's puzzles are solvable by a single person, but Uru Live subscribers were able to solve the Uru Prime puzzles with others. Also, a few Uru Live-only puzzles required multiple persons to solve.

Uru Prime

The story line to be played "out-of-the-box" is usually referred to as "Prime", and is usually played in single-player mode. In it, the player arrives near the Cleft, an earth gap next to a volcano. In front of the Cleft, a man who introduces himself as Zandi sits in front of his trailer, encouraging to you to discover the environment and to "join the exploration". Later, you stumble upon a hologram of Yeesha, Atrus' daughter, whose speech remains unclear throughout most of the Prime story, until she re-appears once you have travelled through various Ages, solving their puzzles. At the end, however, you are left uncertain whether you should have trusted Yeesha at all, or if she has actually abused your work for her own goals.

Uru Live

Uru Live was taken offline due to a lack of subscribers in early 2004. Cyan Worlds founder Rand Miller made the announcement to the Myst community on behalf of Ubi Soft and Cyan Worlds on February 4, 2004.

From the features it was meant to end up having, several — such as voice chat with fellow explorers or jointly-solved puzzles in new Ages — never saw the light of day in the public version, as the failure had already became apparent in the last of the several more or less public test runs, which took off much slower than planned in late November 2003.

Probably due to the preceding Ubisoft-run beta test from January to October 2003, the Uru Live idea created a significant following, causing many web sites to be launched, most of which are still very active trying in various manners to preserve what, in their eyes, made Uru Live unique and great.

Uru Expansion packs

Instead, two expansion packs for the Prime game were made: Uru: To D'ni, which mostly introduces the (formerly) online content to those who never had a chance to join Uru Live, thus focusing mostly on the City of D'ni, and Uru: The Path of the Shell, which extends the story of Prime and consists of multiple Ages that had not been seen before.

Uru: To D'ni

To D'ni tried to fill the gap created by the Uru Live's end by giving players — especially those who didn't manage to finish Live's content — access to the Ae'gura, Bevin, and Kirel neighborhoods, and the Great Zero which was used in much the same fashion as a GPS receiver when in the D'ni cavern. The story of To D'ni was very limited, although it featured some fan treats, like the many report notebooks about the kings of D'ni, and also journals by Douglas Sharper and Dr. Watson, in an attempt to finish off the idea of the D'ni Restoration Council.

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