Aura: Fate of the Ages

Additional Screenshots

Aura: Fate of the Ages is yet another point and click adventure from The Adventure Company. If you like this genre, you can't be expecting much from the newly released games. A lot of them overuse interfaces, repeat boring storylines, and are just plain dull. Aura has a really stupid storyline, a few hair-tearing issues, and some incredibly retarded puzzles. What does it do right? It looks amazing.

Storyline... Or lack there of?

I do not want to get too in depth here with the Aura storyline, as there really is none, and if you want to count the first page of the manual as a storyline… well then you are just a sad person. You play as a student, a low down good for nothing apprentice of some type. Legend has it that there exists a set of rings that can allow you to travel back and forth between worlds. There are four different worlds, excuse me, “parallel universes” in Aura. You must “lose yourself in this fantastic and rich adventure” in order to uncover the secrets of the rings, so one day, maybe YOU can gain immense power and immortality!!! Phew… allow me to take a breath from that MIND BLOWING STORYLINE.

The Worlds of Aura

For laughter's sake, I will name you the four worlds in Aura: The Ademika Valley, Dragast, Na-Tiexu, and Unity. Beats me what they all mean… To Aura's defense, I will admit that each world looks completely different and unique. Ademika is a lush forest type of area… complete with all of the little puzzles you adventure people love so much. Dragast is all about mountains and snow… Na-Tiexu looks more spacey… like a black night with stars, universe and astronomy type of thing. Very nice. The Island of Unity… is well an island. There are some great water graphics here, as well as some hair-tearing puzzles. Each world is very diverse… never did I feel like I was in the same place. The amazing amount of salient details put into each level is also astounding. I was shocked at how nice shadows looked, as well as dynamic lighting effects. Ademika had tons of color in it, another nice effect. I think I enjoyed Na-Tiexu the best, as it was really cool to see all the universe scenery. This is what makes Aura differ from the rest of the adventure games out there; it really looks nice.

Puzzles in Aura

But looking nice isn't everything. As you go on your journey to find out the secret of the rings, you will come across a lot of puzzles. A lot of puzzles. Some of the puzzles you will encounter are rather simple… like just having to press a series of buttons in the correct order. Others are not as easy. Some puzzles will have to be figured out during the entire course of your stay at a world. You will have to go through a million little steps in order to reach the big puzzle, only to look at your screen and cry out in disgust, “WTF!?” If you ever truly do get that stuck, there are countless walkthroughs on the internet that you can use as a reference to get you through the level. But come on, you know how walkthroughs are… are you really going to sit there and reference back and forth between the game and the guide? Some people can do this without a problem, while others may find it to be a hassle. But then again, some people may find these puzzles to be no big deal… that all depends on your previous experience with adventure games.

The Movement Interface

One of the stupidest things (aside from the plot) that Aura features is it's movement interface. You cannot see yourself… and you can't use the directional keys or WSAD to move. Instead, you must rely on your mouse. You can rotate your view by moving the mouse, but the only way you can move if the directional cursor is active. You cannot just walk wherever you want. Instead, you must be allowed to move somewhere by the game. When there is an action you can perform, the cursor will light up a bright green. I would have much rather preferred being able to just MOVE in Aura instead of using this stupid directional cursor interface.

Where has all the multiplayer gone?

Like pretty much all adventure games, Aura comes with no multiplayer. But then again, I guess we were all getting used to that by now…

Overall

To sum it all up, Aura is one adventure game that looks amazing. I would've preferred a different movement interface as well as storyline, but…