Aura: Fate of the Ages Review

Aura: Fate of the Ages is an adventure following the genre established by Myst back in 1993. Myst revolutionized video games and soon became a legend. To date, it has sold roughly 10 million copies on all platforms. It was followed by a couple more or less successful sequels and copycats, none of which achieved the popularity of the original. The latest game using this Myst-like engine is Aura: Fate of the Ages.

This really just looks like a giant pinball machine.

And these would be jet engines?

Your tour guide through the worlds of Aura is a young apprentice of the Keeper of the Rings clan, Umang. The rings possess immense power and the ring-keepers use them to traverse worlds and even create new ones. According to a legend, he who unites the rings with certain artifacts from the parallel worlds will gain ultimate power and immortality. This is why the Keepers of the Rings ensure that they never fall into wrong hands. Umang will travel through different worlds seeking to find artifacts in order to prevent Durad, the main villain, from using them.

Aura will take you through several worlds, each with their own unique scenery and challenges. One such world is Ademika, a lush valley surrounded by mountains, where the story is opened to you and your quest will begin. There are several other worlds, such as Dragast, the mechanical world. The snow covered mountains of Dragast are the home of Armagast, one of the leaders of your clan. The esoteric world of Na-Tiexu is the counterpart to Dragast. It contains four regions: the region of spirit, the region of magic, the region of children and the region of astronomy and alchemy, each completely different from the others. The worlds will open as the story continues, and each is more strange and beautiful than the last.

Each world features specific surroundings, structures and problems. Fortunately, most puzzles you encounter are connected only to the world you are currently in, which makes the game a bit easier. Typically, once you complete a world, you can no longer go return to it. The game will pose difficult puzzles from the very start, and you better prepare to face all sorts of difficult brainteasers. All puzzles I ever saw in a game in this genre, found their way to this title. The types of puzzles vary, for example, some will require manipulating items, memory puzzles, and even sound-based puzzles... fortunately Umang keeps a diary, which can be used as some sort of a hint-system. Notes on each complex puzzle will be jotted down in Umang's journal, and the hints provided will help you solve the puzzles and move on.

The story itself is of little importance for the game, and serves only as an excuse for introducing the puzzles. You will have all the time in the world to solve each puzzle, and nothing is really waiting in the wings to thwart your progress. Besides the few characters in the game and the very limited conversation possibilities, the game has an air of loneliness and solitude about it. The puzzles are very difficult, but also quite logical (for the most part), which tests the players' nerves and stretches the limits of the player's frustrations. (So what else is new? - Ed) It is a refreshing change that the game doesn't rely on ludicrous solutions to make things more difficult. Still, some puzzles are exceptionally hard to solve, and will require you to understand how certain systems function to be able to solve them.

But even though most puzzles make sense, some of the brainteasers, despite all my best efforts to make sense out of them, still seemed somewhat obscure. These puzzles could simply be solved by clicking on something, without actually realizing what you just did. There are also several points in the game in which it is hard to realize what is actually expected of you, i.e. how to use a certain machine or where to find certain items. This is why you should carefully watch every scene in order not to miss anything.

The game is visually brilliant. The engine was developed by Steko Graphics and the items were animated using the Maya software. The worlds of Aura have perfectly been pictured. The beautiful sceneries of Ademika, Dragast and Na-Tiexu are really a sight to behold. The only thing missing is a bit more dynamics on the fairly static backgrounds. The video sequences are highly commendable and will only keep pushing you further through the game. Each puzzle solved will trigger a shorter or longer animated sequence, which makes you feel you did accomplish something.

Ooh... nice contraption!

We use this to tell the weather.

The game features a first-person-view with the option to rotate the camera freely: the cursor is in the center of the screen and changes shape depending on the item it is positioned above. You move from one location to another by clicking on exits marked on the screen. There is generally no transition between two locations, except if you enter a location that triggers a FMV sequence. So overall, a pretty cut and dry Myst-like setup, no doubt about it.

Sound effects are very good, and the background music perfectly becomes the game and substantially improves the atmosphere. The little voice-acting you can hear is quite mediocre.

NPC interaction really comes down to clicking the NPC and then watching the dialogue cinematic, which tells you what you are supposed to do. When you have nothing to talk about with an NPC, you will not be able to start the conversation.

The inventory is opened with right-clicking the mouse. Items in the inventory cannot be combined; you can only use them on on-screen objects.

Through the course of this game, be sure to have a pen and paper by your side, as there is no other way you could remember all the important symbols and drawings you find.

With its $20 price tag, Aura is a fairly cheap adventure game. Some more difficult puzzles are likely to turn less experienced players away, but the game was not really meant for them anyway. The players who are ready to invest a lot of time into this title will be rewarded by discovering a beautiful world. The game is supposed to be the first of a trilogy, so we will hopefully soon return to Umang and the Rings...