Yes definitely Crowthistle worth the buy. You can read the book if you enjoy fantasy reading as well.
The CD contains a "game" sort of. You can visit the realms depicted in the book. There's not much to do apart going: Aww Oww Wow. On the CD you stay in 1st pers mode and you can go freely (I think...) just like Myst 5 EoA. Imported on URU, it is really awesome because you can go in 3rd pers mode too. The only con is that the animated objects (I won't spoil the discovery) are inanimated. I think, Sirius, talked about this issue or did something about it which would enable their movements, look for one of his topics on this forum.
Those 2 ages are at the quality level of the Myst 5 EoA's ages. Maybe Rowan Green wouldn't be easy to integrate in Myst/URU Storyline but nevertheless, the village is very charming, but definitely The Great Marsh, minus the animated objects (more on the Fantasy side), could easily be integrated in the storyline without "looking too odd"
@ Acorn: you did a great buy.
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Deledrius wrote:Hex Isle is a fun little platformer puzzle game. It's pretty impressive and solid, IMO. Of course, playing it inside of Uru will not be a very good experience. Uru's controls are horrid for it, and the engine doesn't support some of the nice graphical enhancements they added to Hex Isle. It's essentially a 3D lights-out type game, with a few twists. If you're into that sort of gameplay, it's great. If you're not, you won't find much else in it.
Deledrius is right:
Hex Isles is a great game in itself. I might have sounded completely negative toward that game but my intend was only to point out the flaws when integrated into URU. It's true, it's not a game type that I like, I did some levels and got tired, but I cannot destroy a game in a review only because I don't like it. It has its aim-targetted public, might it be kids or grown ups with kid hearts which is fine, but definitely stay away from that game IF it is only to convert it to URU.