Myst IV: Revelation

I did not care much vor the story in Myst III as it seemed to be a weird spin-off and the antagonist was silly. Here, the story is fine, it's even good, well presented and in line with Atrus broken family affairs from Myst and Riven. I liked the ending especially, it made up for many things I hated in the game. However, many of the puzzles are really, really bad. Many of them are hard for all the wrong reasons, like imprecise controls (including a bug that made my cursor jump around every so often, making the first Dream almost unsolvable) and bad visuals - for example pink and violet are apparently the same colour in the world of Myst IV. There are also timed puzzles that are infuriating to solve even when you know exactly what to do and way to many riddles that feel like cheap minigames. I also think that the graphics in general are not up to the other games. Ok, Myst I has aged badly, but Riven and even Myst III have not. Here however, most of the environments are bland and boring, with Tohmana being the only exeption - and that was allready partly established in Myst III. It's also by far the slowest Myst game to play. Even on a modern PC the screens take more than two seconds to change and the imprecise and laggy animations of the hand cursor can drive you insane. I also hated the music in Serenia since it was too prominent, too loud, and I had to mute it. The rest, with the exeption of that Peter Gabriel song, is fine, as always. Well, what is there to say. It's somewhat on par to Myst III, though it makes completely different mistakes.

I played Myst as a child and recently decided to finish all of them after playing Riven last year. Well, I ended playing Uru after 3, and wow... 4 was so impressive after that rusty can of a "game." The graphics and music alone make the game 5 stars, despite some bad puzzles and that terrible song you have to listen to. If you just love the Myst mythology and are playing in 2020, use a guide and just play through whatever you feel like and skip thinking about other puzzles. Some are really dumb and from 2 on, would never find some of the pathways/stairs/buttons without a guide. I recommend the fisicx.com ones for all of the games, you'll enjoy them so much more with a little insight and not having to dig through photos and notes and D'ni. Just fired up 5 and will miss the refined interface, really a pleasure to play this game, so far the best all around Myst experience, and to me, tied up the plot points I cared about in a respectable manner.

The first thing you will notice about this game is how sluggish it is. It's painfully slow. Otherwise, it feels like Myst, it plays like Myst, it must be Myst! And the first part of the game isn't too bad. But beware of The Spire... Actually, no, F*CK THE SPIRE! I am stuck, as of writing this review. And for the first time out of the four Myst games I've played, I am looking up a full solution, because I'm ready to rip my hair out. Some spoiler free context... Myst, Riven, and Exile each let you solve the game at your own pace, and none of the puzzles were meticuous or finicky. Each of those games gave you the information you needed, and it was up to you to figure out how to use that information. Bah-dah-bing, bah-dah-boom! The Spire doesn't provide much information at all, and this game as a whole conveniently neglects to inform you that many of your correct solutions will still be wrong because it wants you to solve its puzzles in its own way. It isn't enough you already did the legwork of getting the letters, words, or numbers, but you must also input this information in a specific order - for no real reason other than the developers said so. And it's all made much worse by the slow and sluggish controls I mentioned before. I hope the rest of the game gets better.

This game is the last in the Myst series which uses pre-rendered graphics, and Cyan did not disappoint in that regard. It has the same panoramic view as Myst III, but with better resolution, more and better animations and effects, and the ability to tap on any nearby surface. The sound track is excellent as always. All put together, Myst IV offers the most satisfying exploration experience yet. The story and puzzles are a bit underwhelming, which is why I don't give it a 6 out of 5, but the game has something unique to offer, and is well worth your time.

Finally got around to this chapter is the D'Ni saga. Even in 2020 it looks good; back on its original release date it must have been a marvel. Beautiful scenery and ever-challenging puzzles make for a great getaway from the real world. Nice to have a voice provided by Peter Gabriel (as well as "Curtains" (the B-Side for his song "Big Time") included in the soundtrack.