Myst IV: Revelation

This is the best in the series that isn't made by Robyn and Rand Miller. Not saying much, I know. But This is a great game, despite not being a bona fide classic. Also... Peter Gabriel moment is awesome.

There's a DLL that needs to be downloaded to make this not conflict with drivers called Indirect Input; it's in the GOG help for this. The game itself is well made visually and story-wise. The puzzles often make little story sense; but it's not out of wack with the series as a whole for the characters to acheive things in an extremely overly complicated and unnecesary way. However, you feel it a lot more in this particular game. Sirrus was trapped alone; why did he put a gate with a latch from the inside? Who was he keeping out? Did he really need to build an unravelling spinning breadbox cover over his controls instead of spending that time making his controls less obtuse? Did he try ballasting his floating rocks with non-floating rocks before controlling them with vibrating electrical crystal power to keep them at the right level? These are all questions you shouldn't ask. That said; still an enjoyable game and well crafted story.

Didn't realise this was just mostly slides rather than full 3D. My fault. Still, it's impenetrable to me. Using a detailed guide to do the simplest of things. And it's SO DARK! I have played with the graphics but so many of the things I need to interact with are almost impossible to see. I certainly would not have spotted much at all without the guide.

I just got done replaying both Myst III and IV on GOG. I've played Myst and Riven a few times over the years, but this was my first time playing Exile and Revelation in about 10 years (my, how time flies!). Although I enjoyed Revelation a little more than I did on my first play, where I completely gave up in Serenia, I still believe it's not as good as the three Mysts which preceded it. The graphics of Revelation are great, and there are some cool landmarks in Spire and Haven. But what's the point of having good graphics if there's an annoying lag time between screens? Watching some playthroughs of Revelation on YouTube, it seems like this a problem on ALL computer systems, and reducing the resolution or rendered effects doesn't make it go away. One of the things that made Exile satisfying on my recent playthrough is that the puzzles were challenging at times, but not impossibly difficult. I got through the whole game except Amateria without a walkthrough. I cannot fathom how anyone could get through Revelation without "cheating." The puzzles, the contraptions in Spire being a good example, often have vague to nonexistent clues, not to mention, the environments are disorienting. I linked to Haven first and was already stumped by Achenar's gate lock, thinking there was a clue to solve it somewhere, when the player is just supposed to "wing it." I actually don't mind Revelation retconning the Red and Blue Books from Myst. A far more aggravating plothole to me is how Sirrus was able to build all of those aforementoned contraptions in Spire. Even if Sirrus was a technological genius, and happened to have a soldering gun on him when he got trapped, they seem impossibly complex. And where did all of the metal come from? Another issue is that the acting in Revelation is just dreadful - a far cry from John Keston as Gehn, and Brad Dourif as Saveedro. The music is good, but the choice to use a Peter Gabriel song in the infamous Dream sequence of Serenia is just bizzare.

Super game, haven't played it in a long time!