MystFan

I only recently finished playing Aura, and thought it to be an average Myst "clone" at best. I will give the developers credit for the graphics, as the worlds were beautiful and at least on par with Myst Exile and Riven. However, while playing thru the ages, I felt like they existed only for the puzzles and had no real sense of backstory like Riven; in fact, there was one area in one of the worlds that didn't seem to have a purpose or add anything to the story, other than taking an object needed for later on in the game. As for the puzzles, it was a mixed bag in my opinion; not just in terms of difficulty but also in terms what solving the puzzle does for your progress in the game. You do receive clues in the form of notes that are scattered around the ages and added to a journal when you either pick up a piece of paper or you observe a clue on a door, wall, etc. However, I sometimes found the drawings to be vague as far as telling you what needs to be done. In addition, there were a couple of puzzles that, based on a walkthrough I looked at, would have required such a leap in thinking that I probably would have never solved them unless I looked at a guide to begin with. Once I got to the ending of the story, it just kind of ended abruptly for me; there was one easy "puzzle", if you could call it that, and then the final scene was activated. Clearly the ending set up the sequel, Aura 2, but I haven't played that yet and not sure if I'm going to. Overall, I found the story and motivation for the character weak, but the ages were beautifully rendered.