Myst Uru: The Path of the Shell Expansion Pack

List Price: $19.99 Discount Price: $7.00

Features:

• Included new Ages and areas to explore.
• Boasts 18 new mind-bending puzzles to solve.
• Offers explorers new clothing options, including reward clothing.
• 8 new player journals with editing functions.
• 5 all-new Relto customization options.

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful but annoying [Posted on 2004-09-29]
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.

It's not a game, it's clickable art [Posted on 2004-10-13]
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.

At last - Genius! [Posted on 2004-12-07]
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!

I enjoyed it [Posted on 2005-01-11]
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!

Myst Uru: The path of the shell Expansion pack [Posted on 2007-05-18]
A good add on for the Myst game. The Larghe's

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