Under-rated, Innovative and misunderstood. Poor Azurik....
Basically Azurik was supposed to be some kind of platformer/adventure game. This was not the case, what we have here is a puzzle of massive and Myst-type complexity, combined with avatar-based play which incorporates elements from role-playing and arcade style combat games.
The complexity and scale of the world itself remains unmatched. While the GTA series and various imitators have the scale down, the virtual worlds are not so complex or intriguing.
The development curve of the characters abilities in Azurik is very slow, with powers being introduced rather slowly. Combat is a bit to difficult to just stand your grond and hack away also. Tactic running and stealth are important!
The atmosphere of the game is kind of spooky, especially the water worlds.
Now this game recieved almost universal negative reviews from crybabys who don't like hard games, or from people who didn't even try to play the game properly before dismissing it as simplistic (the first level of the puzzle is very easy, anyone who claims any other part of the game is easy is obviously a genius).
Of course this game is not for everyone, but it remains an import contribution to the field of adventure gaming (in many ways it anticipates games like Knights of the Old Republic), and also an interesting game in its own right which is very difficult and a lot of fun (but also frustrating).
This is a game that is about PLAY (that is experimentation and exploration), anyone who wants to told a story which is interupted by interactive sequences (e.g. Final Fantasy) will be disappointed. The character Azurik is a vessel through which the player explores and solves the puzzle of this huge virtual world in crisis.