Cyan finally remastered their older games to 64 bit and the updates were free on Steam so I can now finish playing them all, including Myst 5 and Uru which I never had a chance to play before.
Myst 4 revelation is an odd duck in the series. While some of the visuals are as stunning as ever, the gameplay was a bit stale in places and the story wasn't as engaging as I would have liked.
Visually, the game is pretty stunning considering it is still basically a point and click game. The different is each node you click to has video overlays and the ability to pan around giving it gameplay ALMOST but not quite like some more modern 3D games. A lot of attention w s put in the details and designs and it shows.
Gameplay and technically there are problems. The puzzles are sometimes just annoying and hard and don't advance the story much at all. The ability to figure them out on your own is not always possible, too much information is missing to make sense of some of it. Some of the puzzles need much more precision with the mouse and its just not there making it very frustrating even if you have something figured out. A couple of the worlds have mazes composed on pathways that are deliberately confusing and i you stop moving the mouse, the scenery will rotate on its own making it impossible to get a good sense of direction.
I would still recommend playing it to see the environments and the creatures that are animated throughout. When it's works, there is a sense of a real place with lots of life. There is a lot less room to explore and discover little details that are not important to the plot but nevertheless make it an interesting place to hang out bus there was enough visual stimulation to keep me playing until I was unable to move forward anymore.
2 comments:
Though not really part of the series, I wasn't all that thrilled with "Obduction." I know you liked it better than I did. "Riven" was hard enough. There is still something amazing about the original "Myst," something so ahead of its time that its memories still captivate me. Don't know that I ever tried "Myst 3." I do remember reading the novel they wrote about the original game and liking it, but that was a long time ago.
Playing Oduction a few times I liked it more each time. It has one of their most realized worlds i think. There is stuff in almost every drawer and cabinet to look at and several places to explore that have nothing to do with the plot, like a hidden bar with a record player and a submarine fused into the rocks of a cave. The first 3 Myst games are pretty good and the story gets watered down and filled with characters just talking and talking. Firmament had less exploration and lots of talking as well. I REALLY like Myst for the solitude and feeling you were in this world mostly by yourself exploring. Still pissed off I can't play the new version of Riven!
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