Myst IV: Revelation

Love the genre and the series but this old game is buggy at start-up on Steam. Posting this review after multiple failed launches to start the game. When it runs, everything is the same as I can remember when the game first came out. Its just too bad that you never know if the game is gonna launch. Its a total bummer. Hopefully they will release a VR version like they did for Myst and Riven. Exile also deserves a VR make over but even on desktop that game loaded WAY better then Revelation does. Unless your an obsessed fan... wait for further development. Maybe now the game will launch now and i can get back to wasting my life jumping through books.

Having finsihed Myst, Riven, Exiles and just now Revelation, here are my thoughts without spoilers: From the 5 games, this is the 2nd most difficult Myst game that I have played so far, only missing End of Ages. You will get stuck a few times and for the first time, I felt at times that certain puzzels would be impossible, I felt hopeless at times, unsure if I could complete them. The urge of looking up a guide hit me a few times, but thankfully I never gave in. Like with Riven, you have to be extremely vigilant, however, if you do get stuck, the game is forgiving to some degree that you can choose alternative routes, as you can change up the order in the way you wish to tackle the Ages, so you can mix things up a bit if you end up getting stuck. Story was good like with all the Myst games, I personally very much like all the characters. As you play each of these games in order, you will notice the technical improvements with each new title, so Revelation is of course more refined than Exile, however, I must say I had some crashes, seemed to be memory related, but thankfully it was not to bad. I look forward to continuing this epic adventure with Myst V: End of Ages.

After the last part i was hoping that the newer games are more my taste, but this one is, again, more confusing then enjoying. The puzzles seem very random and some puzzles are on a timer wich is pretty annoying considering that the mouse sometimes doesnt really snap. Its also annoyng that after a lever pull or button press you have to right click to get back to the free roam look. The necklace doesnt seem to make much rather then just beeing there. But the worst is that, even though the quest seems to be straight, you wonder what and why you are searching the Ages even though you already know everything you need to know. All in one i didnt complete the game because it was just annoying hence i can recommend it.

Art design, nailed it Sound design, nailed it Story, sorta ok Gameplay design, failed it

Humorously bad puzzles with a catastrophic control scheme and a story that is as cheesy as it is nonsensical. Could be fun to screw around in but not to solve organically.

[i]Myst IV[/i] should be taught in college game design courses. Genuinely a contender for worst adventure game I have ever played, in stunning, fascinating ways. (Though not so fascinating that I could actually complete it. I believe I'm two puzzles from the end. I've turned to walkthroughs, I'm using a fan-made quality-of-life patch, I have hand-written notes, and still the act of inputting the solutions is so soul-draining that I can no longer bear to let this travesty occupy space on my hard drive. [i]Myst III[/i] was merely disappointing. This game is an achievement.)