Customer Reviews

Myst IV: Revelation (DVD-ROM)

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(32)

 

 

The latest Myst game is out. With Myst IV Revelation, you have TWO DVDs full of gaming information. This takes up 8 GIG on your hard drive for a full install. It is massive.

Yes, as you can imagine, the graphics are gorgeous. Birds fly over to the birdfeeder as you watch, and then flit off. The water ripples beneath you. The clouds drift by. The art nouveau architecture is simply gorgeous, and each world has its own culture. It is a visual feast.

The sounds are equally immersive. Peter Gabriel did some of the sound. The audio track not only draws you into the world, but also gives you clues, if you listen carefully to what sounds you are hearing in which locations.

But how is the *gameplay*? I am a huge, huge fan of the Myst series so I have to say, if you're patient, the game is really fun. But you can't expect to just zip through the game quickly. The point is to sit with a glass of wine, roaming around, clicking on things, exploring your world. There is a lot of trial and error before you discover what the next puzzle is - and then a lot of twiddling before you get the hang of it.

Unfortunately, the very first puzzle, of lining up audio wave signals, is REALLY annoying. The helper is trying to give you assistance but most of the time his comments strike you as quite intrusive. It's not a puzzle at all that will "make sense" to most people. I am actually an audio buff and my boyfriend is a musician who plays with audio files, and even so we found the controls and setup hard to work with. This would have been find as an end-game puzzle, but it is awful as the way to get people into the game in the first place. The other subsequent puzzles are much more enjoyable and logical.

I wanted to pick up all sorts of things, and got frustrated that I could see books and not read them. You could never tell which pieces of paper were readable and which were mysteriously glued to the table. The amulet that you pick up is fun, giving you visions and sounds to help you move the plot along. However it blinks pretty much ANY time you zoom in on things. Why not just have it show you the video automatically the first time, and let you click on it after that to replay the video? The constant click - zoom - click - amulet got a bit much. Especially when the video was on the meaningless side.

I really would have hoped that by now the game would be "fully motion" enabled. In the first myst, you in essence walked through paintings. You could only look at the screen and then click to go somewhere else. You couldn't turn and rotate. Through Myst II-IV we got more and more video, first as tiny integrations and then as full screens. But while we can "look around us" in Myst IV, you still have to click and wait to move your feet. Maybe Myst V will actually let you walk. It's that clicking that begins to wear on me, the click, wait, click, wait. The quick-hop ability to leap to certain spots does help, but I would rather be able to move seamlessly through my world.

That all being said, Myst IV is definitely a must-have for any puzzle lover. The graphics and sounds are gorgeous, and the puzzles are challenging and fun. I do have a walkthrough online but please do NOT use walkthroughs until you are really stuck. The point of this game is not to race through and be done. The point is to enjoy the world, to immerse yourself and to try, try, try and finally succed at the puzzle in front of you.

I so wanted to play this latest installment in the Myst series that I purchased the game even before it was released. I had heard it had demanding system requirements but I thought, hey, I've got a brand new P4 2.2GHz machine, wonderful Radeon 9800 video card and 1Gig of RAM. That the game shipped only on DVD seemed ideal: I have two DVD players, both top o' the line.

Imagine my surprise and disappointment when, after installing the game, Myst IV refused to recognize either of my DVD drives. I uninstalled, reinstalled, and still, no play. I'm getting frustrated and go out on the 'net and look at the support forums. I learn thousands of people were getting the same error. The only solution that seemed to apply to me? Ubi Support suggests I go out and buy "a cheap DVD player." There is no other solution provided (they have stock answers if you happen to run virtual drive software or have last year's graphic card, but for people like me, our curse is to have top-grade hardware).

Turns out, Ubi programmed the notoriously lame and always disruptive MacroVision anti-piracy software into the game. This anti-piracy software is famous for screwing up any program where the developers were dumb and lazy enough to use it. Ubi Support indicated that they knew full well that MacroVision would make Myst IV unplayable for a huge percentage of us who were foolish enough to purchase the game, who didn't have "cheap DVD players." In other words, Ubi designed Myst IV to be defective.

If the slide show you get to see while you are installing is any indication, then the thousands of us who wasted $40 on this drink-coaster-ware are really missing out on something good.

So, caveat emptor, fellow gamers. Try a friend's copy before forking out the clams for a game that likely won't run on your machine. Just ask the Ubi developers. They designed it that way.

By the way, bad copy protection software only keeps honest people out of the game. I wonder if lost sales due to defective design and bad press will be more significant than lost sales due to piracy...

For some reason, I love this game. It's a little odd, because while I was playing it I kept thinking "Why'd they do it like that? It should have been done this way". But there's no doubt that if you want your good old-fashinoned Myst weirdness -beautiful, interactive worlds with more cool gizmos than you can shake Jules Verne at - Revelation delivers in spades.
But first, a few warnings.
As you might expect, it being on DVD and everything, the amount of memory this game takes is HUGE. 3 gigs is a MINIMUM PC install. Full install is 8. Minimum gives you ridiculous screen-transition times, often over 3 seconds. This is a long time for gamers, and sometimes I'd look up a puzzle solution just to make sure I was on the right track so I wouldn't have to endure running back and forth to check a machine or find a symbol.
Second, you need a pretty good, new graphics card. The graphics are still pretty nice - okay, gorgeous - without a top-of-the-line card, but having some more depth perception would have been nice.
Thirdly, I found the acting quite disappointing. Everything sounds scripted. Longtime fans might remember a gibbering, drooling Achenar. The new one looks and sounds like a pirate. Granted, it's been 20 years since you've seen him, but I think research has shown that extended periods of solitary confinement cause more mental breakdowns than they correct.
Finally: during one really quite fantastic travel sequence to a magical spirit realm, they play a song with discernable lyrics. I'd have preferred it if they'd used the more unintelligible chanting in the rest of the game, but maybe that's just me.

Now, for the good bits: The world is even more interactive than before. One really cool addition is the ability to "tap" on almost anything. Doing so produces a very quiet sound that is more or less what you'd expect to hear if you tapped such an object: wood, metal, water, whatever. If tapping on something would reasonably cause a visible effect, that appears as well: water ripples, pans vibrate. Sometimes the effects are two way- touching fire or a powered circuit board makes your ghostly hand recoil, accompanied by a painful-sounding hiss or zap. There's more life than ever before: one world in particular has no less than five different kinds of more-or-less interactive creature, and you'll likely have some interesting encounters with each of them, whether it's being snubbed by fish-eating karnak or narrowly avoiding dismemberment by a hungry camoudile.
The puzzles, of course, are a central aspect of the game, and be thankful that there's a built-in guide. If you know someone who's puffed up on his own intelligence, get him this game. He'll be weeping within hours. Simply put, they're hard. Really hard. Of course, it didn't help that I had to wait 2-5 seconds between each screen. Had I possessed the resources, I'd have done a full install and maybe avoided looking for hints simply because I didn't want to waste more time and maybe risk my computer crashing from memory shortage by going back to check that symbol-covered panel AGAIN. Though you can take pictures of nearly anything and look at them at will, a weaker graphics card like mine puts visual garbage over the pictures and so lowers the usefulness of that feature. Keep pen and paper handy.

If you liked Myst, you'll probably like Revelation. If you didn't like Myst, why are you reading this?

The advanced "buzz" about this game is incredible and not just because it is a continuation of the uber-popular Myst adventure game series. At this year's E3 convention, the submitted graphic example from Myst IV won the "best in show" prize against submissions from all other genres of video games. Another indication of how good the game's "tech" will be is that it is being released on DVD only (DVD's holding roughly 6 or 7 CD's worth of data). Oh, and by the way, it won't be just one DVD, but THREE of them!

Apparently, one of the reasons for the bulk of the game is that there will be over one hour of DVD-quality video embedded into the game to help advance along the story. This is a bold step for the Myst series since all the the predessesor games had pretty limited in-game storylines. Other than an occasional journal or holographic snippet found along the way, you pretty much had to wait to the end of those games to watch the revealed resolution play out in video cut scenes.

In this story, we apparently get to witness just how dysfunctional Atrus' family really is. The bad boys from the first game, Sirrus and Achenar, are back in this chapter and play havoc with the serenity enjoyed by Atrus, his wife Catherine and their young daughter Yeesha.

Like Myst III - Exile, this game is not being developed directly by Cyan the makers of Myst, Riven and URU. Presto Studios, the maker of Exile, is no longer around, so the reins have been handed over to UbiSoft (in particular their Canadian branch) who was also a partner in the whole URU project. With the unfortunate demise of the ambitious URU Live internet project due primarily to financial reasons, I imagine both Cyan and UbiSoft are staking quite a lot on this next chapter.

If they can successfully blend the traditional mystique of the original games with a rich and immersive story like, say, Syberia, while blowing everyone away again with eye-popping graphics, then I think they will once again raise the bar of the adventure game genre (and quite possibly with PC video games in general). A bold claim, certainly, but one of which I think the pioneers of graphical adventure games are more than capable.

I loved the original Myst, despite many people swearing it was the downfall of video games. It was a beautiful, one of a kind, slow paced mystery. The puzzles were tough, but they always related to their environment and rarely felt forced. Since then I have not really enjoyed the other Myst games. I mildly enjoyed Riven, got too bored with Exile to continue, and have yet to give Uru a chance.

However Myst 4 has captured me. The world is beautiful. I have a lower end system by todays standard (P3 833, 312 Ram, GeForce 4 64 meg, Sound Blaster Live! sound card). The game runs well on my computer, and I only encounter slight slowdowns when in outdoor environments with running water and many effects.

The developers incorporated the video sequences in this game in such a way that its captivating. Live actors will be talking or performing tasks in the game world while you can walk around them, turn your view with them still in view, etc. It really makes the world feel real.

The effects are incredible.. rolling clouds and fog, the lightening and darkening of everything around you as the sun ducks behind clouds. This game is beautiful.

The puzzles make sense, but are extremely difficult at points. Some are frustratingly difficult, but there are those who will enjoy this.

Overall this game is brilliant. The atmosphere it creates is rarely seen these days, and the slow pace is a welcome change to those looking to merely get absorbed by a world while playing detective.

Hey folks, I got a real reply from Ubisoft support:

Response (JASON) - 02/07/2005 11:53 AM
The game is not supported for use with dvd-rw drives because of the copy protection on the game.

:-(
We managed to load the game over our home network by mapping an older dvd drive on another computer, and installing from there. Unfortunately, the game still crashes/hangs frequently, so there must be something in the gameplay software that still interferes.

I got most of the way through this game before giving up on it. I had no trouble installing it, and loved the beautiful graphics and sounds (much better than Uru). But, after a while, I realized that the puzzles were just no fun. Too many of them involved getting the timing right and persnickity mouse movements (I quit the game after a couple of hours of trying to carry a bubble to an elemental guide who might or might not be present). Others were so clever that only after you solved them could you figure out the clues that should have helped you. And, I don't even want to talk about the small, blurry, cursive alien language writing recognition problem in Yeesha's bookshelf). There's also my dissatisfaction with the finales on the two "prison" worlds. Basically, you solve everything, get an animated ride, and then wonder what that was all about. After the first one, I actually had to visit a hint site to confirm that I'd done everything and it was time to move on. It's not at the level of the original Myst's ending, but it's on the same path. To my shame, I even had problems with the lack of direction in the game. Essentially, at every stage, you have a mind-numbing number of alternative paths with no guidance on which you should do first. I also had trouble keeping track of where I was, physically, in the worlds: Tomahna and Spire were OK, but Haven (vague, twisty paths in look-alike jungle) and Serenia (nice paths, but twisty enough that even backtracking doesn't take you back where you thought you were) were impossible.

I don't understand why the people who make these Myst games keep going astray. There's no place in Myst games for timing problems or mouse movement problems. If it weren't for those, I probably would have finished the game. But, as it is, it's just more trouble than it's worth. Overall, I give it 2 stars out of 5.

I looked forward to another Myst game, having gotten hooked on the first Myst and subsequently, Riven and Exile. When the game came out the system requirements were much more than I had at the time. When I got my new computer, imagine how excited I was to be able to play Myst IV. I now had more than enough Ram and a huge hard drive. Wow.........right? WRONG!!

I can't help but wonder what they were thinking when they programmed in that stupid protection program. The only thing it does is keep us honest people (who wouldn't do it anyway) from copying the game. Geesh! How smart can that be. Since mine was R/W naturally it would not play the game, only load it. So exciting to wait all that time to load and then be blocked from playing it. So, out I went and got an external DVD ROM since mine was R/W and I leaned was the problem because of the 'protection' they have in the game. I reloaded from the external RVD ROM and it started ok, but the graphics became large brown blocks instead of the 'lovely and breathtaking graphics' we have all come to know and love. Now it seems this game is not compatable with my video card driver. Oh my..............another problem to add to the list. It seems these geniuses made this game compatable with only a very few video cards and drivers. Sigh..............that's it. As much as I love Myst, I am not about to go out and get a new video card just to play a game that cost less than I have already spent on an external DVD ROM drive to get it to run in the first place. Whew! I hope all this makes sense because it sure doesn't make sense to me for a software company that is writing and distributing a game much anticipated by millions to put such limits on those that can enjoy it. Seems they don't care. I would not recommend this game to anyone unless you know for sure you can run it on your computer. Check the requirements VERY carefully before purchase. This is not usually what has to be done with computer games because every other game I have ever purchased has run great on my computer and all my friends computers as well. We all have different systems, but there again most game manufactures take that into account and write games that are marketable. No so with Myst IV!

From the moment I walked up to the Myst IV booth I was already overwhelmed. I have already written about by overall adventures just getting to E3 and now to be seeing Myst IV on the screen was total awe for me.

Kha'tie gave me the first of several demos and I know my mouth hit the floor. The graphics are stunningly beautiful and the detail so rich I even had a hard time believing this was not 3D. They were so crisp, clean and as Kha'tie moved the cursor the screen easily followed. The attention to detail is equally amazing. I especially loved the realism of when I looked at a specific place the surrounding areas would blur representing the depth of the graphics ... just like looking at something in real life. Then move the cursor to another area and focus again on that object and the same thing would happen. I have never seen this in a game before. Amazing!

I was also amazed at how "alive" everything is. The clouds move as there is a slight breeze in the air. Even the trees and bushes would move in the breeze. There were insects flying about and lights would flicker as you move about and your perception changed ... totally realistic. So much so that I could feel the breeze and the movement. Even the steam is continually rising off the lake.

As you venture around you come to and enter into Atrus and Catherine's bedroom. To see the the painting close up I was even more in awe. Then to see the fireplace and learn its secret (well partially) and seeing what happens but not the full scope of what is happening. I find the amulet of Yeesha's and I'm seeing a memory through someone else's eyes ... though I'm not totally sure who's memory it is ... assuming Yeesha's. Kha'tie let me play with the fireplace puzzle for a bit but I was so overwhelmed that I had no clue what to do and I hadn't read anything yet. I mean how can I solve a puzzle without reading a journal or some other clue to guide me along. Not to mention that fact that I had people standing behind me watching me.

Then finding access to the books and so wanting to see where the other one went ... but alas I was not allowed to go there. Not even sure why I wanted to go to Sirrus' Prison Age first. Perhaps it was because I related to him more. So I link into Haven ... Achenar's Prison Age. Most of you have seen the screen shots from this Age and have a good idea what it is all about visually. What was amazing was how even more alive this Age is and it's huge. The trees move and sway with the wind. The animals roaming about. The one creature with the colorful head (not sure of it's name yet) that we see is quite inquisitive yet shy. He likes to follow you around but will run when you approach him.

Then stooping down and touching the water with my finger and having it radiate out in pools. I would then swirl my finger about in the water and it would swirl and eddy with my every move ... just as water should ... this is so real. As I continue to walk around and pass through a narrow passage the wind picks up and is quite strong through here blowing the dust around. You see the dust flowing around you and I instinctual closed my eyes to block that dust (and then quickly reopened them).

What few puzzles I saw looked so well intertwined that they seemed perfectly natural to me and to the surroundings with perfect blend. I honestly felt I was playing with items that I would come across naturally in a strange Age. They did not feel out of place at all.

The cursor I found was not intrusive and was like using my own hand. I could point my finger and click and that is where I would go. I could manipulate items by grabbing them. I could touch items by tapping on them and would hear the respective sound. I could turn the pages of the journals as I would turn a page in a book in real life. Even the concern of the look of the hand that I had initially did not bother me at all during game play ... again seeming and feeling very natural.

Even though I may be biased in my opinions of Myst this game is so totally amazing and it is very obvious that the developers listened to all the concerns of the fans of the previous games and incorporated all this into Myst IV. I honestly feel that you all will be as astounded and amazed as I am ... and I can't wait for the release.

BRAVO! To the Myst IV Dev Team and to Ubisoft! and a special thank you to Ron and Kha'tie for allowing me to be a part of this and to finally get to meet you two in person.

In _Myst IV: Revelation_, 20 years have gone by, game-world time, since the original Myst. By now you, the player, have become an old friend of the family (Atrus, Catherine, and their daughter Yeesha), whose troubled story you literally stumbled into with the events of the first game. On this, your latest visit, Atrus tells you that he needs to discuss his sons, Sirrus and Achenar, whom he imprisoned for destroying Ages. Before he can do that, technical problems with one of his many experiments send him off to deal with matters elsewhere. He leaves you in charge and, when something unexpected happens you, Old Friend, have to make things right and clean up the mess. Good ol' Atrus! you kind of have to wonder how he stays married!

Anyway. Myst IV is a gorgeous, giant game: 2 DVDs that require a whopping 8 gigs for a full install; 2 gigs for minimum. This is a game you aren't going to be playing on your 3 or 4-year old system. It's important that you heed the system requirements as listed on the box, particularly in regard to your video card, or you may not be able to run the game at all. I played on a system about a year old with an AMD 2800 processor and a Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 and the game ran without a hitch.

And it's well worth the upgrades, as far as I'm concerned. Myst games are famous for being immersive. This one is virtually alive. Every bit of it is animated, or so it seems. Leaves move in the breeze; shadows pass over the sun; animals wander through the scene. Water moves. Bugs flutter by. It's about as close to being there as you can get. One thing about this was distracting: in the name of realism, things around your cursor were in focus, while the things in the periphery of your attention weren't. I found this focus shift distracting, but you can shut it off on your options menu, so it's not a huge failing.

The cursor itself deserves mention. It's an animated hand that grabs, taps, reaches and points. When you can zoom into things, it produces a magnifying glass with a little flourish. The good: you can interact with just about anything, even if it's only to tap on it (and eah tap produces an appropriate sound). You can also colour the hand to match your skin tone, or turn it other colours if you wish. The not so good: the animation causes some delays in gameplay. Also, the disembodied hand is a bit disconcerting; it's like playing with Thing from the Addams Family as your guide.

I heard that the puzzles in Myst IV were super hard. I did not find this to be the case. For example, I thought this game was easier than Riven. However, there are some tasks atypical to the Myst series. A couple of puzzles where timing and manual dexterity are necessary have caused many gamers frustration. I found one Age in particular extremely unpleasant and had a very hard time completing the tasks there just because I hated being there. But for the most part, I did not find the puzzles even as hard as the ones in Exile--and the results of solving them were often less gratifying.

A lot has been made over the addition of the camera and the journal and other in-game help functions. I played with the help turned off and I rarely use a zip, so I can't comment on those. But even with the in-game journal and camera, I still found myself taking copious paper notes. For one thing, those pictures really take up memory and slow down the game. For another, even when you take a picture, you can't look at it as the same time as the puzzle for which it's a clue--you have to keep going back and forth. So I'd rather juat make a drawing that I can use as I like. I'd put the camera and journal under the heading of "impractical bells and whistles," myself.

The sound is pretty good. The music is lovely; the song by Peter Gabriel (and the cameo voice over he does) much appreciated. The FX blend in well. I would have liked a subtitle option, as some of the longer speeches were hard to hear.

It took me at least 30 hours spread over two and a half weeks to finish this game. I cried at the end and I wished there were more! If you're a fan of 1st person adventure, this is the series that made it happen. I'll be waiting for Mysr V!