An incredible game that lives up to the memory and achievements of its predecessors.
User Rating: 8.9 | Myst IV Revelation PC
This is an incredible game. I am a big fan of all four of the Myst games and of the Adventure genre in general. I have enjoyed each of the Myst games more than their predecessors and this time is no exception. Myst IV is a very similar game to Myst III. The interface and overall feel of the game is almost exactly the same. The game is played by moving through a sequence of more or less static images (as opposed to a full 3D environment to walk through), each of which provides a 360, all around view from where you're standing. You are provided with a cursor that functions in a similar fashion, but this time it fits more into the immersiveness of the game. Your cursor is a hand which points when you can move to an area, makes a grasping gesture over things you can manipulate and even extends a finger for buttons you can press. The graphics are absolutely amazing. As one would expect from a Myst game, there is an incredible amount of detail and realism to the world. The biggest thing that sets this game apart from Myst III is the amount of dynamic elements that have been added to the world. In previous games, there was very little motion on the screen. Maybe a fire or an animal here or there, and of course an animation when you do something, but in Myst IV, the world is literally teaming with animals. From the very beginning, you can't help but enjoy watching birds fly around and land almost within touching distance from you. There are various kinds of bugs that buzz around you as well as a handful of larger animals (none of which can actually attack you although some appear quite dangerous). You can get close enough to some animals such as frogs that you can poke them. At which point they usually hop away. There's also a lot more movement of non-animal elements such as moving water. There are rivers, waterfalls and oceans that all are captivating to look at as they flow and sway. In addition, to motion effects, there's also a greater degree of weather effects as well. Lots of lighting and clouds that float through the sky. In one world, the environment will actually darken a bit occasionally as a cloud covers the sun. The previous games suffered a great deal from a sense of loneliness. You almost never encounter another person. In Myst IV, there are quite a handful of people that you meet and who talk to you. At the beginning of the game, you obtain an amulet which allows you to experience memories of past events. There are a lot of these memories in the game, each of which offers the opportunity to at least see or hear another person. The sound effects are really great but I'm afraid that the music is the exception to my "better than its predecessors" point of view. I thought the music in Myst III was exceptional and I'm afraid the music in Myst IV isn't quite as good, although it's still very good. There is one song with vocals in the game that pops up in the middle of the game in a two minute animated sequence that was one of the most captivating sequences I have ever experienced in a game. I was almost brought to tears listening and watching the sequence. That made the entire game for me. The puzzles are not much different than they were in Myst III although there are fewer of them and they do tend to be more integrated into the environment that Myst III's were. I will have to say this though, they are very hard. I was disappointed by Myst III because I thought the puzzles were too easy. This game is much harder. I think that developers could justify that by the fact that there's a hint system built into the game with varying levels of detail (I'm afraid I had to consult it to get through one of the puzzles). I was a little disappointed by the fact that there was less direction in the game than in previous games. I was often unsure of what I was doing and why. In fact there's an entire age that, after the fact, I have no idea why I needed to go to and work through all the puzzles because I didn't end up with something I needed later in the game. In Myst III, you knew that you had to go through each age to find a symbol you needed later. Another element of the game that has it's positives and negatives is that almost the entire game is open to you right from the beginning. You are more or less free to move from age to age as you desire. You are not trapped in any of the ages. This does however mean that you can't expect the find the solutions to an age's puzzles solely in that age leaving you to hunt through all of the ages. The ages themselves are really quite large and definitely leave you with a satisfying sense of their dimensions. I would have also liked to have had more ages (there are only four main ages). This game has had more moments that took my breath away than any other game I've played, and for that, I highly recommend it. 
