Myst IV: Revelation

The original MYST was ground-breaking for its time, and Riven was great; everything else from Cyan since that time has been either meh or terrible, with timed events and/or events requiring timed mouse precision.

Nope.

There are a lot of aspects of this game I like. The music is great, especially in Serenia. The graphics are pleasant despite their age, and the added animation in the environment—especially the flowing water—does much to make the experience more immersive. Although I was initially a little disappointed by the retcon, I nevertheless enjoyed the story and its new characterizations of Sirrus and Achenar. The acting is pretty good—Guy Sprung and Brian Wrench especially are very entertaining as the two brothers.

Unfortunately, think Myst IV: Revelation, as a game, has too many flaws to recommend. Often, I found my progress hampered by problems that I think the developers of the game could have fixed. For example, one simple problem was that it was often unclear where I could go or where I could interact with the world. Sometimes, I would wander for an hour before realizing that I missed a hotspot where I could interact with something. In some cases, I think the region of the screen dedicated to the hotspot needed to be larger. This kind of problem is normal for point-and-click games, but I think the problem is worse in Myst IV because its animated hand cursor doesn't always visibly react when it's quickly moved across a hotspot. In other cases, I think hotspots could be better highlighted by better lighting important areas or by reducing the amount of extraneous details in the environment. (The latter is mostly a problem in the jungle area of the Haven age.)

Additionally, many of the puzzles require excessive guessing or odd leaps of logic. Often (though not always), the "data" needed to solve a puzzle is provided clearly, but the connection between the data and the puzzle is practically absent. This seemed to mainly be a problem in Spire and Haven. In general, it feels like there is too much of a disconnect between the puzzles and the logic of the world.

There is also one specific puzzle in Haven that requires excessively precise timing. I think this wouldn't have been as much of a problem if the game were better about giving the player feedback when they do something almost right; I think that approach could have improved many of the puzzles in the game.

A beautiful, beautiful game.

Myst IV Revelation is an excellent part of the Myst series! The worlds and graphics are just drop-dead gorgeous, and the puzzles real do well in teasing and exercising your brain! The continuation of Atrus' story with a new focus on his daughter Yeesha make for a tense, relatable story with plenty of drama, betrayal, greed, love, and sacrifice. Atrus' home world Tomahna is beautiful! I also love the eeriness of Spire and the jungle adventure spirit of Haven. But my favorite world is the aptly named Serenia. Wow! Stunning stone forest, realistic water, a convent of friendly women priests, and fascinating spirits. And then you go to the Dream World, with a music video and spirit guide from none other than Peter Gabriel, one of the most fantastic musicians of our time! I wish this was my favorite Myst game, but it does have two serious flaws. First, they changed the rules of Sirrus and Achenar's prison books. No longer are they dark prisons that can only by occupied by one person. They are now ages. Though the ages are great, there's no story continuity in the abrupt change; it doesn't make sense. The other flaw is the acting. Atrus did well, and his daughter Yeesha did well, and the older Protectors are very good. But the younger Protectors are terrible actresses. Even Catherine was more epic in Riven, and in here, she's a major downgrade. Most absurd of all are the brothers. Sirrus is just plain annoying, immature, and sick, and Achenar's voice is weird and just plain overdone. This game is also home to the most annoying puzzle in the whole Myst series: the Dream world ancestor puzzle. I've never once succeeded! There's no logic to it! It's just blind guessing! Fortunately, you don't need to beat it to progress. Just look online for the revelation you didn't see. Other than that, great game, and I think all adventure and puzzle game lovers should give it a try!

Look, it just suffers from too many contraptions not playing well with the controls. You'll spend so much time just trying to find where the mouse goes to perform an interaction. And then some of the puzzles are timed. There's a dexterity check puzzle which serves no purpose but to make you waste time.

The story is fine, but the retcon of Sirrus and Achenar is disappointing. They were better in the original Myst.

loved the first 3 games but i had to stop. this could be the best myst game ever made but it takes LITERALLY THREE seconds to transition between screens which pushes this game into unplayable territory for me. If you can handle that give it a shot.

This game is complex and challenging, if you like puzzles and patterns you will find your way quite easily. It will train you to be thorough and orderly. it is surprising how the mechanics work, I like the mechanics and the left field thinking, it is definitely a game to do things outside of linear thinking.
Cheryl

if Cyan considering to do another remake after Riven (which im not quite sure yet since this game was done by another dev), I do hope they make this one first instead of Exile. I admit the visual is better than Exile but some puzzles are time based while the gameplay itself feels slow. Would recommend if you wanna see more worlds in this series. Wont recommend if you are easily impatient.

This game is practically not playable on Windows 11. The flying finger is too finicky & not usable when finesse or timing is needed. Also, most cut-scenes cannot be skipped, so restarting from new game those unhelpful, annoying, and LONG expositions cant be avoided. It is pretty, though. Acting and dialog are dead but who cares if the scenes can be skipped. The "zip" mode is confusing and next to worthless. Puzzles are abstruse and I was wondering how they possibly interacted with the characters, since they were inventions of the characters themselves. I played this game many years ago and forgotten what an unrewarding slog it was.

Most puzzles are nonsensical with inadequate clues to resolve without resorting to walk-through cheats; too many obscure riddles that are simply frustrating and tedious make the game boring.
Lots of unnecessary trial and error challenges with excessive backtracking required in order to make progress.
But the Myst worlds are intriguing to explore, always providing an immersive and entertaining experience.

ALL OF THE MYST GAMES ARE GORGEOUS

Narrowly a thumbs down. Of course I had to use a walkthrough for this, but I had to do that with all of the Myst games so I don't take points off for that. The interface is awkward and there are some very tedious sequences, especially in the final Age. Also the entire game grinds to a halt at one point to turn into a Peter Gabriel music video.

There are things in this I liked. The videos are much better integrated, and I didn't mind the retcon about the Prison Ages because it allowed us a greater look into Sirrus and Achenar's character. Spire and Haven are very interesting and beautifully rendered worlds, and I like how they at least attempted to have the puzzles in each parallel the character arcs of the two brothers. Said puzzles are just not up to par with those in Riven or Exile, though, and there's a few moments that are supposed to be dramatic but are unintentionally kind of hilarious. Worth playing if you love the series, and definitely way better than the vastly more disappointing End of Ages.

This one's hard to recommend, but if you've made it through the first 3 games and still want more Myst, you might enjoy it if you don't set your expectations too high. The two biggest problems for me are the grainy graphics which combined with some puzzles makes the game feel like pixel hunting (the Spire world was especially visually confusing), and the weird jumpy cursor. Feels like the latter could be easily solved, and I am a fan of the animated hand that replaces your normal cursor (indicates what you can/can't click on which is nice). I like the idea behind a lot of the puzzles, and the story was enjoyable enough while a little strange at points.
Overall, a deeply flawed game with a decent skeleton. I think it would really benefit from a remaster.

Been replaying this franchise from the beginning... this installment is awful. the interface is just bad. i don't think I ever finished the game when it first came out as it was just entirely too frustrating due to the "hand" interface, and its erratic behavior... the monkey puzzle is a prime example... I've had to reset 3 times and still have not gotten it as the hand refuses to grab when it is clearly in the correct position.. will not be finishing... I'm done..

This is a great game even if some of the puzzles were really a bit unfair and weird.

To me, Myst 1-4 will always be the one epic canon to the series and part 4 is the final chapter for me. Myst 5 and URU never really appealed to me and you must be a diehard fan to enjoy these 'spinoffs'. I truly loved Revelation, especially because of the actors. The story was amazing and I hope that eventually there will be a remaster of Exile and Revelation. The outdated graphics would look so stunning if they remastered these two games Riven style.

Loved the story and overall art direction of the game. FMV sequences helped lend something special. Puzzles were fun, although frustrating in a few places. If you like Myst and Cyan games it is worth checking out.

Dear God I Have A Horrendous Headache: A Saga

Please, understand, I love this series and this studio with all my heart. I will play anything Cyan ever releases, without any exception.
But, I cannot, in good conscience, recommend this brain-melting, nerve-shattering, patience-obliterating experience to anyone.
When it comes to puzzles in these sorts of games, there is fine line between challenging and straight up unfair. This game ripped that line out of the ground and used it as a jumprope with the ferocity of an overzealous crossfitter hopped up on dry-scooped preworkout containing lethal amounts of caffeine.
I have never before wanted to cause major property damage because of a video game, but that damn mangree puzzle filled me with more rage than I previously thought to be humanly possible. The input for the puzzle was so unbelievably finicky and required a level of finesse nearly impossible to achieve with a computer mouse. I was willing to let it slide as being a one off stupid puzzle (Every Myst game has had the one puzzle that makes you question your life choices and whether or not you are indeed a masochist for continuing to do these sorts of things to yourself) but then came the stupid dream puzzle. After enduring what I can only imagine an acid trip feels like with what sounded like 2000s indie soft rock to set the mood, you are made to endure an unnecessarily vague/ confusing as hell color matching game with rules that you have to do quantum math to understand (Myst Journey was such a life saver this entire playthrough). And just when you think the nightmare drug trip is over, back you go into tripland to play an infuriating sorting game with the worst controls you could possibly think of. I have no idea if the thought behind it all was to cause an aneurysm or to slow the player down intentionally. Either way, success was had. I can appreciate the story for what it was, I enjoyed seeing the resolution to Sirrus and Achenar's storylines and was genuinely touched by Achenar's redemption arc. Seeing this and Sirrus finally receiving the justice he deserved is the only satisfaction I walk away from this horrendous experience with.
In spite of the headaches and frustration, I am proud to say I completed this game and now have enough patience to attain sainthood.