Fun for a one time play, but not comparable to any Myst game
User Rating: 5.3 | Aura: Fate of the Ages PC
Aura: Fate of the Ages is a game made up of beautiful graphics, some interesting puzzles, and not much else. Aura is an exploration/puzzle game in the same vein as the Myst series. I would like to give you the details of the plot, but the plot was so insignificant that I can’t remember the details. You play a young student chosen to collect the sacred rings and items throughout the lands to keep them safe from the hands of an invading enemy force. After this small revelation, the plot is never expanded upon, and until the very end of the game, it never develops either. You continually find yourself in a new area with no explanation of what you are looking for and you must use trial and error to try and figure out what to do next. The areas that you are given to explore are graphically stunning. The creators used some very nice drawings and very beautiful backgrounds to bring Aura to life. And sprinkled over this beautiful backdrop are a variety of puzzles (most of them graphical in nature) to be solved. The puzzles while intriguing, lack definition beyond being a puzzle for the user to solve. I found myself attempting to solve puzzles, not because I knew what I was trying to achieve, but because there was nowhere else to go and I hoped the solution would somehow allow me to advance. Very seldom did I know before the puzzle was completed what benefit I would gain by solving that particular puzzle. Aura also fell into a trap that until now the Myst series has been able to avoid, contact with other characters. There are many people that you will speak to as you travel through the land of Aura, many of whom will ask you to perform tasks for them, or give you some information. Unfortunately the characters come off as being very unrealistic as none of them will tell you how to do anything. For example one character wants to help you so he tells you that you must change the Seed of Life into the Sands of Stars, and he tells you that you need to use the machines in his house to do it, but then he tells you to figure out how to do it on your own. This makes absolutely no sense because we are never given a valid reason why he would not help you by describing the process. On the whole, as a devout Myst fan, I found this game to be lacking in many ways, including length. While it was a nice diversion between Myst releases I do not believe I would play this game again. 
