Commonplace

Uru

Cyan Worlds, Ubisoft

Covering “Uru: Complete Chronicles” (which is “Ages Beyond Myst”, “To D'ni” and “Path of the Shell”) and “Myst Online: Uru Live.”

What a weird ambitious experiment, that took a while to find its footing. The multiplayer puzzle-solving was never that great, but this game went way deep into the lore of the Myst universe and gave players more opportunity to participate. A fairly happy and helpful community built up around this.

As for puzzles, the original release is fine, and “To D'ni” is basically just an easter egg hunt, but “Path of the Shell” contains some of my favorite puzzles in the series. Its central puzzle has very vague hints spread throughout the game, pushing the player to a logical leap and an action they've probably never (intentionally) done in a videogame before. Another makes the player stretch to build up a mental model of the world that includes a type of “magic” that shouldn't be present in the Myst universe, then subverts that model with a wild reveal only available after the player really starts pushing the boundaries of the playspace. It's a great example of puzzles taking place mostly in the mind of the player, and also of using the technical limitations of the game to its own advantage. I wish I could make a stronger recommendation about this for the late-game content, but most people won't want to push through the first two chapters to get there.